Politicians and Digital Tattoos - my letter to The Times

My letter to The Times (published 21st September)

Schools have an important part to play in teaching young people how to remain in control of their digital footprint online.

Sir

Justin Trudeau joins the growing line of National leaders where the indiscretions and misjudgements of youth are visited on the older statesman. His ‘blackface’ photograph will sit alongside Tony Blair’s ‘air guitar’ and the notorious Bullingdon Club photo of 1987 of David Cameron and Boris Johnson. This pattern is set to increase as Millennials with significantly more extensive digital tattoos begin to take up political office. Looking ahead as society we face a choice: we either draw our leadership from the narrow pool who have never committed an indiscretion; or we accept leaders who have made mistakes and have learnt from them. Accepting Justin Trudeau’s contrite response of ‘deep regret’ is surely the preferred path.

Mobile Phones in Schools - Letter to the Times

Sir
Schools can only do so much in the battle to limit the amount of time that young people spend on mobile phones (‘Ban mobile phone use in schools’ 2nd February 2019). It is parents, not schools, who are responsible for purchasing mobile phones, and, whilst one can accept that children may need to carry a mobile phone as part of their personal safety, there is no need for this to be a smartphone which facilitates full, unfiltered web and social media access. In contrast, where schools allow or supply tablet devices or laptops for educational purposes, responsible institutions usually provide full web-filtering and a device management system that allows the teacher to monitor and take control of the pupil’s tablet.
Yours faithfully,
Mark S. Steed
Director
JESS, Dubai

Published 5th February

Grade Inflation in Higher Education

The Editor

The Times of London

Sir,
Grade inflation in Higher Education ('Universities stand accused after top degrees soar' The Times 15/01/2016) is an inevitable consequence of the policy to apply market forces to the sector. Like independent schools who have operated in this environment for decades, universities are businesses selling education and competing to attract students. Unlike independent schools, universities not only teach but also can determine their own results. Given the economic pressures on these institutions to fill places, there is no incentive for them award low degrees. With three-quarters of degrees awarded at Upper-Second or First Class, the time has come for a separation of teaching and degree-awarding powers, as there is in secondary education.
Yours faithfully,
Mark S Steed
Director
Jumeirah English Speaking School, Dubai.

AS-Levels, Education, Examinations and Cambridge Admissions

Sir

We are surprised to read that Cambridge University is advocating a system of education which puts examinations ahead of learning.

Whilst Cambridge University’s desire to have data which informs its admissions decisions is understandable, we believe that the recent intervention from Dr Mike Sewell of the university admissions office, which seeks to influence schools' decision making, is fundamentally not in the educational best interests of our students.

The newly reformed A level system, with its emphasis on terminal exams, provides an excellent opportunity to develop the intellectual maturity, agility and independence of mind which universities have long been asking for. Freeing up Year 12, will allow students to focus on wider and deeper learning, not just exam preparation. It will also give students more teaching and learning time and a much needed and highly desirable exam-free year.

Yours faithfully,

From the following Head Teachers:
Mary Breen - St Mary's Ascot
Jenny Brown - St Albans High school
Matthew Burke – St Martha’s, Herts
Carol Chandler-Thompson - Blackheath High School GDST
Vivienne Durham – Francis Holland School (Regent’s Park)
Lucy Elphinstone – Francis Holland School (Sloane Square)
Heather Hanbury – The Lady Eleanor Holles School
Marion Gibbs, James Allen’s Girls’ School
Rosalynd Kamaryc – Queen’s Gate School
Amanda Leach – More House School
Jane Lunnon – Wimbledon High School GDST
Ruth Mercer – The Godolphin and Latymer School
Jacqualyn Pain – Northwood College for Girls
Sarah Raffray – St Augustine’s Priory
Liz Richardson – Berkhamsted Girls School
Millan Sachania – Streatham & Clapham High School GDST
Mary Short – St Helen’s School, Northwood
 Mark S. Steed -Berkhamsted School

