Success in the capital is cited in the white paper but opportunity feels far more distant in many of England’s coastal communities, says Russell Hobby
The new white paper calls for a coastal mission to raise education outcomes, engagement and participation. It is right to do so.
Twenty of Kemnal’s schools can smell the salt on the wind. Our communities do not lack pride or aspiration, but neglect, disdain and underinvestment can turn that aspiration into frustration.
The white paper draws inspiration from the London Challenge, that beacon of transformation from the almost distant past.
The London Challenge worked brilliantly, although no one seems to agree on why. It depends on your perspective.
If you were a school leader, it was about collaboration, constructive challenge and funding. If you were in government, it was about ministerial and civil service leadership. If you ran Teach First, it was about the quality of new teachers…
No repeats
Despite strong efforts, however, we have not been able to repeat the London Challenge consistently at scale elsewhere.
While leadership, collaboration and funding were clearly vital and are welcome anywhere, this speaks to something specifically about London itself.
There is significant poverty in London, but it exists alongside visible opportunity and communities who know education does change lives.
These conditions do not exist in all our coastal communities.
Clearly, “the coast” is a big place. Over 11,000 miles in fact.
Poole, Brighton, Hastings, Weston-Super-Mare, Whitehaven and Bridlington do not have the same issues.
But in many of our coastal towns, despite some brilliant exceptions, opportunity feels distant. Services are stretched. Investment is scarce. Families are not sure whether school is worth it.
A new tune
For the coastal mission to become the next beacon of transformation, it should not just repeat the London Challenge. It must craft its own tune. From my experience, this tune needs the following notes.
Respect. It is time to drop the language of disadvantage and any attitude of superiority.
Families won’t just do as they are told, and trust is earned the hard way. Nor can the pitch be how quickly we can get you out of this place.
And there is a new risk here: if the new inspection framework does not value leaders who work in these towns, then a revolving door of leadership will destroy trust.
Community. Although we must keep hard-won gains on academic rigour and behaviour, eventually we hit a ceiling of barriers to access: health, housing, crime and safety, social capital.
We can remove the ceiling by working beyond the school gates – before, around and after school. This stretches beyond schools’ natural expertise, so should happen in partnership with local authorities and others.
Enrichment. Learning is rightly hard, but if every day holds only struggle, people will opt out.
This doesn’t mean making things easier, it means making things broader and deeper, to create the chance for everyone to shine, the opportunity for self-expression through sport, performance and art and a sense of safety. Then people will opt in.
Employment drives education
Jobs. We often say that education drives employment, but it is as true to say that employment drives education.
A big driver of academic outcomes in neglected communities will be the prospect of well paid, satisfying work.
This is not just careers advice. It is a skills strategy for every school based on local labour markets and deep employer partnerships.
Recruitment and retention. It is harder to recruit staff to a school where half your catchment area is water.
It is hard to keep people in isolated and under-resourced communities. We need to recruit and train locally, and we need to target retention incentives heavily in these communities.
The good news is the door is wide open for each of the elements. They all find their place in the white paper.
We need to keep the ambition, for sure, but we also need to build something new, led by the communities themselves and the schools who are already leading the way. London may be calling, but those who live by the water need a new verse.
