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Ditch the Green Paper ….

2nd November 2022Ali Durban

by Ali Durban, Co-Founder Gesher School.

With the constant merry-go-round of Education Ministers and no appointment of a SEND minister since Kelly Tolhurst, we have been looking at what has progressed with the Green Paper since its submission in July. The answer is not much – other than an exchange in the form of a letter to current Minister of Education MP Robert Halfon, (and former Chair of the Education Select committee) from former Minister of Education, Kit Malthouse who writes:

‘We are proposing to establish local SEND and AP partnerships. These partnerships would be responsible for delivering a local inclusion plan which sets out the provision that will be made available in line with the national standards.’

To be clear, the Children and Families Act 2014 is the national standard (as opposed to a local inclusion plan), it already sets out a legal duty on LAs to secure and maintain Special Educational Provision through an EHCP. If provision is specified and quantified properly in an EHCP and the general principles of section 19 upheld (the need for the LA to have regard for what will help the child or young person to achieve the best possible educational and other outcomes), then an inclusion plan is not necessary.

What does need to be established is a clear accountability framework. Local Authorities need to be held to account when they do not uphold the legal standard (namely the Children and Families Act). At present the only setting for this is tribunal. It can take parents years to reach tribunal level, and the journey to get there is arduous, exhausting and often quite traumatic. Shockingly, around 95% of tribunals are upheld. This stark figure reflects that one of the biggest weaknesses of the system is in fact Local Authorities not doing what they should do legally. Establishing ‘new partnerships’ to deliver what is already written in statute will without doubt add another layer of delay to families trying to achieve the appropriate provision and outcomes for their child.

Tragically the human cost in all of this is the child or young person, who is at this point often in crisis.

Kit Malthouse goes on to write ‘The local inclusion plan will inform the tailored list of settings from which parents and carers are able to choose provision where their child requires an education, health and care plan (EHCP). The expectation is that all schools on the list will be settings that can meet the child’s special educational needs as identified in their EHC needs assessments. This aims to give parents and carers clarity on what is available locally which may still include mainstream, special, independent, or out of borough provision. Our intention is that this will lead to greater transparency about what is available for children and young people in their local school and greater clarity about how it can be provided. We also aim for this to improve the choice offered to parents and carers by suggesting options they may not have otherwise considered’.

This ambiguous statement shows a deep lack of knowledge of the SEND system. It infers freedom of choice.

However, choice is something that many families of children with SEND have never had.

The tailored list that Mr Malthouse refers to already exists in the form of a local offer. This list is drawn up by the Local Authority and typically based on cost. It does not and could not list a school to meet each and every need because:

● There is a lack of provision across the UK and the quality can differ hugely between LAs. Figures obtained by the newspaper ‘Schools Week’ show that over half of special schools had more pupils on roll than the number commissioned by their council. This was a 15% rise from 2017-18. There simply isn’t enough provision in-borough or nationally to meet need.

● Much of the provision comes out of the independent sector. In order to make the local offer list, a school must agree to section 41 – reciprocal duty to co-operate with the local authority on arrangements (admissions); this means that LA’s loosely control admissions and could see a school end up with a very mixed and challenging cohort of children. For this reason, many independent schools choose not to be part of the local offer.

There is no indication of what will happen if there isn’t an appropriate school on the list. Will parent’s once again need to battle to reach a tribunal to access the provision they need, whilst, once again, (same story here…) the child is left in crisis?

There is no mention in Kit Malthouse’s letter of placing the child and their needs at the centre of decision-making. A true local inclusion plan would see a timely and thorough multi-disciplinary assessment, followed by the family and LA working together to find the right placement with the child’s needs at the centre of all decision-making.

The reality is a 2-3 year wait for a full assessment, which is often not accurate because there is a vested interest to keep ‘need’ to a minimum (if at all) in order that there is less of a requirement to procure an EHCP and LA spend. When it comes to placement, the LA’s decision-making is based on budget and very often they will write “mainstream school” or the next cheapest placement in Section I.

Kit Malthouse’s letter highlights the disparity between what the central Government thinks inclusion is, versus the reality of what children, young people and their families face.

We know the system is broken. Report after report after report has evidenced that children with SEND and their families are being consistently damaged and failed by the system. Much of it might be legally questionable. The proposed changes in the Green Paper continue to raise significant concerns as to the future of SEND provision.

What we need is a long-term plan for education, designed with those who bring their lived experience to a collaborative and inclusive process. We need to take the 7000+ responses from the Green paper review, analyse and publish the responses, as Tania Tiororro of Special Needs Jungle recommends. She also writes:

‘DELAY further plans for improvement, DITCH the Green Paper in its current form and PUBLISH a straight analysis of the consultation as soon as possible

And perhaps most importantly, we need someone bold and brave who is willing to make real change and for once, put this group of children and young people and their needs first.

Siddur Lakol – an inclusive prayer book

13th July 2022Ali Durban

By Sarah Sultman, Co-Founder Gesher School.

