[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
in 1904 Taunton school debated the
following motion this house believes
that exams are a poor judge of a man’s
ability that motion was passed by a
significant majority I’m not convinced
that over a hundred years later we’ve
really worked out for ourselves how best
to really assess what schools are for
and how they generate success in 1992
under John Major the Conservatives
introduced league tables these league
tables focus on attainment and for the
last 25 years again they have dominated
what schools are for and more
importantly what parents believe is
important we spend our lives often
focused between those difficult balances
between happiness and yet we’re
demanding the a grades and the B grades
but what does success really feel like
today 15% of working people suffer from
a mental health illness that currently
costs the UK economy 8 billion pounds
the second thought Richard Riley and
it’s a much used quote education has to
prepare young people for jobs which do
not exist using technologies that we
haven’t invented and possibly solving
problems that we don’t even know exist
I suppose the third thought is how we’ve
got this fundamentally wrong
what if attainments is not actually very
useful when it comes to being successful
what if we actually should be looking at
something completely different if we
really want to help young people go into
a world which Richard Riley talks of I’d
like to talk about four seminal moments
in my own life when I was eight years
old I was very fortunate that my parents
sent me to
a private prep school by the time I was
11
art appeared in Gilbert in Sullivan
Pirates of Penzance I was in the school
choir I’d learnt to musical instruments
I love Latin I played sports all the
time and I felt incredibly happy now my
parents at the age of 11 wanted me to
sit the exam for the local grammar
school the Free State School and the
tests that I had to sit was one of IQ
was I good at maths was I good at verbal
reasoning so I sat down along with
everyone else in each Kent and I sat the
test the test would determine whether I
went to the grammar school or whether I
went to the Secondary Modern and you
always knew you’d pass because the
postman would have to ring the doorbell
for those who pass because the envelope
was so big presumably because they
thought we could read the information if
you went to the Secondary Modern you’ve
got a small envelope when that day came
and the postman rang the doorbell a huge
sense of relief for me because I’ve been
told as going to be successful that very
first moments in which IQ was put across
to me as the only thing that really
matters so off I went to secondary
school I went to the grammar school I
did very well
academically I went to a very good
university but IQ as a funny one IQ
entertainments have become the things
that have really formed the landscape of
our educational system over the last 25
years even to the extent now but that’s
really all that matters in schools to
the extent now that that’s all that
parents are looking for when they’re
considering the options for their
children and in the independent sector I
think it’s getting even worse because
certainly in and around London we’re
having the pretest for the tests for the
child to go to secondary school the last
thing really in this is twofold really
the one one thing when I reflect is
about color
when I was at prep school the colours in
my own mind in my own imagination a
vibrant
the color when I was a secondary school
was monochrome I didn’t do singing I
didn’t do music grammar school life was
about doing well in exams that was the
focus when I went for my first job into
the after university that was really all
I had in my head so I went to my first
job interview in there I remember the
lady asking me so what can you offer
this company and it was at that moment I
had a bit of a thought I don’t really
know actually well what do you mean I’ve
got good a-levels I’ve got a good degree
what more do you want when I finally did
find a decent job in London it really
dawned on me even worse because I
suddenly started to work with people who
when they’re 11 failed 11 plus or maybe
I was working with people who got 3 C
grades and yet though much better than I
was at the job and I really started to
make me frame my thoughts maybe that’s
just being naive but the point is maybe
my education didn’t challenge me to
think about the right things
the last thing really that’s quite
seminal for me have been three TED Talks
the first one has been the first to
being viewed by over 60 million people
so Ken Robinson’s talk about creativity
in schools is something which really
hits back at this for whole focus on
attainment hits back at this focus on
science and maths being the only things
that matter within our education system
and hits back at this belief that
everything has been measured for it to
be a value the second one is and reduc
was talk on grit I mentioned you about
being fundamentally wrong well what if
we were fundamentally wrong that
actually attainment is the thing that’s
important her talk is incredibly
persuasive is there’s actually the most
important thing in young people is they
learn how to cope with the diversity
that’s the most important predictor for
whether they go on and succeed later on
in life and the last one is a talk by
Martin Seligman around positive
psychology now as I stand here as the
