Happy New Year! Surely 2017 must be better than 2016, with its Trump victory, Brexit vote, daily pictures of human disaster in Syria, and a massive refugee crisis, all of which make the non-sequiturs of the grammar schools white paper pale into insignificance by comparison. Although, the consequences will be far from insignificant for young people in areas where selection is extended.
2016 had a bright side too: Tim Peake engaging young people in science during his space flight; amazing achievements in the Olympics and Paralympics; Sadiq Khan winning over an opponent’s nasty campaign to become London mayor; Andy Murray; Michelle Obama; Leicester City winning the football league; and Ed Balls dancing.
So 2017 can be approached with the optimism characteristic of teachers.
Perhaps in 2017 the American people will fall out of love with Donald Trump, so that Senate and Congress have the political will to defy his worst excesses.
Perhaps the British people will recognise the reality of Brexit and demand a second referendum when they know exactly what Brexit means.
Perhaps some kind of peace will hold in Syria; and perhaps the world will finally address the humanitarian disasters of the Middle East.
You have to be an optimist to be a teacher, helped by seeing the world through the lens of young people, believing that everything can be improved and that opportunities exist in even the most dire situations.
While sharing Richard Garner’s hopes for moves towards a post-qualifications system of university applications (PQA) and a better structured school year, I share his feeling of inevitability that these reforms will not happen yet.
It is 15 years since I was part of a team under the late Chris Price who wrote a report for the Local Government Association on the benefits of a six-term year, with a fixed Easter holiday and a longer break in October. (We wanted to recommend a five-term year, but we knew that would get nowhere.)
And it is 12 years since a commission established by the Secondary Heads Association (which became the Association of School and College Leaders - ASCL) produced a report on how PQA could be implemented.
Alas, these sensible reforms will have to wait.
In a year for schools likely to be dominated by major funding problems and continuing teacher recruitment difficulties, my hopes for 2017 are that:
- The deluge of change hitting schools does not disadvantage the cohort of young people taking the first set of examinations at 16 and 18. It has been irresponsible of the government to introduce so many simultaneous changes and teachers will have to work extra hard to protect the learners going through the system at this time.
- More schools will look again at their curriculum and think creatively about how they can provide a more fully rounded education than the accountability system demands.
- The teaching profession will grow in confidence, partly as a result of the successful establishment of a College of Teaching under the dynamic leadership of Dame Alison Peacock.
- Justine Greening and her closest advisers will each spend a week, without mobile phone or pager, in a school to experience at first hand the implementation issues of the mass of current reforms, left behind by her predecessor-but-one, the effect of current funding reductions and the challenges faced when teacher recruitment is so difficult.
- Barack Obama installs Graham Norton’s Red Chair in the Oval Office, Trump’s closest advisers can stand him no longer and hit the ejector button.
John Dunford is chair of Whole Education, a former secondary head, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders and national pupil premium champion. His book, The School Leadership Journey, was published in November 2016. He tweets as @johndunford
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