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MARCH 2024
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Friday 1 March 2024
Richard writes
There has been a lot of talk recently about the use of mobile phones by pupils in school and young people's access to social media in general.
Much of this has been generated through the campaign being run by the mother of murdered teenager Brianna Ghey. Esther Ghev is a very
courageous lady. The murder of her daughter was horrific. I don't intend to discuss the case here but it seems that social media use and the "dark web"
played a part.
It is not the first time that a young person's death has been blamed on the web. Molly Russell, a 14 year old school girl died in November
2017 from, according to the inquest verdict, "an act of self-harm while suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content". Since her
death, her father has campaigned for better protection against potentially dangerous social media algorithms,
Esther Ghev has based her campaign around banning the use of phones in schools and not allowing under 16s to have access to the usual phones
that we all can buy. These under-16 phones would have limited access to social media and the internet.
While I admire both parents for their efforts I'm afraid we have reached a stage where, to quote my proverbial mother, we are shutting the
stable door after the horse has bolted. Perhaps, mother and she has been dead for 29 years on last Friday so may not be listening, a better metaphor
might be that certain individuals who invented the internet or developed social media were responsible for opening a Pandora's box.
For those that don't know, in Greek mythology, the box was a gift from the gods to Pandora, the first woman on earth. It was full of all the
evils of the world but it also contained hope. When Pandora opened the box the evils escaped. These evils can be equated to the challenges and difficulties
of life while the hope is the knowledge, optimism and resilience to overcome these challenges.
I have no idea what the dark web is nor would I know how to find it but it seems that there is some unsavoury, unpleasant and indeed downright
disgusting material there. If the internet had not been invented, there would be no dark web. However the internet, among many other things, allows Molly
and I to provide our educational material to a very wide,almost infinite, audience.
I am more familiar with social media, indeed I make somewhat limited use of it. It is a good way that I can easily and quickly send photos and
videos to my children and grandchildren in New Zealand and also watch their lives. It has many positive uses. But there is, sadly, a very unsocial side to
social media. It gives everyone who knows nothing about a situation or who has no skill allowing them to do so, to comment on everything and anything. It
allows bullying and hate to flourish and indeed be broadcast to everyone.
My reason for proverbially quoting mother, is that I think it is now far too late to do anything about something that has become an integral
part of our lives. I agree mobile phones should not be accessible in schools except for serious emergencies. But children are only in school for about
seven hours a day and a day has 24 hours in it. Again, is there a massive difference between a child aged 15 and 364 days and a child aged 16 and one day.
We could, of course, also ask social media companies to moderate their content. I read that there are, on average, 350 million photos uploaded
to Facebook daily, and 1 billion stories are shared every day. Also about 4.75 billion items are shared by Facebook users each day. You can try to produce
programmes to moderate these but as quick as you do someone will find a way round it.
The only fool-proof answer is to ban the internet which would effectively remove social media. That, I can assure you, will not happen. You can
always try to improve a situation. You can send medicines to treat sick children in deprived areas but until you remove their deprivation the problem will
not be solved, only managed. Sadly, horse and stable door, we can only solve this problem around children if we remove the source of the problem, social media
and/or the internet.
Esther Ghev has also said that she believes that mindfulness should be taught in all schools. I am too old to have heard of mindfulness in my
earlier years and despite looking it up I'm still not really sure of what it is. My belief, in dealing with this problem is that we need to educate our
children to understand that some things they will see on social media, the internet, are wrong, will cause them harm or are just downright lies. Most
important of all we must help them to have the resilience to deal with what is thrown at them and the toleration to accept the views, beliefs and opinions
of others. And to those who have the need to pronounce their views I would say that just because you can have a platform to look a complete idiot, cause
harm to others and even destroy lives, you don't need to use it. Stay in the waiting room.
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Tuesday 5 March 2024
Molly writes
In his last blog, Richard wrote about mindfulness and that he didn't really understand what it was so I thought I would use a
blog to explain my view.
First, the dictionary definition:- Mindfulness
- The quality or state of being conscious or aware of something.
- A mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly, acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.
Although I think the dictionary does do a very good job at explaining what mindfulness means, you are now
going to read about my own thoughts and experiences.
I first discovered the art of mindfulness by attending a weekly meditation group. At first it felt very unnatural to sit still
and think of nothing. I first felt that it was a waste of time when there were so many other things to be doing in my busy life. However, in
time, once I began practicing it regularly, I soon realised the many benefits it brought. Simply, finding a comfortable position to sit in,
taking in big deep breaths, noticing the sounds around me and then scanning my body from head to toe, to notice what felt comfortable or what
was feeling tense. I'd then, focus on my breathing, counting each breath until ten and then beginning again. I found it hard to stay focused
when my mind kept getting distracted by constant thoughts. This is often referred to as the "monkey mind".