deputy head of this wonderful school I
tried to package all of these thoughts
up into something over the summer and
it’s work that I’ve been doing with
other colleagues
and we’ve come up with a very simple
idea that success is as easy as ABC but
before I do that I want to just share
with you why am i tractor to even work
at this school what is it about a school
like this that has color well for me an
outstanding school is one which is like
family when we look at the school
refusal rates amongst young people it’s
because school doesn’t feel as good as
home school should feel like a place
where you fit in where you feel valued
where you feel you can be yourself the
second thing that I loved about the
school is that creativity is at the
heart of what we do whether it’s in
drama or in music or students love of
their liberal arts subjects or dare I
say just the students love of setting up
their own societies and being creative
in the way that they express themselves
which brings me to ABC really ABC is
just a fundamental idea that young
people if we’re going to give them the
very best education are going to come
across adversity every day and that’s
something that’s okay that’s something
really that we must celebrate after all
you can’t fern if you didn’t bother to
try in the first place and once you
tried in you show commitments you’ll
learn something about yourself that
perhaps you would never have done if all
you thought the school is about was
getting a good math school the second
thing that’d be about building a system
of beliefs am i principled to actually
know the difference between right and
wrong am I able to actually show
judgment about what I should be putting
my energy into and perhaps what I
shouldn’t be putting manage into even
more fundamentally is my thought process
about other people or is it about me
because kindness and gratitude are
things which are incredibly important in
any workplace whether it’s a workplace
in 20 years time or the workplace today
and the final thing C is about
consequence I’m actually able to work
out what the end game is going to be
here for me because I hadn’t done that
when I sat there having my interview I
hadn’t really worked out what education
had really done for me other than I
simply done what was put in front of me
they had
two exams I did them I did well so ABC
really is a focus on what enables young
people we feel very strongly to move
from this environment into the next
environment in cope because we have to
be honest when we think about what
school is really going to do for these
young people we must be measuring
something that is not simply attainment
I think we’ve got to measure achievement
and they’re two very very different
things
achievement is about where I started and
where I ended up it’s about measuring
the journey that a young person went on
and what they achieved along the way and
we had the ability to do that now we
have the ability to measure their
ability to commit their ability to be
creative and if we’re not measuring
those things and we’re not actually
talking about those things we’re sending
out the wrong messages to young people I
want to leave you with maybe three
thoughts the first thoughts and it comes
out of the Angela Duckworth video she’s
art she was asked the hypothetical
question can I learn grit she said I
don’t know the answer to that I think we
have the answer at this school you can
learn grit if your reward system
reflects it you can learn grit if the
role models that you put in front of
young people display those qualities you
can learn grit if every tutorial that
you have focuses on how we’re helping
and nurturing and supporting young
people to get through their difficulties
and move on to the next stage in their
lives you can show grit if the language
in every lesson is one which is
inclusive it’s caring and brings out the
best in every individual the second
thought is what’s the word of work going
to be like now I admit that these
figures can change and a balance sheet
is only a snapshot but at the moment the
Hilton Hotel group is worth an estimated
twenty billion dollars it employs
170,000 people air B&B where thirty
billion dollars employs 130 Walmart
two hundred and forty four billion
dollars employing 2.3 million people
amazon 450 million billion sorry
employing 350,000 i think the world of
work for our young people will be more
binary it might well end up being even
more haves and have-nots that therefore
means that our young people will have to
be even more creative than we had to be
they’re gonna have to be even more
resilient to cope in other words they’re
going to have to see the world through
the prism of opportunity rather than
through the prism of negativity and that
means that just because they did well
academically at school they’re gonna
probably have to reinvent themselves at
the age of 30 at the age of 40 at the
age of 50 they might end up having to go
back to university and affect three four
or five times and we want the teal to
embrace that welcome to have felt it’s a
really positive thing rather than
something which is negative so they’re
really the final points i hope that i
can put across today is i hope that what
we do at this school can be mirrored far
greater within the whole of the united
kingdom and we can move away from a
focus on attainment and instead we
actually start to believe that success
is as easy as a b and c thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