See also

• Cambridge University tells schools: retain AS-level exams Daily Telegraph  04/11/14
• the article by Andrew Halls, Headmaster of Kings College, Wimbledon,  'AS-level plea: Cambridge is in cloud cuckoo land'  Daily Telegraph Saturday 08/11/2014

Independent Schools, Elite Sport and University Entrance

Letter to the Daily Telegraph
Published Saturday 21st June 2014

Sir,
Sir Michael Wilshaw, the head of Ofsted, argues that a disproportionate number of independent school pupils represent Britain at elite sport. So what do we do? Do we have quotas of state pupils who represent GB at the Olympics or England at Rugby? No of course we don't. We aspire to bring sport in the maintained sector up to standard of sport in independent schools.
Independent schools also provide a disproportionate number of pupils to Oxford and Cambridge and Russell Group universities, so why is Offa seeking to impose a system of quotas? Why not try to raise academic standards amongst the most able in state schools?
Both TeamGB and UKplc need the best proven talent to compete on a global stage and quotas aren't going to help - a broader talent base will.

Mark S Steed
Principal, Berkhamsted School
Berkhamsted, Herts

Faith Schools, Nurture, Indoctrination and Religious Education - Letter to the Times

20/10/13

Sir,

The lines between nurture, indoctrination and education are fine. Every religious community has the right to bring up their young in the faith, but, if they are to avoid indoctrinating them, religious groups also have a responsibility to do so in a way that is open and informed. Part of the process of nurture therefore must be to promote awareness and understanding of alternative belief structures. This is all the more important when nurture takes place within the context of education. Religious Education in Faith Schools has an important part to play here and the proposals for a more consistent approach in its content across the country and to remove of the right of withdrawal from lessons (Report Oct 19) are welcome.

Mark S. Steed
Principal
Berkhamsted School

Links:
Letter to Times published 21/10/2013
"Faith Schools may lose the right to teach own.faith" The Times Saturday 19/10/13

Time for a more rigorous University admissions process? - Letter to the Daily Telegraph

Unpublished letter to the Daily Telegraph

Sir,
“The Government is committed to ensuring that entry to university is determined by aptitude, potential and merit, not where a student was educated” ["University bias hits private straight-A students" Daily Telegraph 13/02/10].

If we are going to lay a greater emphasis on "aptitude or potential" over and above "merit", then there needs to be a more rigorous university entrance system with transparent, objective criteria on which to base their decisions. Without a system, such as that practised by Oxford and Cambridge colleges, where all serious applicants are interviewed and most are tested further as part of the application process, it is difficult to understand how an A-level student with straight-A* predictions at A-level can be rejected. How can a university evaluate a candidate's aptitude or potential solely on the basis of what is written on a UCAS form?

Mark S Steed
Principal, Berkhamsted School
Berkhamsted, Herts

So what is so wrong with an elite?

Letter to the Daily Telegraph

Sir,
In nearly every area of life an elite based on quality is taken for granted, even encouraged. The millions who follow Premiership football each week have no problem with "elitism" - it is a given. So why has elitism has become a dirty word when it comes to education [Universities to shun new 'elitist' A* grades - Daily Telegraph 20/12/09]? Surely our top universities should need no encouragement to accept the best students, regardless of their social or educational background. All that the introduction of the A* at A-level is going to achieve is to highlight the injustice of Government intervention in the university entrance system.

Mark S Steed
Principal, Berkhamsted School
Berkhamsted, Herts

See also
Universities dismiss new top A-level as unfair to state pupils Times 20/12/09

International Comparisons

Unpublished letter to the Telegraph

Sir,

If Michael Gove needs any further evidence that freedom from political interference in education is the key to high academic standards (“Our global ranking is the real test” - Sunday Telegraph 16th August 2009), he need look no further than to the Independent sector in this country. The PISA international league tables, on which he based his argument, demonstrate that Britain’s independent schools are some of the finest in world, out-performing all of the OECD countries in reading, mathematics and science.

