The Westminster Education Forum was interesting in that we got to hear some strong, individual voices, even if the sessions were not illuminating about what was actually going to happen to the hard work of Robin Alexander and Claire Tickell. Here, for reference, is a link to the Cambridge Primary Review and here’s one to the review of the EYFS, although I have made note of this before in this post.
What Robin Alexander had to say at the Westminster Forum is, in some ways, replicated by his Minimalisms Model in the release from CPR currently on their home page and also seen in this response to the DfE consultation process. He remained reticent about what reception this message got from officials or ministers in the DfE, and it looked to me as if DfE representatives had been told not to do much, well, representing to us last week, although they may, of course, have had a different brief, and were representing back to ministers the feeling of the forum. They would have had their work cut out, I think, with so many different partis pris at pains to say their bit. I shall pass over my irritation at the cutesy tones of those advocating direct instruction for under sixes on the grounds that “children just love being praised for doing things the teachers ask them to” and the general frustration at the same speech-as-question repeated at every opportunity about why we have to fund Early Years when education is only compulsory over five. Too cheap (even for me) to carp at the people I disagree with.
With conflicting voices at the forum it was also fascinating to read Julian Grenier’s comments on his blog about how the media are reporting Tickell and I note (although without much hope that it will have effect) his sonorous sentence “This is not the time to start all over again.” I agree, it isn’t: but we remain, or rather as Carol Aubrey wrote nearly ten years ago, the children remain
“the nexus of power relations, policy concerns and value investments of home and school. They are caught struggling to meet competing social, cultural and academic goals embedded in distinct pedagogic practices at school and home. In this context, notions of complexity and diversity may not convey positive meanings.”
The next WEF session may be more enlightening in terms of how the Government is intending to lay the paths. Attending was fascinating but it tells me we are not out of the woods yet.
nicktomjoe 