in 1904 Taunton school debated the
following motion this house believes
that exams are a poor judge of a man’s
ability that motion was passed by a
significant majority I’m not convinced
that over a hundred years later we’ve
really worked out for ourselves how best
to really assess what schools are for
and how they generate success in 1992
under John Major the Conservatives
introduced league tables these league
tables focus on attainment and for the
last 25 years again they have dominated
what schools are for and more
importantly what parents believe is
important we spend our lives often
focused between those difficult balances
between happiness and yet we’re
demanding the a grades and the B grades
but what does success really feel like
today 15% of working people suffer from
a mental health illness that currently
costs the UK economy 8 billion pounds
the second thought Richard Riley and
it’s a much used quote education has to
prepare young people for jobs which do
not exist using technologies that we
haven’t invented and possibly solving
problems that we don’t even know exist
I suppose the third thought is how we’ve
got this fundamentally wrong
what if attainments is not actually very
useful when it comes to being successful
what if we actually should be looking at
something completely different if we
really want to help young people go into
a world which Richard Riley talks of I’d
like to talk about four seminal moments
in my own life when I was eight years
old I was very fortunate that my parents
sent me to
a private prep school by the time I was
11
art appeared in Gilbert in Sullivan
Pirates of Penzance I was in the school
choir I’d learnt to musical instruments
I love Latin I played sports all the
time and I felt incredibly happy now my
parents at the age of 11 wanted me to
sit the exam for the local grammar
school the Free State School and the
tests that I had to sit was one of IQ
was I good at maths was I good at verbal
reasoning so I sat down along with
everyone else in each Kent and I sat the
test the test would determine whether I
went to the grammar school or whether I
went to the Secondary Modern and you
always knew you’d pass because the
postman would have to ring the doorbell
for those who pass because the envelope
was so big presumably because they
thought we could read the information if
you went to the Secondary Modern you’ve
got a small envelope when that day came
and the postman rang the doorbell a huge
sense of relief for me because I’ve been
told as going to be successful that very
first moments in which IQ was put across
to me as the only thing that really
matters so off I went to secondary
school I went to the grammar school I
did very well
academically I went to a very good
university but IQ as a funny one IQ
entertainments have become the things
that have really formed the landscape of
our educational system over the last 25
years even to the extent now but that’s
really all that matters in schools to
the extent now that that’s all that
parents are looking for when they’re
considering the options for their
children and in the independent sector I
think it’s getting even worse because
certainly in and around London we’re
having the pretest for the tests for the
child to go to secondary school the last
thing really in this is twofold really
the one one thing when I reflect is
about color
when I was at prep school the colours in
my own mind in my own imagination a
vibrant
the color when I was a secondary school
was monochrome I didn’t do singing I
didn’t do music grammar school life was
about doing well in exams that was the
focus when I went for my first job into
the after university that was really all
I had in my head so I went to my first
job interview in there I remember the
lady asking me so what can you offer
this company and it was at that moment I
had a bit of a thought I don’t really
know actually well what do you mean I’ve
got good a-levels I’ve got a good degree
what more do you want when I finally did
find a decent job in London it really
dawned on me even worse because I
suddenly started to work with people who
when they’re 11 failed 11 plus or maybe
I was working with people who got 3 C
grades and yet though much better than I
was at the job and I really started to
make me frame my thoughts maybe that’s
just being naive but the point is maybe
my education didn’t challenge me to
think about the right things
the last thing really that’s quite
seminal for me have been three TED Talks
the first one has been the first to
being viewed by over 60 million people
so Ken Robinson’s talk about creativity
in schools is something which really
hits back at this for whole focus on
attainment hits back at this focus on
science and maths being the only things
that matter within our education system
and hits back at this belief that
everything has been measured for it to
be a value the second one is and reduc
was talk on grit I mentioned you about
being fundamentally wrong well what if
we were fundamentally wrong that
actually attainment is the thing that’s
important her talk is incredibly
persuasive is there’s actually the most
important thing in young people is they
learn how to cope with the diversity
that’s the most important predictor for
whether they go on and succeed later on
in life and the last one is a talk by
Martin Seligman around positive
psychology now as I stand here as the
deputy head of this wonderful school I
tried to package all of these thoughts
