Teach Secondary - Issue 14.6

O ur schools are facing two crises. There’s a crisis of pupil attendance, especially in secondary schools. Post-pandemic rates of persistent absenteeism have shot up. There’s also a crisis of teacher recruitment and retention. Job vacancies and leaving rates are rising and recruitment is down. These two crises aren’t unrelated. In fact, they’re the same crisis. And they’re not just national in scale – they’re global. Walking away I currently advise the governments of Scotland and NewBrunswick in Canada. Their responses to the attendance crisis have been okay – reminding parents why school matters, providing more support, making family interventions – but they’re not enough. In his final interview before he died in 2021, Harvard professor Richard Elmore recanted his belief in top-down reform of the basics. The world had changed, he realised, and so had the kids. Unless schools become profoundly different, he said, the kids will just walk away. Since COVID, they already have been. It’s the same with the crisis affecting the teaching profession. Globally, it’s become such a massive problem that in 2023, the UNSecretary General convened a high level panel of former Ministers and union leaders to make recommendations on the future of the profession. The panel commissioned six expert papers, one of which was mine. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Andy Hargreaves is Emeritus Professor at Boston College in the US and an Adviser to the Scottish Government. His book, The Making of an Educator: Living Through and Learning from the Great Education Shift , is available now (Crown House Publishing, £16.99) The others focused on the usual suspects – better pay, higher status, easier workload, less stress. The Westminster government has been following this playbook, while adding more flexible working arrangements, and there’s nothing wrong with those policies – but they’re not enough, either. My paper took a different tack. Let’s change how the job feels, I wrote. Let’s make it more innovative, engaging, and inspiring – for the teachers, as well as the kids . Play-based teaching In 2022, I secured a grant from the LEGO Foundation to build a national network of 40 school teams in Canada to develop play-based innovations in the middle years to improve engagement and wellbeing for pupils made vulnerable by the pandemic. These teacher teams focused on learning experiences that were green- (outdoor or indoor nature- based initiatives), screen- (digital play, coding, editing) or machine-based (maker- oriented teaching and learning, design thinking and construction). Many teams combined them. The schools then networked with each other in person and online to share strategies. Educators were extremely positive about the impact. According to one, pupils who ‘ Traditionally struggle with pencil and paper tasks often become the leaders when hands-on activities are provided. ” They also waxed lyrical about the merits of play-based teaching. “ It’s invigorating to work in an environment where what’s fun for the students is also fun for teachers ”, said another. “ Even though I had a nasty flu ”, someone else remarked, “ I’mmotivated to come to school so the students can enjoy activities I’ve planned. ” Bringing teachers back Drawing on this experience, I present here five ideas on how to bring teachers back in, by changing how their work feels : 1. Cut the required curriculum by 10-20%. Let teachers use the time to design their own inspiring innovations. 2. Offer ‘mini-course’ options kids can sign up for, based on teachers’ interests. Examples from three project schools included knitting, building forts, Minecraft , cooking and magic tricks. 3. Move more learning outdoors (including professional learning) – it improves physical and emotional health, as well as mental cognition. 4. Embrace an idea from Canadian educators: ‘ Essential for some; good for all’ . Individual learning plans are good for all kids, not just those in SEND. Introducing skills of making and fixing for all pupils rather than just some, for example, can turn persistent absentees or previously suspended pupils into leaders of their peers. 5. Transform learning and assessment with edtech and AI; don’t just use it to make existing tasks (e.g. marking and feedback) easier. Let’s stop trying to get better at a bad game. Let’s pull back on the testing, overcrowded curriculum and three-part lessons. Schools need more innovation. It’s time to transform the learning and teaching experience so that everyone looks forward to arriving at school each day. “Unless schools become profoundlydifferent, the kids will justwalkaway” Andy Hargreaves contemplates the future of the teaching profession, and why teachers should stop trying to get better at a bad game... Rewrite the rules 21 teachwire.net/secondary P O L I C Y