Chagigat Siddur is very much a right of passage in our Jewish community schools, a junior coming of age experience where children receive their first siddur or prayer book.

I can remember my own in 1984, aged eight, decorating my blue Singer’s siddur with watermelon stickers and pieces of felt. I can remember my daughters’ and the colourful shiny wrapping paper we selected together to cover their new siddur.

This ceremony has always been a part of the school year to mark the point in a child’s life when having learnt tefilot – how to pray – in the classroom, they are given their own siddur. It is a statement from the older generation of teachers and parents to the pupils that says: ‘Your prayers are yours and relevant to you, G-d is there for you for you to have a relationship with, and so now you have reached an age when it is yours to own’.

I still, to this day, have my Singer’s siddur with the watermelon.

A siddur for everyone

For many of our children at Gesher, accessing the text of the siddur is not possible. In school, we use a ‘picture exchange communication system’ with ‘widgets’ – or pictorial symbols – instead of text to help pupils understand what’s being asked of them and for them to express what they’d like to do or say.

And so last month, Gesher staff and pupils were delighted to welcome the Chief Rabbi for a very special Chagigat Siddur where we shared a new Siddur Lakol, meaning ‘Siddur for Everyone’.

The first prayer book of its kind for any faith, the Siddur Lakol is thoughtful, inclusive and designed with careful colours, easy-to-read font sizes and Hebrew transliterated into English so that anyone can follow spoken Hebrew prayer.

Importantly, and uniquely, the whole siddur has been fully translated into widgets so children can fully understand their dialogue with G-d through prayer.

Making prayers accessible to all

The Siddur Lakol comes from an unprecedented collaboration of community organisations including Gesher that want to make tefillah – prayers – accessible to all.

What is beautiful about Siddur Lakol is that it is not just aimed at those with learning difficulties but all mainstream children can use it. In conversations with the United Synagogue who commissioned this new version for their shuls – synagogues – and schools, we talked about how wonderful it would be if all young children started with this siddur. That way, as the majority grow up and no longer need it, they will have received their first education in an inclusive way that supports them to be more thoughtful children and adults.

For those with learning needs, it is the first time they will have a dedicated prayer book that they can access and engage with. And, as a friend said to me, “What about all the people who come to shul sporadically, cannot read Hebrew and have no clue what is being said?” – perhaps they too could dip into Siddur Lakol and find that a service begins to hold more meaning for them too.

Prayer provides routine and structure. It is personal, it can be meditative and reflective, it can be joyful and uplifting and it can be comforting. It would be wonderful if Siddur Lakol might inspire other faith-based communities to think about their own prayer books and resources to be more inclusive to all.

My hope is that the pupils at Gesher treasure their siddur the same way I did mine and that all of their prayers be listened to and answered.

The SEND system needs urgent investment, now more than ever

By Ali Durban13th July 2022

By Ali Durban, Co-Founder Gesher School.

The system is failing on every measure. We desperately need an education reset now more than ever.

These were the findings of the Times Education Commission from 15 June, which brought together business leaders and educators to discuss the reforms needed to create a system fit for the 21st century. The report’s conclusions reached across the education sector and, for me, resonated with my experience of the current SEND system.

One of my children is differently-able and as a family, me, my husband and all my children have experienced huge amounts of pain navigating the SEND system, which isn’t designed to support you, even though it pretends it is. It was a very difficult and all-consuming time. You are constantly fighting, and the emotion of navigating the education system is horrific. I call them my dark years.

Our journey is multiplied across thousands of schools and families.

Poorly resourced and inefficient there is a huge scarcity of high-quality provision in the UK. This means that children with SEND typically exist in – and fall through – the cracks of an education system which should be nurturing, fostering and developing them. Instead it is doing deep and sometimes irreparable damage to them.

These experiences were the catalyst for the creation of Gesher – my contribution to fixing a system which is complicated and complex and, simply put, is in crisis.

Over the last couple of years I have received countless calls from desperate parents of children with SEND, who have somehow managed to get my phone number. Each call is a different story full of immense pain. A child aged six on antidepressants and self-harming, a mother counting the days since the last day her child tried to take their life – 111 days today. A child who can’t leave their bedroom because of crippling anxiety and OCD. Another child being home-schooled because of a deep rooted school trauma. The calls never stop coming.

‘Deeply concerning’ proposals

When the Government finally released a long-awaited Green Paper on SEND with the promise of ‘access to an equal and excellent education, for each and every child and young person with SEND’, there was a sense of hope for system transformation and the possibility of something better for thousands of invisible children and young people.
However the wording in the Green Paper is ambiguous and highly misleading. Language such as national standards, mediation and accountability conjure up images of a robust system with a framework designed to place the child and their needs at the centre of the system.

There are a number of deeply concerning proposals in the paper which, if legislated, would overhaul the 2014 Children and Families Act. It will affect the rights and entitlements of children and young people to access special educational provision and make it even more difficult for parents and carers to have their children’s needs identified and access to specialist provision being specified and quantified. This is to reduce cost and spend rather than meeting the needs and removing barriers to learning for some of the most vulnerable children in our society. The outcomes in life of children with SEND are significantly poorer than those of their peers. And when picked up later in life the loss of earnings and cost of care to the system is £32billion annually. More than cancer, strokes and heart disease combined. And this is just for Autism alone.

