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HMI Education 8-12 (1985) Notes on the text
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Education 8 to 12 in Combined and Middle Schools
A survey by HM Inspectors of Schools (1985) London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office 1985
Chapter 8 Some issues for discussion
8.1 This chapter raises a number of issues to which attention needs to be paid by those concerned with the education of children aged 8 to 12. While recognising the significant achievements of the schools in the survey in respect of the good standards of pastoral care and interpersonal relationships and the satisfactory standards in the basic competencies of reading, writing and computation, the chapter addresses the question of how the teaching and learning might be further enhanced. Curricular policies and schemes of work 8.2 Policy statements setting out the principles to be adopted for establishing the content of the curriculum and its delivery should be drawn up after discussion between the head, teachers and governors, which has taken due account of policy statements issued by the LEA and by the Secretary of State. Because the middle school constitutes, by definition, an intermediate stage in education, 8 to 12 schools need to give attention to relating their policies to those formulated in the schools to which and from which their pupils transfer and to helping develop through discussion an overall coherence in the curriculum for children from 5 to 16. Equally 5 to 12 combined schools need to establish general curricular policies covering the whole of their age range and to relate these to policies drawn up in the upper schools to which their children transfer, in discussion with those schools. 8.3 There is a need for each school to have a comprehensive set of schemes of work which give guidance about the likely levels and range of achievement to be expected from the pupils at various stages through the middle school course, about the range of materials and methods to be used, and about the ways in which the children's progress could be assessed. Where such schemes were influential within schools in the survey, they helped teachers to build on children's existing knowledge, skills, concepts and attitudes so that these were developed at an appropriate pace without unnecessary repetition. Breadth 8.4 Many middle schools broaden the curricular range for their older pupils beyond that normally offered at the primary stage, but, in the survey, aspects of craft, design and technology were not taught in many of the schools and other subjects such as home studies were not provided in a number. (1) Where such subjects feature in local authority policies as important elements in the middle school curriculum, provision consistent with those policies needs to be made. Where these elements are not taught, it might be possible in the short term for schools to incorporate important aspects of the subjects into other areas of the curriculum or schools might consider whether, by taking account of teachers' curricular strengths and interests, the omitted elements might be taught to at least some pupils. 8.5 Except for the teaching of reading, writing and computation, which were emphasised in all the survey schools, there was considerable variation in terms of the range of work offered and attempted within particular subjects. (2) Although to a certain extent, the diverse content of the work properly reflected the differing circumstances of the schools, the variations revealed in the survey were sometimes the result of inadequate planning within the schools. Only in some of the schools were the important ideas and skills in the various areas of study identified in schemes or explicit in the programmes of work. 8.6 Schools should give particular attention to how children might develop a wide range of skills and capabilities, which are common to a variety of areas of learning, but which require understanding specific to particular areas of study if they are to be properly applied. Individually, in small groups and in whole class discussion children need to be given more opportunities to pose questions, to offer explanations, to predict and to speculate; activities which are educationally valuable in themselves and serve as vehicles for the acquisition of useful skills. They need to be encouraged to test their ideas through conducting experiments, undertaking enquiries or designing structures; through selecting and considering evidence; and through establishing tentative conclusions, patterns or generalisations based on the observations they have made and the data they have collected. Such activities applied to realistic problems or everyday situations increase children's motivation. They can also help to foster qualities of initiative and independence, more commonly called for at present by activities outside the formal curriculum than within it. 8.7 Schools need to use a wide range of resources in order to develop children's capabilities. The local environment is one such resource, which could be used more effectively; chapter 2 provides many other examples of resources which could be used more extensively to promote children's intellectual development, such as the use of practical apparatus in mathematics and science, primary sources in social and environmental studies, instruments in pupil-devised music-making and a wide variety of resistant and non-resistant materials in arts and crafts. Overall, there was a statistically significant association between higher standards of work in the survey schools and better quality and greater quantity of material resources. (3) It was not possible to separate out the effect of the overall level of material resources available to the schools from the influencing factor of the management and use of the resources by the schools. Differentiation 8.8 In middle, as in primary schools, teachers have the difficult task of providing work which matches the different abilities of pupils, and programmes which present a degree of challenge. Within the survey schools, the work was best matched to children of average ability and there was a tendency to give insufficient