Toasting Camilla

A toast to the Queen, Prince Phillip and the Duchess of Cornwall (that’s Camilla to you and me). I happened to be in the ladies when the toast happened, so missed it, but it wasn’t planned. I promise.
One of our academy sponsors also runs two independent schools and this was the annual dinner of one of them. But more of the dinner later.
First to go back a week, this was not the only recent invitation I had enjoyed through our sponsors. I attended a lecture by Bill Bryson, ‘A Short History of Nearly Everything’ to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the Royal Society. He was as entertaining as his books. In the reception afterwards I spotted a man with an open neck shirt, sandles and socks who I recognised. It was Steve Jones the famous geneticist and evolution expert.
He was on his own and seemed quite happy to chat. I knew there was some common ground. I can detect a Welsh accent and usually the valley it comes despite layers of home counties distortion. The man is from Aberystwyth, his father apparently a friend of Dylan Thomas. In his time Jones estimates he has spoken to 250,000 school children. He’s said he’s more than willing to come to my school. There was more common ground. Steve is a professor of genetics at UCL - my old university and it turned out, as we sipped our champagne, that today was the day he had retired so he had something to celebrate, though he wasn’t sure it was a cause for celebration. He described how his department had just been asked to make 69% cuts to its teaching budget for next year. ‘Impossible’ he said.
Professor Jones also has some traditionally left-wing Welsh views. In an interview in the late 90s, he described private schools as a "cancer on the education system". He also has claimed that private schools as one of the reasons that Britain remains as socially stratified as it is. He said it was because of their smaller classroom sizes, highly-trained teachers, better facilities, and coaching through university interviews. Fortunately since the 90s, due to a huge investment in education the state education system has in some areas learnt from the independent model.
It was somewhat ironic therefore that here I was, in the same venue, toasting the queen (or would have been, had I not been in the loo) at such a posh dinner. It was black tie and there was port, a slow hand clap for the entry of the top table including reverends, sheriffs and aldermen.
The independent school also run by our sponsors has an impressive exam record with 100% of sixth-form leavers going to university (22% after a gap year – just like William and Harry) with 25% to Oxbridge. There are however 5% who study vocational subjects. I wondered if they are started delivering the new diploma? Perhaps plumbing? Hairdressing? No. Vocational at for this school means law and architecture.
Soon after this visit, the Browne Report, into universtiy funding, was published. The recommendations in the report remove the cap on tuition fees so that universities, if the recommendations are accepted, will be able to charge whatever fees they want. The subsidised interest that graduates currently enjoy will also go but the threshold at which graduates starts paying would rise, from 15,000 to £21,000. The report also says that the cost of going to university for students from the 30% of lowest income background will decrease.
So what does this mean for us in our academy and more importantly our students? Every year at the Academy, we take all our Year 7 students to Cambridge University. The point of the day is to raise aspirations to encourage our students to know where they are aiming for. The schools liaison officer did his best to explain the likely funding model to our eleven year olds. After the trip we asked students to write what they had learned from the visit. One boy wrote ‘Going to university is expensive’.
The girls from the independent school will certainly pay more. Or more likely their parents will continue to pay some up front, they will not pay any interest and their school fees will go on university instead.
And once it becomes more expensive to go to UCL, to do history – then who will explain the world?
As always I return to the same mantra. Children from poorer backgrounds are not disadvantages because of their genetics. The gaps in attainment at a young age prove that. The only way we can make our society fairer is by opening the opportunities by supporting students in getting the grades they need. We need to make our schools safe and structured so that learning can take place in every classroom with every teacher.
Also it is for all of us to sell the university funding system to young people. We need to emphasise the message that the poorest don’t pay and that if you don’t earn enough, you will never pay.
If we don’t, Steve Jones could be the last Welsh man to go to UCL and the gap between the opportunities enjoyed by the young people in the Academy compared with the girls in our sister independent school will only grow. The biggest barrier to a university education is still achieving good exam results. This is where the effort and the money needs to go.

A little Welsh magic

Picture the scene. Bright blue sky, hills dusted with snow, water as still as a mill pond shimmering in the winter sun. Birds swoop down and dart into to the nearest tree. Only a group of excited students, paddling ferociously on a canoe and shouting contrary instructions at each other, breaks the silence.

The Outward Bound Trust was set up during the Second World War for merchant seamen to prepare them in case they ever got ship-wrecked. Now the trust aims 'to create moments when everyone can see and believe in themselves as never before and to translate such moments into lessons for everyday life'. As well as having 'a belief in the power and magic of learning through adventure in the wild - as a means of bringing out the best in people.' I love that the trust is one of the few organisations I have come across that is brave enough to use the word magic in connection with learning. And it's right that they do. Learning is magical. Or it can and should be.

I wasn't expecting to enjoy myself. The culmination of the start of January, freezing Welsh temperatures, outdoor activities and a chilly bottom bunk did not seem like a recipe for happiness. However enjoyment is infectous and it was impossible not to feel good when the children were so engaged, enthusiastic and positive about each new experience. From climbing and orienteering, to hill walking and even simple fun with a a long skipping rope - they loved it.

Walking in the dark, the path lit by moonlight on to the beach at Aberdovey our guide Jen explained about how the sand dunes absorb the sea's energy. We saw the sparks made by little creatures when you rubbed the cold wet sand with your palm. And the stars, ahh.. the stars. More than our inner city eyes had ever seen. We even learned about the stories the Greeks made to explain them. Magic is the only appropriate word.

The trip would not have been possible without the funding from one of our academy's sponsors. A great way for them to spend their money. And a good argument for having a sponsor and business link for our school. No amount of begging letters could have coughed up that cash.

The challenge for us now is how this learning applies when back in school. Certainly students learned much that will be essential to them in later life. They worked in teams, overcame challenges, learned independence, supported others and made new friends. However, it is the magic that comes from a trip like this that I believe will have the greatest long term impact. Children are more likely to feel positive about school, develop positive relationships with teachers and appreciate that what they learn about in school really does apply to the big wide world.

So amongst our routines and strict school culture there is definitely still space and a need for magic. And where better to find that magic than the home of Merlin himself.