The SEND system needs urgent investment now more than ever.

The £70million promise from the government that sits alongside the green paper is highly misleading. It is to implement the proposed system changes and not for frontline services. To put it into perspective it is one-eighth of the funding provided to implement the 2014 SEND reforms. Enquiry after enquiry has found that these reforms failed because they were poorly implemented due to a lack of funding.

Shaping the SEND provision we want and need

We have long-awaited the chance to shape the SEND provision we want and need, and rather than rewriting legislation, we need to focus on the unmet needs of thousands of children and young people:

Some of my key recommendations would be:

No additional mediation process as part of the EHCP process.
An independent panel that holds Local Authorities to account.
A formal review of EHCP time-scales.
No national list of schools, but instead a continued and expanded local offer that is not based on cost or an agreement to Section 41. But quality and successful outcomes for Children and Young People.
An amendment of legislation to the Children and Families Act so that SEND support is mandatory.
An accountability framework that sits alongside, and supports, the 2014 Children and Families Act.
A national standard for statutory assessments.
Greater allocation of funding for frontline services.

We should not be mediating on the rights of children and young people.

According to Children and Families Minister MP Will Quince there have only been several hundred responses to the Green Paper to date.

The consultation is open until 22 July.

If you need to check your thinking to respond Special Needs Jungle have prepared some resources and answers.

Please be bold and amplify your voice on behalf of the unmet needs of those who often remain invisible and marginalised by the system.

SEND Green Paper Round Table

9th July 2022Ali Durban

The SEND Green Paper was commissioned in November 2019 and stemmed from the SEND review, which examined why the legislation in the Children and Families Act in the 2014 hasn’t worked as it was intended it to.

There was not enough funding in the system to deliver what was set out and as a result too many children and young people are not receiving the support they should.

Problems with the SEND Green paper

Rather than prioritising the unmet needs of thousands of children and young people, the Green Paper is trying to reduce cost and the number of tribunals by making it even harder to for families and carers to access support.

The priorities in the Green Paper are completely wrong and there seems to be a real disconnect between the proposal in the paper versus the realities of a hugely challenging and complex system that families and carers face trying to access support and provision for their child.

Why we recorded a round table

We need as many people as possible to be aware of the proposed changes and respond. We held a round table to discuss the issues, and we hope you will find it useful when formulating your own responses.

We’ve divided the recording up by topic: introduction to the green paper, national standards, the ‘list of schools’, mandatory mediation, accountability and how to respond.

Taking part were

Adam Friel – Partner and Head of Education Geldards Law
Salise Dourmash – Senior Asscociate, Geldards Law
Dr Carrie Grant, MBE, Broadcaster, Vocal and Leadership Coach and Campaigner
Ali Durban, Co-Founder Gesher School
Charlotte Hadfield, Barrister, Head of Education, 3PB

Introduction

Who we are and why the green paper has come out.

National Standards

The proposal to create a standard that everyone needs to fit into to access support and provision.

List of Schools

The government wants to try have list of select schools that parents will be forced to choose from for their child.

Mandatory Mediation

The proposal for a legal requirement to go through mediation when trying to secure an EHCP.

Accountability

Local authorities often behave unlawfully – who will hold them to account in these new proposals?

How to respond

The language in the questionnaire is intimidating and inaccessible – our thoughts on how best to respond.

The Value of Getting it Right for Each Child: A View From Parents

7th April 2022Duncan Robertson

The Value of Getting it Right for Each Child: A View From Parents

ʻThe Bridgeʼ is an adult learning journal for and by educators – which includes community members with an interest in young peopleʼs learning. This first issue would not be appropriately balanced if it didnʼt include the voice and reflections of parents. In fact, we intend that every issue of ʻThe Bridgeʼ will include articles by parents and community members who have experiences to share.

What it feels like when a school doesn’t understand your child

Our daughter was previously in a local mainstream school with 1:1 support. She would regularly be separated from the other children in her class in order to receive various therapies and in order to carry out her learning.

We knew she wasnʼt happy because we had frequent reports of her pulling her learning assistantʼs and other teaching staffʼs hair. She started stimming (self-stimulating behaviour) at this time by waving her arms around; this was evidently her way of coping within the experience of boredom and isolation and yet it marked her out as different, leading to yet more of a sense of alienation both on her part (and mine).

Our daughterʼs difficulties in all areas such as speaking, attention, large motor movements, were making it difficult for her to join in classroom activities. It was clear that she was suffering from anxiety. She was being and would be increasingly failed by the mainstream education system and I could see things would only get worse if we didnʼt find another school for her.

The staff within her school were clearly overwhelmed and they didnʼt really know how to support us or how to deal with us.

