As a sector, we tend to keep our focus on what we need to improve for our children and communities. Invariably, that means we spend little time challenging narratives centred on what we can’t or don’t do, allowing these to dominate the airwaves.
Over recent months, the team at Infinity Academies and I have decided we want to change that. To that end, we let the BBC spend days filming life in one of our primary schools in Boston.
The resulting headline, We don’t just teach – we clothe the kids, feed them and brush their teeth rightly showcases the lengths we go to in ensuring that our children are ready to learn.
I am not going to lie. We had sleepless nights pondering whether engaging with the media in this way was the right thing to do. Even when it was all happening, it was a strange and unnerving feeling seeing and hearing our school, our staff and our pupils on everything from the World at One to the Six O’Clock News.
That said, the most interesting thing for us was not the headlines or the coverage itself – it was the incredible response.
One week later, we had received over £17,000 in donations from individuals from St Mirren to Malta. We have been offered pallets of toiletries, free teaching resources, lots of play equipment – and the amount of knitted goods we have received in the post has been incredible.
In addition, hundreds of people have written to us and simply said ‘thank you’ for doing all that we do. It made the pupils at St Nicholas’ CE Primary Academy, many of whom face significant challenges in their home lives, feel noticed and valued. The smiles on their faces have been huge.
In a world where we are the people who are usually planning what is being taught, it would be fair to say that I was the one who was given a lesson by all of this.
We often see what we do in our schools as the norm. We sometimes just do things because we know that no one else will if we don’t. Yet, and I had lost sight of this, all the additional things schools do are hugely valued by and valuable to our communities.
We need to do more to be our own champions
We forget that at our own peril, particularly when the number of complaints coming to schools seems to be endless at the moment.
Something made someone in Scotland go to the effort of writing a letter and sending a cheque to a school over 300 miles away in rural Lincolnshire. What is it?
We are not doing anything that is hugely different from any other school in the country. We don’t have access to funding that other schools don’t. The only thing we’ve done differently was to take a gulp and put ourselves out there.
For me, the rollercoaster we’ve been on in the past week is a sign that we need to do things differently as a sector. It feels unnatural, but what might be the benefits of collectively showcasing what we do?
Politicians are well aware that education polls as a low priority among the public. But is it really? And what is our role in that?
Getting on the front foot in the media could help engage the next generation of teachers. It could unlock greater support from businesses and agencies.
Celebrating the real story of what our schools do every day for our communities might even help turn the tide of complaints we are all being inundated by.
In short, we need to do more to be our own champions.
Two weeks ago, I would have said that it is better not to stick our heads above the parapet. Now my view has changed. I am not saying I want our schools on BBC Breakfast every week, but I will spend more time shouting about what we do to support our communities.
You should too.
