Editors note: we had no idea what a fuss this little bit of fun would kick off. Many many people have sent us information about the hate campaign unleashed behind the blockades against us in response to this so we’ll be adding to this blog and name checking everyone involved (maybe notifying employers and authorities if some of what we’ve been told is true) .
So do watch this space or sign up for updates on our home page if you care
Please note, we are not politically aligned, with valued relationships and projects across the political spectrum
its about policy, not politics, and how it affects the, our, your kids and young people in our, your, their care
And All Our Futures
If you care, and we hope you do because our kids need Creative Carers like you
SATIRE IS DEAD
LONG LIVE EDUTWITTER
My concerns about the true motives behind educational organisations like ResearchEd and Parents and Teachers for Excellence are well documented in a blog below.
It details audit trails back 10 years to the work of Dominic Cummings when he was strategic advisor to Michael Gove at the Department of Employment and Jonathan Simons the Director of Education at the right wing think tank Policy Exchange, which has been repeatedly criticised for not disclosing its sources of funding. And why would they? Or, why wouldn’t they?
It’s worth saying right here, right now that STEAM Co. is not politically aligned – we have been grateful for support from Labour MPs such as Sharon Hodgson in Sunderland and the government’s Matt Hancock from Suffolk when he was Culture Minister.
But we do have an interest in policy and are concerned to when we see schools, teachers and children used as political punch bags which we will call out as part of our campaigning work for creativity.
WOT NO TELLY?
We didn't have a television when I was a little boy, as they’d barely invented it, and a year or so ago I asked my mum what I used to do with my time.
She told me I just played with Lego, Cardboard boxes and my train set, non stop.
Then my brother came along together with a TV but Instill played with my Lego, with him sometimes, but he tended to watch the 15 minutes of lunchtime children’s TV the BBC laid on every day .
BRUTAL
I remember being beaten with a yard stick (slightly shorter than a meter rule) by a teacher though don’t remember what for and also one home time being pointed out by a classmate’s older sister to their mother who scratched my face, drawing blood, for making her daughter cry at playtime.
I thought and think little of it, that was then. Different times. My face still bears the marks but I’m not scarred for life in anyway by it.
HANDY
I have a school report which was average and though while my class teacher regularly told me i wouldn't amount to much he did write in one that I “was good with my hands and creative” so maybe there was hope.
I flew through grammar school getting top grade A in O and A-level Design Technology and a Master’s degree in electronic engineering before commencing a 30 year career in the creative industries through brand marketing, digital advertising and business Innovation.
WHO CARES?
Like many people I didn't pay much attention to or care much about schools or children or teachers until i had some and was really quite surprised if not a bit cynical at the young staff on parent evenings but blown away by the professionalism and rigour with which they applied their skill showing me, for example, how my sons’ joined up writing had improved between the last meeting and this.
I was appalled by one boss in a creative agency where I was MD who regularly used the phrase “those who can't, teach” and it meant nothing to me as I went back to work on global communications projects for the likes of Microsoft, Sony and British Heart Foundation.
THEY’RE DOING WHAT?
Yes, creativity has fuelled my life so I was surprised to see that the number one TED talk with 300m views was by a chap called Sir Ken Robinson and about how schools can teach creativity out of children. What?
I then read half a book called “what's the point of school” by another Prof and went to a festival, Camp Bestival in Dorset created by an inspiring artist Rob Da Bank and his wife from the Isle of Wight which all conspired to inspire me.
To cut a long story short, 9 years ago with around 70 parents, teachers local businesses and other creative carers I co-founded a project in my sons primary school in Paddington. Within 2 years we had been shortlisted for TES Community Collaboration award for what we achieved.
JUMP SHIP
I have since given up my career and 6 figure salaries to roll out what we did there to schools across the country as a non-profit community enterprise called STEAM Co.
Like me back then, I am convinced that few people care about schools, teachers or children until they have their own.
So I set out to bring what I saw as being a critical conversation about creativity and education out of education’s echo chambers and it connect them with the world of work and broader society, where creativity, even Sir Ken were valued highly.
YOU DO WHAT?
STEAM Co. are passionate about putting creativity first in our schools, work and lives.
We believe that creativity can engage and inspire young people in their learning, can provide careers and fuel the economy as well as connect society. Who doesn’t want some of that right now?
We help our young people dream, find their passion, we call it their art , because art is what we call it when what we do might connect us to somebody else.
STEAM Co. helps connect our kids with their art and our communities with their schools.
GRASSROOTS?
ResearchEd is considered by many to be an Astro Turf organisation of far right wing ideologues and is led by Tom Bennett, who called Sir Ken a “butcher given a ticker tape parade by the National Union of Pigs” in the Times Education Supplement. No, not very nice even if now positioned as a fun metaphor not part of an ongoing meme to discredit creativity and all who sail in her.
Indeed Sir Ken’s work was in no small way inspirational instrumental in inspiring STEAM Co. and he has spoken at our events, referenced us at conferences in his talks and indeed endorsed me for a TED Fellowship.