This was obvious from our meetings with them. They didnʼt know how to help our daughterʼs learning, nor did they know how to help manage her behaviour and it was evident that we represented a burden or a problem for them.

I didnʼt have much of a connection or common point of contact with other parents owing to our experience being so different.

Our daughter lacked confidence when she was in peer group situations and she would often shrink back and stick to the adults in the room. I recall birthday parties and park playgrounds being particularly tense times for both of us.

How did you know when you had found the right school?

You can tell when a school knows what it is doing. When we found Gesher, the corridors were calm and distraction free and there was an atmosphere of peace and contentment and also a positive can-do attitude amongst the staff.

It was clear to us that this was going to be the best place for our daughter, not least because her severe speech dyspraxia was making any kind of integration into mainstream schooling increasingly complicated.

We knew that people would take the time to listen to her and to try to understand what she was saying, that she would be encouraged to communicate. She would be able to join in group activities without being separated. Immediately, we felt that Gesher would see us, not as a problem or hindrance, but rather as an opportunity.

What it means to belong

When children are encouraged to feel a sense of belonging to their school, not just to their class, that is really important. A whole school focus on inclusion, support and nurturing of children means that children are encouraged to learn good values and the importance of taking responsibility for themselves and for others. This is crucial.

I really appreciate here that therapy is integrated, meaning no child is singled out or isolated, while at the same time each student has their own learning plan. Each child is included and also cared for.

When your child (and you) are truly seen and valued

Our daughter has flourished, blossomed even, into a confident young girl who has a strong sense of who she is. She is no longer scared to try new things. Her ability to focus and to give her attention to a task has grown too. Her speaking is improving day by day. She is so happy to be part of a wider community. She wakes up each day with a sense of purpose and curiosity which is exactly how we should all be in life.

As parents we no longer feel alone in the experience of having a special needs child. When we go through a difficult time, or we have a specific issue, or we need some practical help, we know that we have other parents and teachers to whom we can reach out. That has made a phenomenal difference to our lives. We have started to feel a sense of optimism about our future as a family.

Assessing What Really Matters – Ron Berger

5th April 2022Duncan Robertson

Assessing What Really Matters

A conversation with Ron Berger

In March 2022 some staff and friends of Gesher School met with Ron Berger, Chief Academic Officer at Expeditionary Learning. Ron is the author of 11 of the most valued books about educational leadership, learning and relationships in schools. We talked about what really matters when assessing young people, especially those who are ʻdifferently ableʼ, and what good assessment can mean for supporting happy, fulfilled and kind future generations.

Why aren’t traditional forms of assessment right for children?

Ron Berger

The first thing I would say is that the most important assessment that’s happening in a school is never high stakes tests, or even interim tests, or even weekly tests. The most important assessment that’s happening in a school is what’s going on all day long, every day inside the heads of kids, because every kid in every school is assessing, all day long, how much she understands, how well she’s behaving, how much she wants to try, how good she feels about her identity – her academic identity and her personal identity. When she’s about to hand something in, she thinks, ʻIs it good enough?ʼ She’s in class and she thinks, ʻShould I raise my hand? Do I understand this stuff fully?ʼ When she looks at her personal relationships, she’s always assessing ʻAm I a good enough person?ʼ That kind of assessment is constant. It’s constant in all of us.

And that’s the kind of assessment that matters the most. Of  course, we need to check in on kids’ skill levels sometimes,  just like every year we should go in for a physical and make  sure our body is working and that our vital signs are okay.  And, if there’s something wrong in our annual physical,  that’s something we need to attend to. But an annual  physical tells us nothing about how to live a good daily life,  right? It doesn’t give us feedback. We need to be our best  selves academically and personally and physically. And it’s  the lifestyle choices we’re making all day long about what we eat and how we eat and how much we sleep and how  much we exercise and what our relationships are like with  others that define whether we have a healthy lifestyle or  not. And we are assessing that all day long.

We need to remember our kids are also doing that all day  long in school. And so we need to build systems of  assessment that encourage them to be their best academic  selves and to be their best personal selves all day long,  where they’re getting clear feedback from each other and  from themselves about ʻHow am I doing? Do I understand  this well enough? Can I show more academic courage? Can  I take more academic risks? Can I put more effort into this?  Can I take the risk of showing what I don’t understand? Can  I step up for other people? Can I be a better person?ʼ

So, of course, we still need to have those interim  assessments and quarterly assessments and annual  assessments, just like we need to go to the doctors’  sometimes, but assessments that give us ways to monitor our  own academic and personal health all day long are the  assessments that will really make us better students and  better people.

Gesher and Standardised Forms of Testing

Rowan Eggar, Assistant Head Teacher, in charge of assessment

One of the things that we are really struggling to navigate is the way our UK education system is built around the notion of standardized testing – which can be quite fixating.

We find that parents, especially those whose children have additional needs, use milestones like GCSE grades as a marker to show their child has made relevant progress, which is entirely understandable. But one of the things that we are trying to do at the moment at Gesher is to also support our parents and children to focus on life skills and the journey it takes to become fully fledged humans in society. You canʼt determine this from standard grades and scores.