challenge to the more able and to misjudge the demands made on less able children. (4) A broad, balanced and relevant curriculum is necessary for all pupils, including those with learning difficulties. Better means are required for identifying children's particular learning difficulties and for planning the work to remove, or at least, alleviate them. (5) Teachers' efforts to meet the educational needs of their pupils, including those having special educational needs as defined by the 1981 Education Act, would be aided by better communication between those engaged in helping such children (6) and by more specialist advice and support being made available to the schools. In addition, teachers would be helped if more schemes of work indicated the wide spectrum of objectives which might be achieved across the ability levels and age groups. Balance and organisation of the curriculum 8.9 The balance of the curriculum in terms of the time allocated to different areas of learning reflects the particular priorities of schools. In the survey sample, there was general agreement about the elements to be included in the timetable but there were considerable variations in the proportions of time given to the various aspects of the curriculum. (7) Many schools could usefully re-examine the time they allocate to various aspects of the curriculum and in particular see if adequate attention is being given to areas of work such as science or music. (8) The provision of more time can help to develop the work to greater depth in subjects such as these and can also provide additional opportunities for the application of language and, to a lesser extent, mathematics across the curriculum. 8.10 There has been much discussion as to whether the primary and middle school curriculum should be planned and taught in terms of separate subjects or in terms of broad areas such as design or social studies, which incorporate two or more aspects of learning. The findings of the survey suggest that the way the curriculum is organised is not crucial in affecting standards of achievement or in fostering the kinds of capabilities discussed in paragraph 8.65; (9) a greater influence lies in the care with which the work is planned and evaluated. Where subjects are taught separately teachers should evaluate their work periodically to see that appropriate links are being made between individual subjects and other areas of the curriculum; similarly, where a thematic approach is adopted, teachers should satisfy themselves that pupils are learning the skills and understanding the ideas particularly associated with individual subjects as well as acquiring more wide-ranging capabilities and concepts. Assessment and evaluation 8.11 Assessment is often focused on the work of individual pupils and less often concerned with the work of the class or the school. The range of criteria used in assessment needs to be widened to relate more closely to the aims and objectives of particular areas of the curriculum. There is need to undertake more assessment which is diagnostic and which leads to the adaptation of programmes of work in the light of the difficulties and strengths identified. (10) More often than at present, the teacher should discuss with individual children the progress they are making and the difficulties they are meeting and should encourage them to assess their own work constructively. in addition to the assessment and evaluation undertaken by individual teachers the staff of the school should regularly reappraise the curriculum they provide in the light of the aims and principles set out in their overall curricular policy statement. The governors also have a part to play in this process of review and appraisal. Continuity between schools 8.12 Progression within individual schools should be complemented by continuity between the phases of education. The survey (11) shows that most of the middle schools made efforts to ease transfer between schools by arranging for children to visit prior to transfer and by passing on information about pupils' attainments. Liaison about the curriculum was less well developed, (12) particularly but not only in relation to first schools. More needs to be done to secure agreement among local groups of middle schools and with first and upper schools about what is to be taught. Though difficult to achieve, such agreement is necessary so that changes of school do not result in children's progress being unnecessarily hindered. Transition 8.13 In the survey schools, the teaching arrangements adopted for the younger children in the age group 8 to 12 were very largely class-teacher based, as in many primary schools. As the children moved up the school and the range of the curriculum increased to include elements such as French or home studies, (13) the children were given increased access to specialist accommodation, and they were more often taught by teachers who specialised to some extent in the teaching of particular subjects. The introduction of such a gradual transition is worth considering in view of the formidable challenge presented to teachers of older pupils by the range of work to be covered and by the wide variation in their pupils' attainments and abilities. Combined and 8 to 12 schools could usefully re-examine their teaching arrangements to see if the learning needs of more of their older pupils might be better met by more effective use of consultants or by some exchange of classes to allow teachers to share their particular skills and interests, thus introducing these older pupils to a combination of class and specialist teaching. Staff levels and deployment of teachers 8.14 The provision of a gradual transition in teaching arrangements as outlined in paragraph 8.13 makes heavy demands on staffing within overall pupil/teacher ratios often less favourable than those provided in secondary schools or in 9 to 13 middle schools. Except for head teachers and, to a far lesser extent, deputies, the staff in 8 to 12 and combined schools are timetabled to teach classes or groups of children for almost the whole of their working week. (14) In the survey schools, the non-contact time available for teachers holding curricular or