The term "monkey mind" is a Buddhist concept that describes a state of mind that consists of lots of thoughts jumping around from one
to another, this often causes us to feel restless or confused. It can be seen as the part of us that is an inner critic as it's mostly connected
to the ego, causing us to feel restless and worry. The "monkey mind" can be full of doubts about ourselves and our ability to cope with things and
this is why it is so necessary to not get carried away being in this state of mind and to practice noticing when we need to "switch off". It takes
practice to notice when our minds are in this state. We often get so caught up in it, that we aren't even aware of when we are overthinking things.
During my meditation practice, I soon got better at noticing when my mind had wandered and was able to gently bring it back to cou
nting each breath again. I would set a timer for 5 minutes and then gradually increased it to 10 and sometimes even 15 if I felt really stressed!
I learnt how important it is to take a break from the constant chatter in my mind. Afterwards, I'd feel a deep sense of calm and over the weeks of
practicing regularly, I noticed I didn't panic so much, my anxiety had lessened and I was less irritated by things.
There are many health benefits of meditating and being mindful. It lowers blood pressure, the rush of stress endorphins such as cortisol
and adrenaline, which also reduces anxiety levels, it can promote healthy sleep patterns, enhance your mood and feeling of self-worth, boost cognitive
skills such as memory, problem solving and creative thoughts. It can also help you to understand yourself better by gaining self-awareness such as how
things make you feel and the thoughts that bother you the most. You can learn a lot about yourself when you begin taking notice and being aware.
We cannot always control the things that are happening in life but we can control how we choose to respond. It's so easy to feel defined by
our thoughts but we are not our thoughts, we observe our thoughts and we then have a choice of which thoughts we want to feed into. Simply put, we can
either choose to think positively or negatively and that is the key to being mindful. Being aware of negative thinking and then consciously choosing to
dismiss those thoughts and replace them with positive ones. It's not an easy thing to do when we are constantly on "auto pilot". Many of our negative
thoughts are formed by outside influences and emotional reactions. They are conditioned responses that have nothing to do with your true nature.
Meditation is one of the most recognised ways in which we can practice mindfulness but there are also many other ways too. I believe doing
anything physical can help bring you away from being trapped in your mind. Exercise is a perfect example, even if it's simply a walk where you notice
the sounds, the birds and the trees outside. If being creative is more your thing, then focus on writing, drawing, painting, or simply colouring in.
There are a variety of adult colouring in books that are based around being mindful. Playing an instrument can help distract your mind from over thinking
and sometimes I even enjoy cleaning, as I find I am focusing on doing something that doesn't require much thinking at all.
Hopefully, this blog has brought to you an awareness that you didn't have before. Hopefully, it will have a positive impact on anyone who has
found it interesting and who is now inspired to practice the art of mindfulness.
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Friday 8 March 2024
Richard writes
I hope you enjoyed Molly's piece on Tuesday about mindfulness. I now know far more than I did before. In a way I think I might
have been practising a form of it for years but it was brilliant to have it explained to me.
It was also a fantastic example of why I so love working with Molly. Not just because over a quite short space of time we have
become extreme close friends; not just because we share a passion for how learning and education should happen but also because she comes
from a different generation. You hadn't noticed; why thank you.
Seriously, I cannot think of a better way to expand both of our knowledge. We have lived through different times, indeed have
arrived in the present time by a different route, with different experiences. Of course I have experienced more, it would be impossible not
to have been around for two and a half times longer, god I wish I hadn't written that, but then again I don't, without seeing more, hearing
more and feeling more. OK let's go for the full set, smelling more, touching more and tasting more.
All my life in education has been spent trying to make learning for young people, older people for that matter, more fun, more
meaningful so that they enjoy it and can see how it could, nay will, improve their lives. But, the important thing for those of us who have
been able to celebrate more birthdays, sounds better that those of us who are old, is not to assume that we cannot learn from those younger
than us.
I look at a mobile phone, hear the word phone, look for a dial and a receiver to pick up and stare in amazement at that small object
in my hand. Slight exaggeration but my point is I still think of a phone as a phone. Just last night my granddaughter showed me how I could check
how long I had spent using my phone for calls, messages and what apps, another word I am not really familiar with, I had used and for how long.