We are looking at things like personal and emotional health, self-care, wellbeing, things that maybe our children struggle with more, and starting to build in assessment approaches that encourage them to check in with themselves, very similar to some of the questions that you mentioned, Ron. Lots of our students don’t yet have the toolkit to ask themselves those questions. So this type of assessment needs to be taught in a more obvious way than you might in a mainstream setting.

Loni and I are currently working with a few colleagues on an assessment tool that breaks down the national curriculum into small steps for whole-person assessment. One of the elements of this is around life-skills. Our SENDCO and Assistant have developed a ʻlife-skillsʼ programme, where our children get different badges, bronze up to platinum, depending on the life-skills they are building.

Whatʼs a bit more of a struggle is thinking about assessment for personal traits and character traits. Often our childrenʼs academic progress doesn’t really reflect who they are as people and how much they’ve grown. So, let’s say they’ve grown in confidence to be able to communicate, academic progress might not show that. Weʼre developing a tool that is about personality and character, but thatʼs a work in progress!

What advice would you give to a school embedded in the current assessment culture that wants to move to a new paradigm of thinking about assessment, one that focuses on the wholeness of the strengths and skills of children?

Ron Berger

That’s a great question, because we are all under the same pressures.
I find it really interesting to hear what Rowan is saying about being a school
that’s working with differently abled kids, but there is still the same kind of
intense pressure around labelling and ranking that every other school
experiences.

It’s pernicious and harmful for all kids, but it’s particularly harmful for kids
who always get ranked in a way that doesn’t make them feel positive, and
that doesnʼt focus on their personal identity as a student and as a person.
Imagine if, as adults, we got ranked every day in our life, and we were
always at the bottom of the rankings. What would that do to our spirit in our
work, in our lives as, as people?

I think anything that our schools, and particularly a school like Gesher that’s
working with differently abled kids, can do to keep ranking out of that
conversation is important, because being ranked low on any scale hurts
your spirit. It makes you lose your heart for investing and taking risks.

Kids are also aware of the way the world sees them and the kind of rankings
of the world. So being a school that lets kids know that those types of
rankings arenʼt their priority is really important. Schools should prioritise
and share work that focuses on what kids are learning, through portfolios,
projects, presentations – assessment approaches that celebrate different
types and styles of learning, building on the strengths and positives about
each childʼs learning.

But itʼs important that that type of assessment also shows kids where they
need to work on their challenges and the steps that they need to take next.
I think it’s fine for kids to be able to be honest about the things they struggle
with, whether those are personal things, executive functions, physical or
emotional wellbeing, as well as academic levels.

Ron shares a story here, which can be watched via the QR code at the end of the article, or link.

Ali Durban, Co-founder of Gesher School

I love that. I think as Rowan said, one of our biggest challenges is working in a system that both feels familiar and safe and also gives parents some kind of validation that their child is going to be okay in the world emotionally. Itʼs hard because our children havenʼt become adults yet, so we canʼt yet show that this way of learning and assessment is going to let them shine. Going on a journey like this is ultimately about trust.

Loni Berqvist, Project Based Learning Coach at Gesher School

We have a tendency to try to assess everything that we put value on. Is there a risk that we start to try to assess childrenʼs passions and the impact theyʼre having as humans, say, by creating portfolios that demonstrate the impact they are having on the world, which could kill the passion? How do we move to a place where weʼre comfortable with not having to assess things and demonstrate outcomes in the ʻnormalʼ way?

Ron Berger

I love, Loni, where you went at the end of your question, “assess it in that traditional way”, because I actually think it’s fine to assess everything. If it’s a reflective and formative assessment, if it’s an assessment to help us learn and understand, and it’s not a ranking, judging, summative assessment, then I don’t think it’s bad.

I feel like kids and adults assess everything we do, right? If we watch a TV show, we assess it afterwards, we discuss, what did you like? If you put on a new outfit, you’re going to assess, do I look good in this?

You’re always assessing and making that assessment explicit and reflective and thoughtful and safe is fine. I don’t really worry about us assessing many things. It’s the way we assess them that matters.

But assessment in the traditional sense – where we need a summative number next to this, we need a letter next to it, we need a ranking next to it – is where we kill the spirit of assessment.

So, going to a silly metaphor, if you see a movie, it doesn’t diminish the movie to say, “Wow, that was amazing, where did it work for you? Where did it move you?” But what kills that passion and fun is asking, “Okay, of all the movies you’ve seen in the last three years, where does this one rank? And do you give it an 82 or do you give it a 65.”

That kind of assessment, where it has to be summatively labelled and viewed in a reductionist way, so that it could be ranked along with a set of other movies, stops it being fun to even talk about it. But assessing it qualitatively through reflecting in a safe way is something that we can do with all kidsʼ work and all kidsʼ stuff. They are always doing it anyway. It’s just making it more explicit: ”Let’s have a conversation. How are you doing with this?” Whether it’s a life skill, whether it’s emotional growth, whether it’s physical capabilities, or whether it’s academic doesn’t matter, kids can assess “I’m doing better at this, or I’m not doing better. Why?” That’s very different from saying, “We’re going to rank you. We’re going to give you this label”. That’s scary and threatening but assessing how you’re doing doesnʼt have to be.

