Guest blog by Kaye James
(Definition of Factory
Farming: Intensive,
factory - ‘Intensive’ because as many animals as possible are
crammed together in the smallest possible space; ‘Factory’ because the
philosophy of mass production is what lies behind it all.)
Are any parents
watching ‘Britain’s Biggest Primary
School’ on Channel 5 and
stamping their feet with regret that they don’t live in the
catchment area of this school?
Whilst applauding the
amazing job that the Head Teacher and his staff are doing on a daily basis in
terms of the logistics of handling such a “mammoth task of
teaching, feeding and managing the welfare of 1,100 pupils”,
should we not be questioning whether this set-up will provide a long term
return-on-investment in the education of our next generation?
Super-size, or Titan
schools such as the one featured in the documentary are a quite recent
invention here, and have rapidly been taking off across the UK as a ‘quick fix’ to cover the obvious lack of long-term
planning and investment in primary schools over the past years. Due to the fact
that the Titan school concept hasn’t been around for very long in this country
there has been no research here. Is the education of the next generation really
something so unimportant that it can be subjected to such a high risk, unproven
strategy?
However, we do know about the effects of Super-size
schools from experience on the other side of the pond - where everything is
bigger but does that mean better? Super-size schools have been a part of the
public education system for a much longer period of time and in March 2009 a
review of 57 separate studies concerning the size of schools in the United
States of America and Canada was published in the American Educational Research
Association Journal:
“This review examined 57
post-1990 empirical studies of school size effects on a variety of student and
organizational outcomes. The weight of evidence provided by this research
clearly favors smaller schools. Students who traditionally struggle at school
and students from disadvantaged social and economic backgrounds are the major
benefactors of smaller schools. Elementary schools with large proportions of
such students should be limited in size to not more than about 300 students;
those serving economically and socially heterogeneous or relatively advantaged
students should be limited in size to about 500 students.”
A Review of Empirical
Evidence About School Size Effects: A Policy Perspective” by Kenneth Leithwood and Doris Jantzi (Ontario Institute for Studies in
Education, University of Toronto).
David Cameron fought
the previous General Election pledging to “close the attainment
gap between the richest and poorest . . . to make opportunity more equal and
address our declining social mobility. The 2010 Conservative election manifesto
stated:
“A Conservative government will give many more children access
to the kind of education that is currently only available to the well-off: safe
classrooms, talented and specialist teachers, access to the best curriculum and
exams, and smaller schools with smaller class sizes with teachers who know the
children’s names.”
In fact, the number of primary schools with more than 800
pupils rocketed by an unbelievable 381% between January 2010 and 2014.
(figures, as yet, unavailable for January 2015)
It is, perhaps, no surprise that the Titan primaries are
not springing up in ‘well-off’ areas. If you have the wherewithal to choose where your children are educated,
you do not choose to place them in this type of school.
During an era where young people from deprived areas:
▪rioted
in the streets in 2011,
▪spend
more time in a virtual community
▪are
finding it more and more difficult to find work
▪are
being radicalised
▪are
disaffected, disengaged and without aspiration, and 1 in 10 are now suffering from
anxiety and depression.
Why are politicians scratching their heads and wondering
why - while at the same time piling young children into ever-bigger, more
anonymous schools?
With all
this in mind it is therefore no surprise that the plans of Brent Council to
almost double the current intake of Byron Court Primary School in Wembley are being met with strong
objections from the majority of parents. The school is planning to increase the
intake to 1100 (1050 plus 50 nursery pupils) - the same number as Gascoigne,
the school featured in the Channel 5 show – on a site that is a quarter
of the size.
Byron Court is located
in a catchment area which doesn’t even show clear evidence of need for
places - they will be shipped in from Alperton and Sudbury (up to 5km away).
There is also a mega-school currently being constructed less than 10mins walk
away at Wembley High, with pupils being shipped in from Stonebridge and
Harlesden (up to 7km away). Why not invest in schools where the places are
actually needed, instead of putting all the ‘eggs’ in one or two very large ‘baskets’?
What do
we have to do to get politicians to address this issue? And for Brent Council,
and other similar Councils, to re-think this method of Factory Farming the Education of our children.
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