If you’d asked me two weeks ago whether I would accept my predicted grades instead of going through exam revision and stress, I would have said ‘Yes!’” states 16-year-old Cerys.

However, she continues: “But now, I just feel gutted. I feel the work I have done since my December mocks has been a waste of time. The grades I get in the summer won’t feel like mine - I’ll have no ownership of them.”

Cerys isn’t alone. Like thousands of others across the UK, teachers will be allocating her grades following the cancellation of this summer’s exams. It’s no surprise that this has left her feeling deflated.

The exam system has long been the benchmark for achievement. The past decade has emphasised this with a fierce obsession for performance: what can be measured, tested and plotted. This has resulted in an overbearing accountability culture in this country.

But, to borrow a quote attributed to Einstein: “What counts can’t always be counted; what can be counted doesn’t always count.” Never has this been more obvious than now.

Under the dark cloud of uncertainty during the coronavirus outbreak, we are looking for glimmers of hope. The silver lining is that the focus in education is moving away from exam results as the single most valued measure of a student’s time in school. Instead, 21st-century skills are pushing their way to the forefront of education.

Many will bristle at the phrase “21st-century skills” - but this is because it has been poorly understood. Rather than new skills, these are just things we will need now more than ever. It may be more palatable to call them employability skills, and they usually include:

• Creativity.
• Collaboration.
• Communication.
• Critical thinking.
• Adaptability/flexibility.
• Information literacy.
• Initiative.
• Leadership.
• Media literacy.
• Resilience.
• Technology literacy.

Many leaders will no doubt feel that their schools are already passing these skills on to students. Indeed, they should ensure that teachers are aware of this, to help them realise the impact they have had on students regardless of a lack of exams. They should not just feel that their success as educators is linked to exam results, after all.

However, it is also clear that such skills are not always given the focus or understanding they need.

Creativity, in particular, has often been viewed with suspicion by leaders, who worried about how they would measure or score student skills in collaboration, communication or innovation, for example.

However, the situation now will be that a huge number of young people will have exam results but not the faith in them that they did before - and this is potentially the same for future employers, too. This is clearly a potential barrier, but we should also see it as an opportunity, too.

It is an opportunity for leaders to rethink what a school is - not just a grade factory but a place where students learn core skills that, while not easily scored, will be more important than ever in the years ahead.

The fourth industrial revolution is described as the physical world merging with the digital one (World Economic Forum, 2016). Its impact will be huge, not least in the types of jobs that the pupils being taught now will have in the future.

Christopher Pissarides, from the London School of Economics, wrote for the World Economic Forum in 2019 that more than 50 per cent of current jobs are likely to be automated over the next decade or two. In addition, most jobs that teachers are preparing students for are roles that do not exist yet. Therefore, classroom pedagogies adapting to fuse both knowledge and 21st-century skills is the challenge for the contemporary teacher.

School leaders have to enable this to happen, and sooner rather than later. Here’s how.

1. Start with an audit

It is important to acknowledge that education will never be the same after this pandemic - and nor should it be.

But this is a message of hope as much as concern: the hope that leaders can evolve their institutions to embrace the changes needed for an education system more responsive to the needs of the future.

As noted, it is likely that many schools are already teaching employment skills through their subjects - from communication in history to adaptability and resilience in taking on feedback in a drama class. Highlighting and valuing these skills is key.

In addition, many teachers have risen to the challenge of digital teaching and have used creative and innovative ways to communicate and engage students at home. As a result, it is likely that teachers will incorporate what they have learned and created from this time into their teaching in the new academic year.

Completing an audit is, therefore, a helpful way for leaders, and for teachers, to identify and appreciate the merit of what is going on already and building from here.

But there is also an opportunity for leaders to complement what is happening already by helping teachers to do even more to provide students with 21st-century skills.

2. Getting the training right

How can we do this? The answer is training.

The 2019 Durham Commission on Creativity and Education found that although there is the interest and drive to teach creativity, for example, teachers and leaders can feel insecure in knowing exactly how this can be achieved.

Its report states that there is a lack of agreed models, making it challenging for leaders to see or experience successful examples to implement within their own schools.

Therefore, professional development is key. Staff can feel valued, empowered and respected if their knowledge and professional development is demonstrated to be important. In a recruitment and retention crisis, CPD has never been so important.

This is not as easy as it sounds. Leaders can feel shackled in this area with funding at an all-time low. Analysis of CPD spending in England in 2014-15 showed that a total of 714 state-funded schools reported zero or near-zero CPD budgets (Weston, 2016).

Leaders, therefore, need to connect. Building professional learning communities (PLCs) and networks is essential to the evolution and survival of schools’ professional development in this current climate (Morrison, 2013). Sharing expertise within trusts or with neighbouring schools is a valuable way to offer staff training, building partnerships and investing in staff confidence and leadership experience.

In addition, making connections with organisations such as the Cultural Learning Alliance and the National Theatre and their regional partners can have big benefits, while it is important not to overlook the importance of connections with local theatres, galleries, museums or libraries to your institution, and vice versa. Now could be an ideal time to start forming these relationships so you hit the ground running when schools return.

3. Prioritise extracurriculars

Furthermore, leaders should ensure that extracurricular activities are fundamental parts of their provision. Despite the name, these experiences should not be “extra”.

Equality of access to cultural capital should not be affected by income, ethnicity, gender, disability or location (Cultural Learning Alliance, 2017).

Cultural capital can take many forms: musical groups, The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, coding club, Artsmark, forest schools, school magazines, creating an edible kitchen garden, and visits to theatres, galleries and museums.

Of course, cost can be an issue, but as the current period is showing us, much can be done online that works well, with more and more organisations offering online experiences, such as the National Theatre Live’s digital streaming service that is free for state schools.

Although they are part of the latest buzzword craze, the terms “cultural capital” and “character education” originate in important understandings about social mobility and personal development.

The Sutton Trust charity found in 2014 that over half of children from disadvantaged backgrounds did not have access to creative extracurricular opportunities.

4. Teacher buy-in

Lastly, we must ensure that everyone across education buys into the importance of 21st-century skills, so teachers can make sure pupils realise that their experiences and achievements in our current education system add up to far more than a set of grades.

This is a process that Cerys says she has been going through after her teacher reminded her class of their achievements; that they had developed new skills, progressed in their subjects and achieved personal development - regardless of the fact they won’t sit an exam at the end of it all.

She adds: “I couldn’t take that on board initially. But now I have the time to reflect, I’m trying to think about what these two years have given me, rather than what has been taken away. Since the initial shock, I have been trying to change my perspective.”

This should give us some comfort. Despite it being the most challenging of times, it’s also a unique opportunity for educational leaders to effect real change in how we value education and how we measure what success looks like.

We need to seize this chance and reinvigorate our education system with creativity, innovation and critical thinking to ensure that we are fully equipped for the future, whatever it holds.

Mair Bull taught for 15 years in the secondary sector and is now a governor at a pupil-referral unit and the North West “champion” for Open Drama UK. She is completing an MA in educational leadership and management, plus teaching on the PGCE secondary drama course at Manchester Metropolitan University

This article originally appeared in the 8 May 2020 issue