Why does the DfE wants perseverance, resilience and collaboration, but not statutory PSHE?

Mick Waters wonders if being fickle is a prerequisite for politicians...

When the Education, Excellence, Everywhere (good alliteration!) white paper was published, there was much interest in the intention to convert all schools to academies by 2022. The priority to ensure schools develop children’s character, however, received less attention.

Most primary school teachers would probably say they already have to work with a lot of individual ‘characters’ called children. The shy, bashful, stubborn, exuberant, boisterous, studious, carefree, talkative, anxious and fearful; we find them all and more in most classrooms. Similarly, the House of Commons chamber contains a selection of honest, industrious, rude, untruthful and charming characters.

Some would criticise Nicky Morgan for enacting that schools should focus upon developing children’s character. After all, Michael Gove vehemently opposed any emphasis on the development of personal qualities in the national curriculum and openly mocked the work done under the previous government to develop Social Emotion Aspects of Learning (SEAL) or Personal Learning and Thinking Skills (PLTS). Now, with teachers yet again being expected to change course, it looks like a U-turn from government. Is being fickle a character trait of government ministers, or has something else changed?

Over the last year or so there has been a gradual acceptance that schools do more than teach so-called ‘academic’ content. Business leaders have argued for more emphasis on what are often referred to as ‘soft skills’: teamwork and leadership; flexibility; 13 reliability and commitment.

High-profile issues, such as the awful grooming of girls or the radicalisation of young people, are serious. Add the worries about matters such as sexting, dental health and obesity along with concerns about growing mental health difficulties and we see the extent of the problem for ministers and why there is a renewed focus upon SMSC. Yet these are the same ministers who voted to remove PHSE from the national curriculum and to take citizenship away from the primary section.

Nicky Morgan’s response is that schools are expected to teach PHSE, which sounds hollow when they find themselves in the high-stakes accountability environment of SATs and inspections. In the first 20 years of Ofsted, there were no examples of schools that failed because of shortcomings in SMSC alone, whilst plenty failed because attainment was not good enough.

So what should schools do now? There are many possibilities, but first we must build on what we already do and check whether it is doing all it could. Most schools have a programme of outof- school time activities; they run clubs, societies, teams, choirs and bands. All of these are opportunities for the development of decent characteristics; just turning up to a club regularly demonstrates commitment, and being part of the organising group gives children an understanding of reliability.

Most schools run events such as residential visits, school performances and charitable activities. All of these present the chance to develop character.

Does the school council set an agenda and make real decisions? Do the children really understand why we need to raise enormous sums for charity in one of the world’s most prosperous nations?

Perhaps we could analyse which children are involved in our programme of what we might call character-building opportunities. Many pupils take part in everything that is offered; they play music and sport, perform in the play and the choir, represent the school at local events and work with local old peoples’ communities.

But are there others at the other end of the spectrum who rarely take part in anything? If there are, how do we include them? How do we give every child a moment in the limelight?

Surely positive character has a better chance to develop with a moment of recognition, acclaim, celebration, or applause.

Second, we might look at character in lessons. When we talk about a subject, we tend to leave off the word ‘discipline’. A historian uses a different set of disciplines from those used by an artist or a scientist. It is in the discipline of a subject where character can develop. Art and design develop creativity and they also develop inquiry about shape, colour and line. Geography develops interpretation and problem solving; mathematics develops accuracy as well as proof or resilience in solving problems with accumulated data. PE encourages fitness and also the integrity to win with grace and lose with dignity.

The subjects are more than machines to fill children with facts, fronted adverbs and phonics. When we spoon feed people it is not long before they spit it out. That’s why the quest for helping children develop their own character has always been a vital part of good classroom teaching.

About the author

Mick Waters is Professor of Education at Wolverhampton University.