Now there's a question! As 2025 opens we are hearing several voices ringing loudly in education:
Government: "All children should be in school all the time. This way they can be kept safe".
Many children: "We cannot be in school - our mental health and other needs coupled with the nature of schools mean that we cannot be there"
Many families: "Schools do not meet the needs of our children - our children are not thriving in school".
Many schools: "We want to educate children, but the needs of an increasing number of children cannot be met alongside the requirement to deliver the curriculum to all students."
All these voices speak truth.
We all have different views about what schools should do:
For many parents and carers, school provides an extension to their parenting. Schools provide a service, educating and developing a child beyond that which a parent can often do (physics, gymnastics, Spanish....).
For the government schools provide a backup to, or in some cases replacement for, effective parenting. Schools are an essential safety net, where all children are seen. Schools provide, at least, a place of notional safety and, at best, can transform the life chances of children.
For communities, good schools provide one of the only pieces of social and community "glue" - points of stability and integration where children and their families have a common shared experience.
Schools are in the eye of the storm, attempting educational provision for all who walk through their doors.
We are at a point where one size does not fit all. There are lots of interesting ideas being tried out and discussed - flexi-schooling, online provision and 4-day weeks have all been in the mainstream media recently, to take a small number of examples.
The difficulty that we have to talk about is this: who gets access to different models of education?. At the moment it is often selective by wealth and family circumstances - some families have capacity to keep their children safe and educate them well at home. Some families don't. Sometimes the SEND system provides appropriate alternative education, but the system is overwhelmed and increasingly unfit for purpose.
Those who would benefit most from alternative models of education are often those who have the least capacity to access it. The balance between equality of access and individual provision is going to be challenging to work out. As just one example - who is going to judge whether a particular family can keep a child safe if they are only accessing school part-time? Who will judge whether it is in the child's best interests to be educated partly at home and whether that will given them the best possible start in life?
This discussion is hard, but is must be had this year. Flexible, tailored provision is the way forward, but what do we mean by equality of access to individualised provision?
Or, to put it another way - how does every child get the best possible education in 2025?
Happy New Year!
James Harris
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