Years ago, and I mean years ago like back in the mid 1980s, I was running computer courses for teachers. We might even have been using
the old BBC Acorn machines or perhaps an Amstrad 256 or 512. Anyway, this teacher said to me that he hated when his class used computers because the
children knew more than him. He saw this as an embarrassment, I saw it as an advantage.
I feel no embarrassment if Molly, or even my own granddaughter, know more than I. Why should I? If I listen to them I will gain knowledge
and further my ability to do or know things. I agree I can take this new knowledge and harness it to my rather too many years of experience and come up
with something neither of us had known, so it's a benefit.
As with so many things in life we need to respect each other. The elder should not assume they know more because they have been around longer.
The young should not assume that the elder are out of touch, past their sell by date because put together we can be a formidable combination and luckily
for you lot, you can benefit from such a combination.
Let me return to my contradiction in the third paragraph about writing I was two and a half times older than Molly. The reason I regret it is
that as I keep learning from these younger people, or mostly these days from Molly, I have less time to make use of that which I have learnt. However I
love the fact that I have been allowed to experience so much of life and for the most part, nearly the whole part, in really good health. A legacy? That I
have done my best to ensure that someone who shares my vision, is passionate about learning, a great role model for young people but, like me, has some
faults and makes some mistakes, can have my knowledge and experience to add to their youth. I like that.
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Tuesday 12 March 2024
Richard writes
I have always believed that those in the public eye, either through position or as is the modern way through seeking fame and
maybe fortune by giving themselves a high profile on social media, have a duty to be good role models for those who follow or listen to them.
Imagine my surprise, bit of sarcasm here, when a Tory cabinet minister announces, in public that she would probably have punched
someone. Even more surprising, more sarcasm, is that it was the education secretary and the recipient of her presumably upper right were Ofsted
inspectors, the very people doing work for her department. Adding a little more amazement to her remarks was the fact that it was made at a
conference of teachers and that the new head of Ofsted was at the same conference.
Her comment was made because she said that inspectors had been really rude during a visit to a school in her constituency. She
told the packed conference that she had been shocked by the school's account of their Ofsted inspection.
Let's make one prediction here; Gillian Keegan will not lose her job, nor will she even be reprimanded. The government will hope
that some other disaster, hopefully for someone else, catches the public eye and all is forgotten. I, sadly for them, never forgive nor forget.
I do not seek retribution but if something is unacceptable in public or private life, you learn nothing if you forget it. Furthermore, my mother,
making another appearance just after Mothering Sunday, always said a leopard never changes its spots, meaning, in my eyes, that if someone behaves
in a certain way, forgive them and they will almost certainly do it again or you will live your whole life waiting for them to do it.
It matters not whether it is words or actions, neither can ever be withdrawn. An apology can be made for either but surely it would
have been better to think before you speak or before you act.
Let's return to our education secretary and why her comments were so wrong, ill-judged and, to be honest, unacceptable. Violence in any
place, except in physical self-defence, is, in my opinion, always wrong. To suggest she would have carried it out in a school setting, a place
where we are trying to educate and instil good values in our young people is disgusting. It would also appear, and I am not suggesting the school
in question is lying, but it would appear that she only heard one side of the story. Another crass error. Finally, for this rant, I could go on
with many other reasons, but by saying it in front of a group of teachers, was she implying that she would condone such behaviour if a teacher
actually punched an Ofsted inspector. I almost give up.
Gillian Keegan is the 24th education secretary since I started work in education in 1982. In my tenure, three have lasted four years;
Keith Joseph, David Blunkett and Michael Gove. That means 21 in 30 years. Always nice to have stability and possibly strength (remember that Teresa)
at the top.
Moving on to Ofsted, I see that they asking parents and teachers to contribute to a consultation about how it should carry out inspections
in future. Giving the exam mark of "D", and two single word assessments, my answer is simple; Don't and Disband. I may explain more in a later blog but
I have been on about them before so check out the archives in our education section
if you want to know more.
Finishing off this heavily laden education secretary blog, elsewhere in her speech on Friday, she spoke about the "worrying" rise in children
being absent from school. I also learn elsewhere that the fee charged to parents for non-attendance of their child at an educational establishment will,
from September 2024, rise to £80, for those of you worried about inflation, a 33.3% rise. If you fail to pay in 21 days, the fine doubles.
We all know that many parents who don't home educate find that they can only afford a family holiday in term-time but our education secretary
doesn't care about that. "If it's a deliberate decision to take your child out of school for unauthorised absence, then that's something we do not want to
encourage," she said. "We have to get children back in school, otherwise they can't get access to a fantastic education."