up into something over the summer and
it’s work that I’ve been doing with
other colleagues
and we’ve come up with a very simple
idea that success is as easy as ABC but
before I do that I want to just share
with you why am i tractor to even work
at this school what is it about a school
like this that has color well for me an
outstanding school is one which is like
family when we look at the school
refusal rates amongst young people it’s
because school doesn’t feel as good as
home school should feel like a place
where you fit in where you feel valued
where you feel you can be yourself the
second thing that I loved about the
school is that creativity is at the
heart of what we do whether it’s in
drama or in music or students love of
their liberal arts subjects or dare I
say just the students love of setting up
their own societies and being creative
in the way that they express themselves
which brings me to ABC really ABC is
just a fundamental idea that young
people if we’re going to give them the
very best education are going to come
across adversity every day and that’s
something that’s okay that’s something
really that we must celebrate after all
you can’t fern if you didn’t bother to
try in the first place and once you
tried in you show commitments you’ll
learn something about yourself that
perhaps you would never have done if all
you thought the school is about was
getting a good math school the second
thing that’d be about building a system
of beliefs am i principled to actually
know the difference between right and
wrong am I able to actually show
judgment about what I should be putting
my energy into and perhaps what I
shouldn’t be putting manage into even
more fundamentally is my thought process
about other people or is it about me
because kindness and gratitude are
things which are incredibly important in
any workplace whether it’s a workplace
in 20 years time or the workplace today
and the final thing C is about
consequence I’m actually able to work
out what the end game is going to be
here for me because I hadn’t done that
when I sat there having my interview I
hadn’t really worked out what education
had really done for me other than I
simply done what was put in front of me
they had
two exams I did them I did well so ABC
really is a focus on what enables young
people we feel very strongly to move
from this environment into the next
environment in cope because we have to
be honest when we think about what
school is really going to do for these
young people we must be measuring
something that is not simply attainment
I think we’ve got to measure achievement
and they’re two very very different
things
achievement is about where I started and
where I ended up it’s about measuring
the journey that a young person went on
and what they achieved along the way and
we had the ability to do that now we
have the ability to measure their
ability to commit their ability to be
creative and if we’re not measuring
those things and we’re not actually
talking about those things we’re sending
out the wrong messages to young people I
want to leave you with maybe three
thoughts the first thoughts and it comes
out of the Angela Duckworth video she’s
art she was asked the hypothetical
question can I learn grit she said I
don’t know the answer to that I think we
have the answer at this school you can
learn grit if your reward system
reflects it you can learn grit if the
role models that you put in front of
young people display those qualities you
can learn grit if every tutorial that
you have focuses on how we’re helping
and nurturing and supporting young
people to get through their difficulties
and move on to the next stage in their
lives you can show grit if the language
in every lesson is one which is
inclusive it’s caring and brings out the
best in every individual the second
thought is what’s the word of work going
to be like now I admit that these
figures can change and a balance sheet
is only a snapshot but at the moment the
Hilton Hotel group is worth an estimated
twenty billion dollars it employs
170,000 people air B&B where thirty
billion dollars employs 130 Walmart
two hundred and forty four billion
dollars employing 2.3 million people
amazon 450 million billion sorry
employing 350,000 i think the world of
work for our young people will be more
binary it might well end up being even
more haves and have-nots that therefore
means that our young people will have to
be even more creative than we had to be
they’re gonna have to be even more
resilient to cope in other words they’re
going to have to see the world through
the prism of opportunity rather than
through the prism of negativity and that
means that just because they did well
academically at school they’re gonna
probably have to reinvent themselves at
the age of 30 at the age of 40 at the
age of 50 they might end up having to go
back to university and affect three four
or five times and we want the teal to
embrace that welcome to have felt it’s a
really positive thing rather than
something which is negative so they’re
really the final points i hope that i
can put across today is i hope that what
we do at this school can be mirrored far
greater within the whole of the united
kingdom and we can move away from a
focus on attainment and instead we
actually start to believe that success
is as easy as a b and c thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
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