organisational responsibilities was very limited - little more than that provided for teachers without such responsibilities. Such teachers can be expected to undertake some of their duties in their own time, but many of their more demanding responsibilities can only be carried out while the schools are in session. In particular, many of the curricular issues discussed earlier in this chapter depend, in part, for their resolution on schools making more effective use of the capabilities of their teachers, not only through deploying them to teach in a specialist capacity for part of the time but also through enabling them to work alongside other teachers as consultants. The designation of responsibilities (15) for subjects or areas of the curriculum is now a widespread policy in primary and middle schools. Potentially it has much to contribute to the appraisal and renewal of the curriculum and to the further professional development of teachers. However, more needs to be done to enhance the status and effectiveness of teachers with such designated responsibilities through the clarification of their duties, and through recognition of their significant contribution to the work of the school. The provision of sufficient non-contact time to enable teachers to carry out their curricular and organisational responsibilities more effectively is a matter of some urgency for combined and 8 to 12 middle schools. Size 8.15 The wide range of the middle school curriculum requires a corresponding breadth and depth of specialist knowledge within a staff group, so that appropriate advice about particular areas of the curriculum can be readily available to all the teachers. Although some small schools are able to achieve good standards overall, many schools with less than two forms of entry are unlikely to have the necessary range and level of specialist expertise within the teaching staff to provide effectively for children aged 8 to 12. In some cases, the closure or amalgamation of small schools to form larger ones might provide a solution. Where this is not possible or desirable, such small schools will need to be staffed more generously than average though this may be at the expense of larger schools elsewhere in the authority, or will need to cooperate closely and effectively with neighbouring schools to share expertise and plan programmes of work. Initial and in-service education of teachers 8.16 In some primary, middle and secondary schools, the range of main subjects taken in initial training by the teaching staff as a whole does not match the needs of the school for some expertise in all areas of the curriculum. As Table 12 shows (16) the main subjects studied in their initial training by the teachers in the survey were heavily weighted towards humanities and aesthetic subjects; only one in 8 teachers had studied science as a main subject in initial training; a similar proportion had taken mathematics as a main area of study. There is a need to attract more teachers with backgrounds in mathematics and science to teach as class or specialist teachers in combined and middle schools and to equip more of those already in the schools to do so. 8.17 In addition to academic knowledge and pedagogic expertise, teachers bring to their task a range of personal qualities such as their concern for children's social and personal education and their ability to foster effective working relationships with pupils. The survey indicates that these personal qualities are important factors in promoting successful learning. All the schools where standards of achievement were good were among those where standards of pastoral care were high and where the relationships between teachers and children were good. (17) When selecting students for initial training and when appointing teachers and head teachers, the interviewing panels need to assess carefully the personal qualities of applicants as well as take account of their academic qualifications. 8.18 Teachers require not only appropriate initial training but also opportunities for relevant in-service education in their own schools and through attendance at courses provided by local education authority advisers and other agencies. Given the combination of class and specialist teaching provided for many older pupils in combined and middle schools and the fact that many teachers teach across a wide range of the curriculum, in-service education intended to update and extend teachers' subject knowledge is very important. The evidence of the survey suggests that this is particularly needed in religious education, geography, home studies and craft, design and technology, where standards were least often satisfactory. The management and organisation of schools and the role played by teachers with designated responsibilities in curricular planning are also important topics for in-service courses. 8.19 This survey took place at a time when combined and 8 to 12 middle schools were still developing and when they were facing changing circumstances as a result of factors such as falling rolls, reorganisation considerations and economic constraint. These were, and continue to be, important factors in making decisions about the rationalisation of school provision. Within these constraints local education authorities and teachers have sought to find the most suitable means of meeting the educational needs of the pupils concerned. Since the survey many schools have been engaged in the appraisal and development of their curriculum. These developments, plus the quality of personal relationships and satisfactory standards in basic competences achieved in the schools, provide a suitable foundation from which to tackle many of the issues raised in this survey. Footnotes (1) Paragraph 6.15. (2) For details see Chapter 2. (3) Appendix 3, paragraph 8. (4) Paragraphs 4.3 and 7.10 (5) Paragraph 4.2 (6) Paragraphs 4.6, 4.8, 4.10, 4.11 (7) Paragraph 6.16 (8) Paragraph 7.5 (9) Paragraph 6.17 (10) Paragraph 5,13 (11) Paragraphs 5.15, 5.19 (12) Paragraphs 5.16, 5.18, 5.20. (13) Paragraph 6.11 (14) Paragraphs 6.4, 6.7 (15) Paragraphs 6.5, 6.6 (16) Appendix 2, Table 12 (17) Paragraphs 7.2, 3.2 
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