Gesher is underpinned by Jewish principles. What does having that foundation bring when assessing children as whole people?

Ron Berger

Well, in particular order for Gesher, there are three reasons why assessment that lifts the whole child and helps the whole child to feel like she’s growing into the kind of person and scholar that she wants to be are important.

The first of those is that it is a school particularly for differently abled students, which means they go through all of their life getting negative messages, telling them that they are not ranking as other people would. There are so many ways in which life is giving them the message that they are not good enough, whether it’s about their social skills, emotional skills, physical skills, academic skills. There’s a tremendous reason for Gesher to use an approach that gives kids power and pride in getting better at what they are rather than feeling diminished about who they are.

So having an asset-based vision of assessment at Gesher for that reason is extraordinarily important. Itʼs important in every school, but particularly important in a school that needs to lift kids who people have seen with a deficit lens, for so much of their life.

And the second reason it’s an important thing for Gesher, is that as a faith-based school, everyone who chooses to send their child to Gesher knows that there is more to life than academics. There is the human character of who you are as a human being. You choose to send your child to a faith-based school because your faith, your culture is something that matters to you, because you want your kids to embrace values that you care about. And those values mean being a good person. And so if the assessment systems diminish the kind of human beings we’re trying to create, they’re not good for us.

We need assessment systems that help our kids become more of the kind of people we want them to be. And so kids should be self-assessing and should be getting assessed for beyond their academics. It should be a holistic assessment system because kids should be proud to say, “This is the strength I have in this, and this is where I need to grow in my character.”

They should be able to say, “I’m focused on improving my courage, my passion, my respect, my responsibility, my kindness, my initiative, my integrity.” Kids should be assessing themselves and thinking about, “How do we become better human beings?”.

Itʼs scary for schools that are not faith based to say that because how do they choose which values theyʼre supporting? Will parents get upset, as they may not feel the values of the school are their values. For me, that’s a ridiculous cop-out and it’s just not real. I think almost all of us as human beings share values. What parent does not want their child to be respectful and responsible and courageous and kind and have integrity and honesty? No faith, no difference, no political party, no background makes you disinclined to want your kids to be a good person in those ways.

A third reason is that schools have no choice but to teach character. Schools are already teaching character all day long because the way kids experience school makes them more respectful or more responsible or more compassionate or less. So the experience of schooling shapes who kids are, and we’re doing it intentionally and well or haphazardly and poorly. In summary, a faith-based school has the opportunity to lean into these things and say, we’re going to do it intentionally and do it well because we want good human beings coming out of this school. And we’re not worried about talking about values because that’s partly why people choose to attend our school. So, for all those reasons, I think having an assessment system that elevates the whole person for every child is a perfect fit for Gesher.

Ron is responsible for leading EL Educationʼs vision for teaching and learning, bringing with him over 45 years of experience in education, 28 of those as a public school teacher.

Ron has authored 8 books on education: A Culture of Quality, An Ethic of Excellence, Leaders of Their Own Learning, Leaders of Their Own Learning Companion, Learning that Lasts, Transformational Literacy, Management in the Active Classroom, and We Are Crew: A Teamwork Approach to School Culture. He is a sought-after keynote speaker nationally and internationally, focusing on quality, craftsmanship, service, and character.

Ron works closely with the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he did his graduate work and taught the course Models of Excellence, focused on using student work to improve teaching and learning. He founded the Models of Excellence EL website, which houses the worldʼs largest curated collection of high quality student work.

Professional Prompt Questions

What purpose do your current forms of assessment serve for children as future citizens?

How would you assess the life-skills that children are learning under your care?

What values would you assess children for?

Who would you need to convince to move away front he current assessment paradigm? Yourself? Parents? Colleagues?

How could the above align with standard forms of assessment, such as GCSE results or OFSTED grades?

Ron Berger – Additional Content from Gesher School on Vimeo.

Turning a Seed of an Idea into Reality – Kate Goldberg

5th April 2022Duncan Robertson

Turning a Seed of an Idea Into Reality – The Role of Philanthropy

Kate Goldberg

Ever thought about what it means to turn the germ of an idea into something that creates real change in your community? We caught up with Kate Goldberg, Chief Executive at the Maurice Wohl Charitable Foundation, to talk about the role of foundations and the advice they would give to those dreaming of change, including Gesher.

Charlotte Billington

Thanks for your time today and for talking with us about the role that foundations can play in building communities and turning dreams into practice. To start could you describe a bit about the Wohl Foundation and the role you play in your community.

Kate Goldberg

Thanks so much. Itʼs a real privilege to be involved in the work of Gesher and to be part of The Bridgeʼs first edition.

The Wohl Foundation is one of the larger funders of the Jewish community in the UK. We fund work across the education, social and welfare sectors, towards ensuring the sustainability of Jewish and communal life here in the UK.

