Schools must teach there is more to life than exam results

Why all schools must teach there is more to life than exam results, by SIR ANTHONY SELDON

Published: 21:20 EST, 18 March 2017 | Updated: 21:36 EST, 18 March 2017

I was unhappy during most of my time at school, and it made me determined to ensure that classrooms were much more stimulating and sympathetic places, writes SIR ANTHONY SELDON

Francis was not happy at school. He was small, had a stammer and his ears stuck out. He became listless and was bullied, sometimes even by staff.

He loved many of his subjects but couldn’t understand or succeed at them due to the constant focus on tests.

What he most loved was creative subjects, but his art teacher said he was no good, and he lacked the confidence to appear on stage again after he was laughed off it aged 11.

By the time he was in the sixth form he had become rebellious, organising a demonstration against the school and the Vietnam war – the most decisive act in his academic career.

For those who haven’t guessed, Francis – my middle name – is me.

I was unhappy during most of my time at school, and it made me determined throughout my long teaching career to ensure that classrooms were much more stimulating and sympathetic places.

That is why I welcome Education Secretary Justine Greening’s decision to introduce mindfulness – the Buddhist practice of consciously living in the moment – into classes to help pupils to deal with the manifold pressures of modern life.

Teenagers will be taught breathing techniques and other measures to tackle stress, and schools could be rated on how they manage pupils’ wellbeing.

Children will learn to sit quietly, and to become more reflective and considered, rather than suddenly acting without forethought.

Introducing mindfulness – the Buddhist practice of consciously living in the moment – into classes is far more important reform than Theresa May’s determination to expand the number of grammar schools

This is a far more important reform than Theresa May’s determination to expand the number of grammar schools, which risk entrenching the middle-class monopoly over elite education. I’m totally in favour of giving bright children from the least advantaged backgrounds a top academic education, but the current plans don’t do that.

I have been practising mindfulness for more than 30 years, and my one regret is that I did not begin until my 20s, because I believe my schooling would have been far happier.

Now my long campaign for happiness and wellbeing in schools is at last bearing fruit. Scoffed at for many years, it is becoming the conventional wisdom.

I’m saddened by the avoidable misery and waste of potential

There are far too many Francises in our schools today. The Government says it is spending more money on schooling than ever, that we have more resources, newer buildings and better-trained staff. The internet brings the outside world graphically into the classroom, giving opportunities to the young of which their parents could only dream.

Yet schools are too often drab places. Teachers are wanting to leave in their droves, able applicants to fill the massive number of vacant headships cannot be found, while our schoolchildren are unhappier than ever, according to study after study.

As a head teacher for 20 years, I toured the country and saw many schools in operation. What struck me most was the enthusiasm and ability of the teachers, despite the immense challenges they faced.

These problems are not primarily about funds, as the unions claim; there are schools across the world with far less money which are crackling with life and energy.

Prince Charles, patron of the charity Step Up To Serve, heard from young people who are volunteering in the NHS

Schools should be wonderful places, yet are too often soulless. Teachers enter the profession in their early 20s full of zest and passion, but find themselves reduced to being dull technicians delivering an arid school curriculum along very narrowly defined grooves.

Hurray then that the Government has at last woken to the idea that schools should be preparing our young not for a lifetime of exams in sports halls, but for the real world of joy and tears, work and play, family responsibility and citizenship.

The Government realises the more deprived the background of the child, the more important the schooling is if they are to enjoy a rich, rounded education. Above all, it has realised that, if it looks after the wellbeing of the young and develop their character, they will not only fare better at higher education and in jobs, but the school will also see exam results rising.

On Wednesday, I was at a moving event at Buckingham Palace, overseen by Prince Charles. Four years ago, the national #iwill campaign, co-ordinated by Step Up To Serve, was set up. Its mission is to ensure that every young person in the UK is taking part in meaningful social action.

Prince Charles, the patron of the charity, heard from young people who are volunteering in the NHS, in their local schools and communities, and how much it has enriched their lives and the lives of those they help.

The evidence is compelling that our schools and universities need a far richer vision about their responsibility for educating the young.

When I look back at my own experience, and reflect on that of hundreds of thousands of others, I’m saddened by the avoidable misery and waste of potential. But I’m excited by the new approaches. Parents should demand that their children’s schools adopt this new thinking if they are to see their children’s lives flourish.

lSir Anthony was headmaster of Wellington College and is now Vice Chancellor of the University of Buckingham.