Having attended several ResearchEd events I can testify to the broad range of committed teachers and leaders that make up their following although, like many, feel that the majority of speakers skew heavily towards what is considered to be a more traditionalist and academic education .
On speaking to many delegates it has become clear that few have any idea of the strategic thinking that has gone into these organisations and possibly their true role and links to what many see as a looming:
Creativity Crisis - narrowing of the curriculum, reduced students, teacher and course numbers)
Education Crisis - Funding, Remuneration, Workload, Wellbeing, Mental Health
Democracy Crisis - Schools Week have revealed that the key donor for the ‘Vote Leave’ campaign was also the key funder for Parents and Teachers for Excellence
I have satirically dubbed Tom ‘Education’s Pied Piper’ given the almost hypnotic effect he has on his following, many of whom I know are not aware of the back story to the organisation.
BEHAVE
Tom Bennett is also closely aligned with a school of thought around behaviour management in our schools commonly defined using approaches labelled as zero tolerance, warm strict and sometimes extensive if not excessive use of isolation, sometimes strategically in ‘off rolling’ strategies to remove troublesome or under achieving young people from schools exam result league tables, according to many people including Ofsted.
LOVED UP
All stark contrast to one of the school community leaders, Chris Dyson who we’ve worked with regularly for 3 years now at Parklands Primary School on an estate in Leeds, one of the most socially challenged parts of the country.
Chris spoke at one of our events about how he had taken over a school few years ago which literally had a padded cell for young people, over 170 exclusions and 7 headteacher's in as many years.
Chris ripped out the padded cell on day one and within 2 years, had reduced exclusions to zero
We have spent a lot of time working with Chris and he has become a passionate advocate and good friend of STEAM Co. recommending us to many other schools and creating connections for us as many other leaders.
We’ve done all we can to promote his work, not to promote him but what we see as best practice in that setting, mindful all the time of unsung heroes in schools across the country in similarly challenging circumstances and do all we can to champion the #ARTofLEADERSHIP and the #ARTofTEACHING and call out hate campaigns against them and speaking at a wide range of conferences across the country in state and independent settings.
INSPIRATION NOT ISOLATION
Indeed we often refer to Chris’s work as using inspiration to engage and connect the young people in his care with their learning and life outcomes and not an over reliance on extreme behaviour management strategies and isolation or need for them.
Just before Christmas Chris received a lot of press coverage for the Christmas Eve Eve party which his school runs for the local community.
The Guardian wrote a story first, spreading like wildfire to Sky News and finally Chris was awarded the title ‘Hero of the Week’ in The Sun newspaper, a publication some commentators have linked to campaigns demonising teachers and other public sector workers on occasion .
OUT OF ECHO CHAMBERS
I have always thought that for art and creativity to have broader and wider acceptance the conversation needs to be taken to newspapers beyond obvious places like The Guardian where one would be ‘preaching to the choir’ in many cases.
Ideally these messages need to be seeded into a broader demographic represented by newspapers like The Sun, so was not only delighted to see Chris and his work recognised but also the work of $1m global teacher prize winner Andria Zafirakou 2 years ago when she was given a comment piece also in the sun .
Last week as part of the Prime Minister’s pre-election pledge, £10m pounds was announced for a project to be led by Tom Bennett for the establishment of behaviour hubs and behaviour strategy work across the UK.
LIKE A FERRY COMPANY WITH NO FERRIES
Several years ago Tom Bennett appeared to hastily convene a company Tom Bennett training which was allegedly awarded several million pounds for similar work, quite possibly the same budget but for whatever reason announced only now.
Seeing a certain irony in this, given that the Daily Mail had previously reported that Tom had being considered by Westminster City Council to be unfit to manage behaviour in the nightclub he was managing thus losing his license, we saw an opportunity for to make a satirical point and raise awareness of concerns around the looming creativity, education and democracy crises.
PEOPLE’S VOTE
Given their contrasting behaviour management approaches, I posted a tweet asking people who they thought would be the worthiest beneficiary of £10m pounds of government money:
Behaviour Guru, hot strict, zero tolerated, Daily Mail hero Tom Bennett – playing on his view on behaviour and the fact that his ideas are considered very Daily Mail reader friendly
Outstanding Head Teacher, Warm and Cuddly Sun Hero of the Week, the Outstanding Chris Dyson – referencing Chris’s progressive child centred approach and back to, but in no way endorsing, the Sun’s recognition
I included further detail in sub tweets such as imagery referencing Tom’s denigration of Sir Ken Robinson and links to the Govan education strategies and a film we had made of Chris Dyson.
Read ALL ABOUT IT
Below that for completeness I included three blogs explaining why we had done this and why we cared about:
Deliberately divisive government policy - this blog I’d written disclosing in detail the back story to the crises facing our schools work and lives and the supposed link back to Dominic Cummings, which very few teachers seem aware of.