The position of foundations is a very privileged one. We are quite niche, as we focus mainly on the Jewish community. Weʼre able to take a balcony view of our community and watch the dancers on the floor, but we also all live, work and engage within the community. I often think about the Leonard Cohen quote, “Thereʼs a crack in everything, thatʼs how the light gets in. ” We see our role as both to underpin the core infrastructure, as well as to find the cracks and fund the light, in the shape of new and dynamic projects.

We all have a role to play in developing our community and ensuring that it is the best of us and the best for us.

Charlotte Billington

With that idea of ʻletting the light inʼ, what was it about Gesher School that made you want to invest in their dream?

Kate Goldberg

When the founders, Ali and Sarah, came to us we’d been funding Jewish schools for some time as well as working in the field of special needs. They brought a solution that bridged a real gap. They had clearly defined their target market – who they wanted to set the school up for – and they had a clear rationale – why it was needed and why their idea was the solution to that need.We saw strong leadership, with the passion, vision and determination to turn the dream into a reality. They had (and still have) the ability to vision, and they had the grit to roll their sleeves up and get the job done.

Charlotte

They will be the first to say that they werenʼt a polished product when they approached you. What do you think it was that has helped them turn the seed of their idea into practice?

Kate

Before we met today, I looked back at my notes and actually they came to us with much more than just the seed of their idea. They had already developed a clear sense of what needed to happen to achieve their ambition and they had already spoken with one other key funder who was showing interest. They had a good group of experienced professionals around them, and an advisory and trustee board already set up. Finally, they were also in the process of bringing in more expertise to fill gaps in knowledge.

Having said that, they were not the polished article and we, my colleague Howard Stanton in particular, spent an enormous amount of time helping them refine their ideas, develop a business plan around that, and how to engage with funders, to ensure they could fulfil their dreams.

Charlotte

Would you give them any advice for how to continue meeting their vision?

Kate

I think itʼs really important that their voice is amplified.

They should focus on shouting more about what it looks like to create a school where children with mild or moderate special educational needs are aspiring and thriving. Iʼm not sure how much Gesher is recognised in the wider Jewish or the SEN community yet.

Charlotte

And how do you start to bring a community into your vision and the journey travelled?

Kate

So there’s something about timing, consciousness, and a shift that makes you pay attention. I think that Ali and Sarah captured the timing piece really well, but they need to dig deeper into the consciousness of the community. Itʼs probably a communications effort, which is why I was also glad to take part in this interview and to hear about The Bridge.

They’re very, very good at writing to donors. This should be translated into creating good news stories for others in the Jewish Press and wider.

Charlotte

This has been such an insightful interview, thank you so much Kate. One final question I would like to end on. What advice would you give to others who want to take their seed of an idea and turn it into change?

Kate

I would ask a few questions of yourself:

Do you have an achievable vision, that is a crack of light?

Do you have what it takes to deliver?

Do you have the right governance and people with the right expertise in place to help you?

Are they pushing you and most importantly challenging your thinking?

Do you have a plan for sustainability?

If the true answer is yes, then go for it!

Kate Goldberg is the Chief Executive of the Maurice Wohl Charitable Foundation.

Reflection from Gesher’s co-founder Sarah Sultman

5th April 2022Duncan Robertson

A reflection from Gesher’s Co-Founder, Sarah Sultman, on the experience of mobilising the creation of Gesher School

Before we could go to any donors in the community we spent over a year researching the need in the community.

We began by hosting what were essentially ʼtrunk style eveningsʼ in local synagogues and around kitchen tables, where we invited people through Facebook and word of mouth, to come and hear about our plans and to gather people who wanted to get on board. It wasnʼt us dictating to the community our vision but more like sharing our ideas and asking them – what did they want in a school, did they have skills they could help us with.

We knew that ideas alone werenʼt enough to create a school. We needed an entire community of volunteers to freely give up their time and expertise to get the project up and running and we were fortunate to have met so many remarkable people who so enthusiastically wanted to get on board.

The first people that came on board were a retired lawyer and an accountant – we needed to register as a charity and to have some sort of an idea about the finances involved in setting up a school.

This very basic, crude, mind map is from 2014 but this was our starting position! This led us to meet all the people that came on board. It gives you just a small idea of all the different areas we have to find expertise in. We created a network with people introducing us to other people as well as cold calling.

I think our passion, determination and tenacity went a long way but really, once we were armed with the data and the numbers, it was obvious that this school was desperately needed. Most people didnʼt take that much convincing.

We have heard of many others wanting to set up a school and many of them give up before theyʼve really even started. It takes commitment, time and dedication. We thought we could do it in a year but it took us from 2013 – 2017 when our first pupils arrived at the school. There is no official ʻhow to set up a SEN school from scratchʼ manual. If there was, it might have saved us a year or two but equally we wouldnʼt have acquired the knowledge that we did by educating ourselves every step of the way.