Mark S. Steed
Principal, Berkhamsted School, Herts.


OECD Programme for International Student Assessment [PISA] 2006 Report
[Table 5.4 gives a break down of state and independent school performances for all OECD countries.]

Social Networking Sites

Unpublished letter to the Sunday Telegraph

Sir

The Archbishop of Westminster’s comments [Sunday Telegraph – 02/08/2009] on the perils of social networking sites are misdirected.

Most young people are highly skilled communicators who have a sophisticated network of friends and acquaintances. Many, however, are naïve about the dangers of the adult world. Young people have a totally different attitude to privacy from all previous generations. When they meet new people on social networking sites, for example, they routinely disclose their life story in a single mouse click, disgorging enormous amounts of personal information and photographs to relative strangers. What is more, they do it in a digital format that is easy to store, share and publish.

Rather than despairing of the youth of today, parents, schools and even clergy have a responsibility to ensure that young people have the requisite skills to navigate the digital landscape safely and to protect their personal information.


Mark S. Steed
Principal, Berkhamsted School, Herts
Chairman, Independent Schools Council ICT Strategy Group.

Independent Schools and Public Benefit

[Unpublished] Letter to the Editor

Sir,

Surely the Charity Commission has missed a trick in applying a very narrow definition of public benefit to independent schools that distils down to providing means-tested bursaries and free places for people who cannot afford the fees.

By not giving due credit to the way in which independent schools have opened their doors to allow a greater public use of their facilities and to their increased partnership work with the maintained sector, the Charity Commission is forcing schools’ limited resources into bursaries to benefit the few, rather into serving the wider community. Thus, sadly, I fear that we will find that all that the Commission has managed to achieve is to give independent schools an incentive to cherry-pick the brightest and best pupils from the maintained sector.

Mark S. Steed
Principal
Berkhamsted School
Herts


Related Links:

• Charity Commission: Emerging findings for charity trustees from the Charity Commission’s public benefit assessment work: 2008-09
• Charity Commission: The Public Benefit Assessment Reports July 2009
• ISC Press release on Public Benefit Reviews [July 14 2009]
  
• The Times: Dame Suzi Leather at war with Private Schools [July 19 2009]
  

History isn't bunk

Letter to the Editor

Sir,

The restatement of the importance of teaching history in schools [editorial 12/03/09] is welcome not only for the excellent reasons outlined by Mr Gove, but also because it hones some of the most important life skills needed in the digital age. History teaches us to evaluate the quality of source material, to handle rival views, and to evaluate arguments. In a world when many young people take the first entry in Google as gospel, these are essential skills if they are to learn to sift the wheat from the chaff when researching on the internet.

Mark S. Steed
Principal
Berkhamsted School
Herts.

Ofqual and academic standards

Letter to the Sunday Telegraph - published Sunday 1st March 2009

How to end A-level grade inflation.

Sir - We should not be surprised that Ofqual is unsure how to maintain examination standards [Sunday Telegraph, 15th February]. Ofqual, like QCA before it, is faced with an alliance of Government, Exam Boards, schools, parents and pupils all of whom want higher grades.

The solution to year-on-year grade inflation is therefore unpalatable, but essential, lest our examination system descend any further towards the point of meaninglessness. We must abandon the "standards" based approach and return to a system that awards grades on the basis of how a candidate performed in relation to his peers. This would provide a transparent system whereby everyone would then know that an A* indicated, say, a performance in the top 10% of candidates, an A grade the top 20% and so on. There would be no 'progress' for Government ministers to celebrate, but Universities, employers and, importantly, students would then know where they stand.

Free from pressures to achieve ever better grades, Ofqual, the Government, Exam Boards, schools, parents and pupils will be able to work together to raise academic standards.

Mark S Steed
Principal, Berkhamsted School
Berkhamsted, Herts

[Text in blue edited for publication]