How to build a school

Studio Lenca is a world created by artist Jose Campos, it's a space to tell their story, a story of migration, belonging, visibility and a celebration of their Salvadoran roots. In this conversation Jose offers generous insight into their expansive practice and how their experience as a teacher lives on through their artistic practice.

https://www.studiolenca.com

We have a system of education that creates and feeds anxiety - it tells children and young people that their interests don't matter and they're not good enough. My guest today knows this all too well but the solution, as she explains, may not be as complex as you might think.

Dr Naomi Fisher is an independent clinical psychologist and EMDR consultant. She specialises in trauma, autism and alternative approaches to education. She works with children, adolescents and adults.

She is the author of ‘Changing our Minds: How Children Can Take Control of their Own Learning’ (Robinson, 2021) and ‘A Different Way to Learn: Neurodiversity and Self-Directed Education’ to be published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers in 2023.

She runs online courses to support parents and offers training for professionals.

Changing Our Minds, written by our guest, is only 99p on Kindle during June and Thier next book, A Different Way to Learn is out on June 21 and the code NFISHER20 will give readers 20% off if they order it directly from the Jessica Kingsley Publishers website. I'll pop the links in this episodes show notes.

Picture this. a young person at school is disrupting their maths lesson. Consequently they are sent out the classroom. A few days later they get into a fight so they are sent to a room, isolated from peers and forbidden from having break time. Their poor behaviour persists throughout term and in the end they are suspended, remaining at home on their own for 3 days. Finally, after trying everything the school permanently excludes the young person and they are sent to a pupil referral unit, with other young people who have been excluded, away from any of their peers.

Although simified, These multiple forms of escalating exclusions are common if not exclusive behaviour management practices in secondary schools across the country.

As an added measure of 'safety' police presence in schools has been increased in recent years and as we saw in the abhorrent case of child Q, state violence against minoritised and racialised groups in schools, the place where our young people should feel safeguarded against prejudice, is a serious, threatening reality.

If that wasn't scary enough 60% of youth offenders were permanently excluded from school meaning there is a clear trajectory from these punitive practices and sanctions to the criminal justice system.

In addition, for those who are racialised as black the statistics are even worse. According to the chief inspector of probation “There is a disproportionate number of black and mixed heritage boys in the youth justice system. This is what is known as the schools to prison pipeline.

My guest today is Mea, youth worker, campaigner and project officer at Kids of Colour, an organisation that provides the space for young people to explore their lived experiences of racism in school.

Once a young contributor to their brilliant video series, telling her own story, Mea now campaigns with Kids of Colour against the racial injustices faced by minoritised communities across the country …. and she has an idea. What if we put healing at the centre of education rather than punishment?  What if 'challenging behaviour' was actually recognised as a struggle to exist within a narrow oppressive system?

What would education look like then?

Enjoy…

https://kidsofcolour.com/

Schools to prison pipeline: https://www.connectedsociologies.org/curriculum/policing/school-to-prison-pipeline/

Schools should be the platform from which our children learn equally. Early years education has historically offered a holistic, child centered, play based framework, offering the potential for learner diversity to thrive equally. But what happens beyond this brief moment in a child's educational journey? How can a model that expects children to learn exactly the same things at the same time, in an adult led, environment nurture individuality and developmental differences?

The conversation around neurodivergence is evolving and the narrative is starting to positively shift with greater awareness and acknowledgement of the natural variations in learning and development.

However, education has a long way to go to nurture the inclusive environments that enable neurodiversity to thrive.

The effect of a narrow, one size fits all system of schooling is clear and evident in higher levels of anxiety and depression for those who are expected to fit into the normative mold a 'successful student'.

So what can we do as parents, educators and advocates to resist the dominant deficit narratives around neurodivergence that prevails in schools and wider society?

Kerry Murphy is our guide to thinking critically and practically about how we can make small changes for big impact.

My guest today says it best:

‘Education needs to be something that young people are invested in and are at the center of not something that is done to them....we need to stop educating young people and start having systems where knowledge can be exchanged more equally’

One way we can start is to reframe how we think about disability. We need to shift away from individualising and problematising those with disabilities and recognise that, as my guest today points out, there is a ‘Failure to consider the diversity of body and minds in the way that we structure society....We shape the world for this normative body and mind that doesn’t exist’

So how do we do this? How do we unpack centuries of inequality and build back with plural perspectives? Tourettes Hero are proof that Through play, through creativity and through humour we can change perspectives and ultimately change society.

Tourettes Hero: https://www.touretteshero.com/

Free to Learn: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15843125-free-to-learn 

#education #learning #creativity #arts #howtobuildaschool

Hello and and welcome back to 'how to build a school' a podcast series in which I am talking with various people involved in education and the arts to dissect the system, highlight the problems and discuss why and how they exist but more importantly we talk about the much needed alternatives with a focus on creative learning.

I'm really honoured to introduce my next guest Anna Cutler, who until recently was the director of learning and research at Tate. She is now a coach, consultant and writer and in my mind one of the most profound but clearest voices on the subject of art, culture and education. A restless magpie asking all the necessary, difficult questions. It's a long one but it's jam packed full of personal and career insights and a hopeful nod to the future of learning.

Tate: https://www.tate.org.uk/

Article by Anna: https://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/tate-papers/13/what-is-to-be-done-sandra-learning-in-cultural-institutions-of-the-twenty-first-century

Creative Partnerships: https://www.creativitycultureeducation.org/programme/creative-partnerships/

Arthur Cropley: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Creativity-Education-Learning-Teachers-Educators/dp/0749434473

What would happen if an artist had control of a school curriculum? Henry Ward, former deputy head of Welling School in South London has blurred the boundaries between the artist and teacher and the results for his students and the school were transformative.

I talked to Henry about the role his artistic practice played in developing his teaching philosophy and and he shares some brilliant examples of his students' work. Most importantly, he offers a glimpse into what education would look like if the arts and creative learning were really valued.

Links:

Freelands Foundation: https://freelandsfoundation.co.uk/

Henry’s website: http://www.henryhward.com/

High Tech High: https://www.hightechhigh.org/

Big Picture Doncaster: https://bigpicturedoncaster.org/

Welling School: https://www.wellingschool-tkat.org/

What are the problems with schools today? and for whom?

Is creative learning a solution?

How can we think differently about schools?