1/ Quick thread:

I had a bit of a disconcerting email from a leaving Year 11 student.

Over the years, I watched this student change from being a troublesome Year 7 to a capable young person ready to take on the world.
2/ In his email, as well as thanking me and the staff for his experience at school, he stated that "the Government cancelling the exams shows how useless they were in the first place."

I paused. I was worried.
3/ I wrote back asking him to elaborate on his comment & he then said this. (I have changed the wording and phrasing to protect his privacy).

"Since we started secondary school, we were told that the GCSEs were the most important exams that I would ever take.
4/ But in a flash, they were taken away. I understand that the Government had to act to protect us from the pandemic, but the way they did it has really knocked us all for six. Imagine being hyped up to do something and then have snatched away from you.
5/ I think the Government haven't looked at the effect it's having on us, mentally."

I explained that there was nothing that could have been done but he then said:
6/ "The way that school is, they make it out that your whole life is determined by a Letter or a Number and without the correct grades, your life is nothing."

That stopped me in my tracks.

It's true.
7/ We tell these young people that their life is determined by getting the right grades which will get them into the right uni which will... and on and on we go, pushing them to 'success.'

But what about their happiness?
8/ What about so-called 'soft' skills like resilience, kindness, communication? Can we put those down on a 90-minute exam?

I find it no surprise that now 1 in 4 of our young people will have a mental health crisis at one stage in their school career - because we push them to…
9/ …chase letters and numbers and don't balance it with the things that give life meaning like vision, duty, character building. I am very fearful for this generation of young people that have been caught up in this awful crisis.
10/ Along with the other flashpoints that we in with the aftermath of George Floyd's murder and the looming Brexit deadline, I sincerely hope that we in Education can adapt our system to be kinder and more willing to adapt to protect the mental wellbeing of our learners.
11/ Otherwise, we face a generation of crushed learners who will hate education, apathetic to its benefit and associate learning with grade chancing rather than self-actualisation.

It's upsetting and it has to change.

#FridayThoughts #Education
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