The Behaviour Debate - another of our blogs covered our thoughts around the behaviour debate, the need to inspire some young people to engage them and how we had found the initial campaign title ‘Ban the Booths’ divisive, pleased it had been revised to ‘Lose the Booths’, to respect carefully managed use of them by some schools.
Social Mobility - this final blog had been written recently in response to the fact that Dominic Cumming had hired a contentious adviser, Andrew Sabisky associated with eugenics, links between intelligence and ethnic and socio economic background and the concept of being seen as being born stupid. He’d also spoken at ResearchEd events and The annual Festival of Education at the prestigious Wellington Collage that we had had a major presence at five years ago but been mysteriously banned form when Tom Bennet and other colleagues had been given control of the organising committee. It was a disturbing read and appeared to explain a number of the concerns we had around the creativity and education crises.
THE FUNNY SIDE
Within a short while of posting the tweet with a 36 hour window to capture poll data, Chris Tyson had retweeted it and tagged it #SaturdayFun seeing the funny and satirical side.
In the next 24 hours a veritable Twitter storm blew up in a tea cup for a number of reasons which I was forced to try to manage as best I could, in the process making a number of mistakes .
ON THE DEFENCE
A very large number of people are understandably incredibly supportive of Tom Bennett and ResearchEd, having a lot invested in it, indeed its modus operandi is to be and feel grassroots and is supported by a very large number of passionate and committed and school leaders and teachers.
Seeing what appeared to be a divisive choice between Tom and Chris they instantly and understandably leapt to Tom’s defence, quite aggressively in some cases.
ME TOO
Tweet's questioning the rational for the poll were grandstanded using likes by people to express support for the sentiment expressed and on one occasion i made a serious error using the word ‘gaslighting’ instead of ‘grandstanding’ to reference this practice which I regret and for which I apologised.
I was accused of bullying, a very common word in school environments, for seemingly simply responding to questions and some people who had expressed interest in the conversation by liking points made.
THE S WORD
A large number of people also objected to mention of the word The Sun, particularly with reference to Liverpool which I completely understand. We have run a number of events and working with a number of school communities in the city, including one who emailed to thank us for our help in their journey from Requires Improvement to Outstanding in two years in a socially challenged are ain Liverpool.
A number of people felt I was insulting Chris by calling him ‘Sun Hero of the Week’, clearly not realising that that title had indeed been bestowed upon him.
INCOMING
Responses, which felt in some cases like attacks came from all quarters, and no I am not ‘playing the victim’ pointing this out as many have said.
With many people asking me to take the poll down which I was reluctant to do given that it had been posted as a satirical exercise in the first place to draw attention to some important issues which are close to our heart and indeed those of anybody concerned about the creativity, education or democracy crises.
DELETE
I also did not want to take it down without notification from Chris Dyson given it had received his blessing and hadn’t been able to contact him on a weekend not wanting to push it.
Earlier today Chris called me for a chat and, while surprised, we agreed to respect the wishes of the people who felt it was divisive and who did not see the funny side or satirical point we were trying to make.
Frankly it felt to some degree like a form of censorship but at the same time the conversation about behaviour is a very sensitive one and we appreciate the importance of not creating and exacerbating divisions within the teaching community.
RESULTS ARE IN
The poll itself had around 35,000 views yet the tweets containing the blogs only had 2,000 or so, indicating a high possibility that the vast majority of people were jumping to conclusions and passionately passing comment without understanding the rationale behind the poll, a typical shortcoming of Twitter as a communications medium – ‘react first, rationalise later’, if at all.
AN APOLOGY
This was not intended to be divisive or cause offence and I would apologise for any offence caused. It was not particularly intended as an ad hominem attack on Tom Bennett but more to his role, actions and the ideological agenda many feel lies behind it
LIGHTEN UP
It was however intended as a piece of satire to make and communicate some points we hold dear and care about, at the same time we are very sensitive to other agendas of other campainigng groups.
It also set out to educate and inform and I hope you will look at the blogs above to understand those if you care too.
The blogs ends shortly after it started on telly.
Remember that? We’ll talk about banning smartphones in schools an an upcoming blog.
Satire:
A poem or (in later use) a novel, film, or other work of art which uses humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize prevailing immorality or foolishness, esp. as a form of social or political commentary.
(Last seen in the glory days of television c/o a few foam puppets, great scripts and a bunch of artists who had a point to make)
are you concerned about education?
I am
One of my deepest concerns is that while education systems around the world are being reformed, many of these reforms are being driven by political and commercial interests that misunderstand how real people learn and how great schools actually work.As a result, they're damaging the prospects of countless young people. Sooner or later, for better or worse, they will affect you or someone you know. It's important to understand what these reforms are about.
If you agree they're going in the wrong direction, I hope you'll become part of the movement to a more holistic approach that nurtures the diverse talents of all our children.
Sir Ken Robinson
Creative Schools 2015