I FEEL sorry for the headteacher and staff of St Paul’s High in Glasgow. Their decision to organise S1 classes by ability has attracted attention well beyond their school community. Once the news reached the press, the usual suspects lined up to voice their opinions. For them the St Paul’s decision was either a welcome turning back of the clock to a golden age of high standards or it was the betrayal of the comprehensive ideal.
The attitudes of the First Minister and the education authority are refreshingly supportive. They regard the best interests of the children as paramount and are of the opinion that any reorganisation which helps them should be encouraged.
Contrast that with the media rent-a-quotes who think that their soundbites can match the careful, professional deliberations of the St Paul’s staff.
Despite the helpful reactions from national and local government, Scottish education does not have a good record of encouraging teachers to think for themselves. Primary education was hijacked during three decades by self-appointed experts whose attitude of “do it my way and no other” led to the problems of underachievement which we have had to sort in recent times.
Spelling and multiplication tables went underground, environmental studies integrated everything and produced nothing, mental arithmetic disappeared, reading schemes were frowned upon, blackboards were taken away.
New teachers lacked the skills for conducting good whole-class lessons and thought it was a crime to try, while some primary schools are still ignorant of how well their pupils are doing, their reluctance to use tests influenced by the 40-year shadow of the discredited 11-plus exam.
In The Rise and Fall of Marks and Spencer (Profile Books), Judi Bevan shows how Britain’s most successful retailer was brought low by the effects of its own culture. The company’s strong authoritarian attitude did not permit dissent even at the highest level. Valuable staff left for more adventurous companies while those who remained learnt to survive by keeping their opinions to themselves.
When the retail world changed, Marks and Spencer missed the boat. The one man whose view counted did not appreciate what was happening while the directors and department heads who should have been advising him said nothing, as they had learnt to do. If he had encouraged his staff to think, the chairman of Marks and Spencer could have kept up-to-date with management trends and avoided his downfall.
One of the current management gurus is Sven-Goran Ericksson. For those with better things to do than read the sports pages, Mr Ericksson is the Swedish manager who has revitalised the England football team. He is now as likely to be found on the business pages extolling the benefits of what is called the “Swedish approach” to management which demonstrates politeness, straightforwardness, listening, the encouragement of dissent, the reaching of decisions by consensus and the importance of members of the team supporting one another. (As I write, Mr Ericksson has also taken over the gossip pages where his tangled personal relationships are attracting great interest but the “Swedish approach” seems less successful here.) The “Swedish approach” to management is not new and is recommended by all good texts - including Improving Leadership in Scottish Schools (HMI). It clashes with the British authoritarian approach but authoritarianism will not serve education well in the future.
We can be strong and successful only when we behave like St Paul’s and take the decisions which are best for our individual schools after a process of discussion and weighing of evidence in which staff, pupils and parents are included.
Brian Toner is headteacher of St John’s primary in Perth.