Not being prone to punching or swearing, see Keegan I haven't forgotten that either, I shall just politely tell the education secretary that
many children have a fantastic education out of the school system, nice holidays when they can afford them and the chance to tailor the education to the
needs of their child and that she may well be the best advertisement for taking the risk and removing your child from a system she is, in many cases, overseeing.
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Friday 15 March 2024
Richard writes
If you read the heading piece at the top of this page, a pretty good place to put a heading piece if you ask my opinion, you will
see that we said we would give you an insight into who we are, how we think and what we're doing. I think we've managed to cover the first
two but haven't really said much about what we have been doing the last month or so.
The answer is fairly simple; we've been concentrating on putting together the programme for the School of the Air when it starts
in September as well as some of the on-going work. By that I mean producing the weekly edition of Owlbutcast, our section which aims to make
the news easier to understand for young people and writing these blogs. Also, once a month, Molly and I get together to record our education
podcast.
Owlbutcast is really quite fun but possibly a bit too stressful for a man of my ripe age. Basically, the reason I say that, is I
never really know what we will talk about until the morning I record it, namely a Monday. This week was a very good example as we decided to
talk about the interest around the Princes of Wales editing a photo. It allowed us to talk about the internet, social media and whether
everything, some might say anything, you see, read or hear on these platforms is actually true and how easy it is to actually distort the truth.
Molly and I both believe that children do need to be educated about this while at the same time being able to be educated by the
internet. We may do more of this in future weeks and look at social media bullying and the importance of tolerance, empathy and, indeed, resilience.
Our plans for School of the Air have now been discussed, developed, designed and duly set in place. As stated, they will be revealed
to you on Monday, March 25, at the start of the week leading up to Easter.
Once that has been set in place on our site, we will begin working on the content, filming strands where possible and generally making
sure that, on our launch date, everything is ready for us to provide learning material that will, as we state nearly everywhere, arouse a young
person curiosity, ignite their imagination and release their creativity. Our final aim though is just as important as we want to get young people
outside, explore their surroundings and feel in awe and wonder of what the natural world and nature can provide
I note the current shadow secretary of state for education, Bridget Phillipson was quoted this week as saying "Education is about
opportunity - and opportunity has to include creativity, for all our children, in all our schools." Nice to hear and, just a hint, but Molly and
I have been saying that for some time. Indeed on that basis, when I read this, I wrote to young Phillipson's office and offered to explain to her
what our views, beliefs, efforts were and provide any advice and support she would like. I will keep you updated on any response I may get.
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Tuesday 19 March 2024
Richard writes - with a lunchtime text input from Molly - read on
I have, since meeting Molly almost 2 years ago, taken a greater interest in Early Years education. When I began my career in education
some 42 years ago aged 32, excuse me while I lie down, I worked with 16 and 17 year-olds. Since then I have run courses for managers of FTSE 100 listed
companies, trainee managers of the same, retail workers, health workers, teachers, members of the armed forces including a colonel (don't ask),
unemployed managers, unemployed people (including, sadly, unemployable people), my own staff, children with emotional and behavioural problems and
primary and secondary pupils.
Unlike the saying, not one of mother's, "you're always in love with the latest one", I would have to say that those 16 and 17 year-olds
I worked with, on and off, for over 11 years were the ones I enjoyed working with the most; until last year.
My time working with Molly at her Forest School changed my opinion. I just loved being around those 2 to 4 year-olds. I know the
environment and sessions Molly created helped with my enjoyment. Maybe I was older and more mellow too but it did start an interest in Early
Years education. So, when I read a story on the BBC News channel early this morning about the childcare shortage worsening I started to think about
it.
By its very nature, childcare differs from school age education, mainly because it is not mandatory. It is a personal choice for people,
except that the world we live in makes it less of a choice and more of a necessity both from a parent's point of view and a government one. In many
cases families cannot afford to live, pay mortgages, pay bills, feed the family on just one salary. Both parents, again in many cases whether they want
to or not, need to work so childcare is necessary.
From the government's point of view, they need more people in work to boost the economy and stimulate growth, although whether you can
stimulate something that doesn't seem to be there I'm not sure. So it is in the government's interest to provide childcare at some level. The sad fact
seems to be that the government is not providing it at a feasible level.
