Three wishes: tackling poverty, learning together and gracious disruption on Creating Value In Schools

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If you could ask for three wishes from the education secretary, what would they be? Sean Harris requests a system recalibration.

Tiny droplets of water sparkle on three dandelion seed heads, reflected below.

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Sean Harris is Director of PLACE at Tees Valley Education. He’s also That Poverty Guy, author of Tackling Poverty and Disadvantage in Schools – and furiously curious about tackling inequality. This blog is an extract from our longer conversation, Know your place: how to tackle inequality in education.

'Wouldn't it be amazing for us to say that the UK's education system is rooted in the holistic development of family and children?'

Three wishes

Liz Worthen: We’ve waved a magic wand, and you’ve got the ear of the education secretary. She has promised to grant you three wishes to affect change for children and young people. What would they be?

Sean Harris: Great question! What I’ll give you here is my personal take on this, not necessarily Tees Valley Education's or that of my colleagues.

The first one, and this might feel like a shameful plug, but please bear with me: give Tackling Poverty and Disadvantage in Schools a read.

That was a book that we produced with lots and lots of other leaders and educators, working around the UK and in some cases, the globe. Who were really professionally generous with their expertise, and even waved the royalties, so all proceeds from the book go back to the Tees Valley and support the work we’re doing with children. For example, the stories project I spoke about. (See Social listening in practice: books, beds and curious myth-busting to find out more.)

I think we need to recalibrate the system

It's a book that is rooted in research. It's a book that provides actionable insights, and it's a book that has really reflective activities that you can do in your teams, along with case studies from sector leaders that are doing great work. I know the Education Secretary has a copy as well, because I handed it to her!

For more reading recommendations, check out the Creating Value in Schools bookshop

We’re all civil architects

So that's my first wish. The second one is: I think we need to recalibrate the system to understand that we are all civil architects here, with that furiously curious ambition to tackle inequality.

We still have a system that is furiously curious about how to get the best GCSE results and the best SATs results. And yes, we absolutely should maintain that level of rigour. But what we need is a more holistic understanding of what it really means to be a school here.

We do need to graciously and perhaps to an extent ungraciously disrupt the profession

There's nothing new under the sun. Schools were not just set up to provide knowledge or a curriculum. Anyone that's done any kind of a shallow dip in the history of schools will see that the churches and social philanthropists set this stuff up to really offer children far more than just quality first teaching.

So. It would be great to recalibrate our system. Wouldn't it be amazing for us to say that the UK's education system is rooted in the holistic development of family and children?

Let’s learn from what’s working

And the final one: let's learn from what's working and share with others. We often say that there are no silver bullets in education; that's absolutely bang on, but there are some shining examples of what is making an impact.

For example, the likes of The Reach Foundation, Right to Succeed, the Fair Education Alliance, Tees Valley Education and many others are doing work here that is making the difference.

And, there's a slight 3.2 to this, if I may break the genie wishes of only three, which is: we do need to graciously and perhaps to an extent ungraciously disrupt the profession.

Gracious disruption and value alignment

There are those school and trust settings that are not value aligned on this stuff. Johnny Uttley has done some great work at The Education Alliance Multi-Academy Trust on the need for us to call out those educators and system leaders that are just not seeing this.

We know that there are practices out there in the profession, like off-rolling for example, which are just not helping and sadly, it's those with less who are impacted the most by those kinds of decisions. So what I'd say is: let's learn from what is working. Let's call out when it is actually not value aligned.

As part of that, draw on the work of the Child of the North and the research that we've done there, which also provide toolkits on what is working as well.

It's all about holistic care and development of the child.

Cuppa with a Change Maker and the Three Ages of Child

Liz Worthen: So tell us about some things that you've been reading or listening to recently that have inspired you and you'd like to share with others.

Sean Harris: One of the things I feature on my Substack, and this is completely free for folk to access as well, is Cuppa with a Change Maker.

And it comes back down to your point about optimism. I was aware that Substack is getting more and more depressing. And I thought, how do I keep the line of optimism here? And the Cuppa with a Change Maker series was born from people who were just doing great work that I think deserves a spotlight.

Watch Sean talk about practicing hope and optimism (3 minutes)

One of the people I met in that process was Dr. Guddi Singh. Folk might know that name from listening to her on the BBC. She's involved with the Child of the North research movement which I'm part of as well. Guddi is fantastic because she talks about the need to not just see healthcare and health professionals and education in silos, but instead it's all about holistic care and development of the child.

You'll find a plethora of amazing people and networks and organisations that are really trying to shift the tide

When we're talking about education, we're talking about health. When we're talking about health, we’re talking about education. Guddi has done a few things, so the first thing I'd say is read her guest blog, Beyond Classrooms & Clinics. But one of the other things that she's done is her series with the BBC, The Three Ages of Child on Radio 4.

She spent time in the likes of Hartlepool looking at how hardship is really impacting the lived and the living reality of those that are facing hardship on a day-to-day basis. I’m a big fan of Guddi’s work, also because she does it in such a way that she's not a solo artist; she's really big on this idea of collaboration with a capital C.

So you'll go into Guddi's work and you'll find a plethora of amazing people and networks and organisations that are really trying to shift the tide.

Liz Worthen: And for those who want to follow your Substack, it’s That Poverty Guy, right?

Sean Harris: That's it. There’s lots on there and you can subscribe for free! Then on a Monday morning, you'll get a drop of the latest research, news and insights, as well as various blogs and resources.