They recently announced that from this April, that's quite soon in case you hadn't noticed, they would provide 15 hours of free childcare
for all 2 year-olds. This extended a scheme that had been running, I think, for over ten years for 3 and 4 year-olds. However it would seem that central
government are not providing sufficient funding for local authorities to fund these schemes. The result is that there is, so I learn, on average two children
wanting every one available nursery place. On top of that the number of registered childminders has fallen. There were 56,200 in 2013 and in 2023 there were
27,900 and we all know there are not 50% less children needing this service.
Most nurseries are privately owned so they have no obligation to deliver what the government has said will be provided. The average annual cost,
so I read, of a full time nursery place for a child under two is £15,709, I'll do the maths for you, just over £300 a week.
Spookily, after writing all the above, I was taking a lunch break and having a text conversation with Molly. Without knowing what I was writing
she mentioned that, during her lunch, she was listening to a chat on Radio 2 about nursery funding. She told me that someone mentioned that tax payers money
shouldn't have to go towards children's education as it was a lifestyle choice to have children and therefore parents should pay for it themselves. Obviously
this attitude immediately annoyed me and I text back to say that tax payers money shouldn't go to mending potholes in the road as it's a lifestyle choice to
have a car. This whole argument is basically stupid because it was lifestyle choice by your parents that you were born so why should anything be provided by
the state for you.
Whether that comment was only made about nursery funding or all education I do not know but, in any case, we all know that there is not enough money
in education as a whole.
My worry about childcare is that if there are less places than children who need them, there could be a situation where parents feel they must put
their child into whichever nursery has a space. I'm not saying it happens but that could mean a nursery doesn't have to impress with their standards because
they will fill their places anyway. The converse of this seems to be that even if they fill their places and have a fair number of government funded children,
they will still not break-even and they may not have the staff to run because there are also staff shortages.
If we agree that governments should provide a suitable level of public services then governments must understand they must fund those services. I
feel this thread, this blog, may run for another few entries and my spooky texting friend may have an input too. As for now, the only answer I can see is a
complete re-think of the whole childcare system. It maybe that these future entries may have some thoughts on how that should be done.
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Friday 22 March 2024
Richard writes
The last Friday blog before Easter, in fact the last blog before Easter and, therefore, the last blog in March. Can you believe it
that we are already ¾ of a way through the year. I don't know about you but I feel an awful lot has been crammed into these past three months.
What is more, an awful lot is going take place in the next three months.
With that in mind we have decided that we will revert to just one blog a week from now and that blog will appear on a Friday. The
next blog will therefore be on 5 April 2024. Podcasts from Molly and me will continue at the beginning of each month and Owlbutcast will continue
weekly after Easter too, uploading every Monday. There will also be one more of these before Easter.
Our focus now is on our "School of the Air" which, as I hope you know, will begin in September. If you go to that section
you will see that we now have uploaded our complete daily programme and we are both pretty excited about it. But, and this is not a complaint merely
a fact, it is going to require a fair amount of preliminary work by way of research, development, writing and indeed filming and editing some of the
strands that will be included each day.
For me, this is the biggest change that has happened to Owlbut's website since we launched just over eight years ago. As you may know, I
did all the initial work on my own and had some help when we re‐launched in June 2018. However the "School of the Air" section and
the work that will involve is not the work for one person, especially one who is now 8 years older, so it has been very important to me to find someone
as committed to the idea as I am, who believes in what we are trying to achieve and who is prepared to put in the hard work that is undoubtedly required.
The fact that she is an amazing person and we have become close friends in the last few years is a lovely bonus.
Both of us want this project to benefit the increasing number of children who are being educated out of a formal educational establishment
while hoping that those people who work within those establishments can also find a way to use our learning material. As we have said ad infinitum, we
want to arouse curiosity, ignite imagination and release creative. Every child is curious; let's use that fact. Every child has a vivid imagination;
let's cultivate it and every child is creative.
The shadow education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, recently said "As children grow up......school becomes more, not less, narrow. And
that narrowing turns too many young people off learning which is a problem for their future and all of our futures." She added that "I make
no apology for being determined to see young people achieve academically, and just as important I want to see them thrive in life," almost echoing the
words my headmaster said to my father on my last day at school on July 17 1968. I must add that I only remember the date as it was my nineteenth birthday
but you can read what he said here.
There may well then be hope, although I'm not holding my breath. My one concern is that everybody today seems to talk about the
"creative" subjects. They mean things like music and drama. Molly and I have another idea. Let's make all subjects, all learning,
creative both in content, delivery and in how children can be part of it, have fun doing it and not be turned off the idea of learning. If we
succeed, your futures, their futures will be saved. Mine began that July day in 1968. Thank you, David Black-Hawkins.
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