Demystifying project based learning – Loni Berqvist

5th April 2022Duncan Robertson

Demystifying Project Based Learning

Loni Bergqvist

Loni is Founder & Partner at Imagine If, and is a PBL coach to Gesher School

There is a range of reasons why a school decides to break the mould of traditional education and embark on a journey of using Project-Based Learning (or PBL) as their primary approach to teaching and learning. Many schools are becoming increasingly aware of the skills and knowledge their students will need to thrive in their lives due to advancements in technology and society.

These skills include collaboration, critical thinking and communication among others. Other schools become interested in PBL because of a philosophical resolution that every single student, regardless of background or perceived academic ability, should be able to flourish in school. In this pursuit, schools are required to break the traditional model of “one-size-fits-all” approach to learning where everyone is doing the same thing at the same time in the same way.

Instead, PBL offers the possibility for students to investigate real-world problems and challenges that are relevant to their lives. They collaborate in teams and develop their own solutions. Students are engaging with learning that matters to them and producing work that matters to someone else.

But itʼs not rocket science.

I often get asked, So, what exactly is PBL?

And the honest answer is: you already know.

Projects make up the world we live in every day.

When a daughter learns to play a love-song at her parentʼs wedding anniversary party. When film-makers make a documentary for a TV programme. When a lawyer takes on a new case. When we cook a meal for our family. Our lives are made up of little and large projects. When we are driven by a real need to create or do something new… we engage in Project-Based Learning.

But most schools are not set up to embrace learning in this way. To make this transition, teaching and learning must be organized around a set of Project Design Elements that help establish the basis for authentic work and natural learning processes while also, importantly, integrating academic learning goals.

Project Design Elements

Big Questions

Every project is composed around a Big Question that is designed to set the stage for the inquiry and exploration during the project. Big Questions are complex, found in the real-world and require students to develop their own answers over time. Examples of Big Questions include: How can we get our families to be more healthy? and “What is the perfect school?”

Student-Created Products

During each project, students create products. It is these products that drive the learning and inquiry process throughout PBL. Products can be physical (like a sculpture, poster or furniture) or virtual (like a website or social media campaign) and everything in between. In the process of making, we learn by doing and engage the head, hand and heart.

Drafting and Critique Process

Driven by creation, students go through a process of drafting and critique. They start by examining models of exemplar work and ask and answer the question, what makes a good (product)? They may need to brainstorm, draft a plan or do additional research as they start to make their products with their peers. With each new draft, feedback is given to improve the work. Sometimes this feedback is teacher to student, but it is often peer to peer or an expert guest from outside school who is relevant to the project. Through this process, students nurture a ʻgrowth-mindsetʼ, go deeper into their own understanding and application of academic knowledge and create a community of learners where it is the responsibility of all to produce beautiful work, and to support each other to do that.

Exhibition

Every project includes an Exhibition of learning where students present their work (product and process) to a public audience. This authentic audience is carefully chosen and is best when it includes members who require the knowledge and products created in the project by students. This might include a school-wide Exhibition night where the local community is invited, or a presentation at the local aquarium to inform the public about ocean conservation.

The Philosophy of PBL

While projects are planned around these Design Elements, there are foundational beliefs and philosophies that underpin PBL and are just as significant as the project. When these vital mindsets are in combination with great project design, PBL is transformative and truly authentic to learners.

Adults must believe that all young people are capable of amazing things. When the adults working around children hold limiting beliefs about what individuals are capable of achieving, when we use language like more able or less able, it becomes impossible to design learning experiences that allow all students to flourish.

Teachers must believe that learning is more than memorization. In our current education culture, most of us have been conditioned to believe that learning is about memorizing knowledge and we are ultimately successful in learning when we can transfer this knowledge onto a test or exam. School learning and the learning that is mostly required of us outside school are two different things. Natural learning (when toddlers learn to walk, for example) engages in a process similar to PBL. Itʼs messy. It requires failure. And itʼs not always easy to assess or find progress. But toddlers walk, and they exhibit it! When we shift our perceptions of what learning is, we can find much more of it and begin to value something else.

Finally, there must be a profound boldness to commit the primary purpose of school to be empowering young people to know who they are, what they are naturally positioned to love and to have the confidence to contribute to the world they are already a part of. It is the boldness to commit to every young person leaving school with their self esteem as a learner enhanced – to every child walking.

Loni Bergqvist is the Founder and Partner at Imagine If, a Denmark-based organization committed to support schools with using Project-Based Learning as a catalyst for educational change. Loni was previously a teacher at High Tech High in San Diego, California and has worked with schools to support the use of PBL since 2013.

Professional Prompt Questions

How is your current curriculum preparing learners for the real world skills they need?

What do young people really need to learn in order to thrive?

How can you build a curriculum in which every child can thrive and explore and build their innate skills?

How can you develop projects that allow your children to create authentic work?

What does a really good, whole-person, learning process look like?

Spaces That Matter – Terry White and Bhavini Pandya

3rd April 2022Ali Durban

Developing the spaces and places where children learn and thrive

Terry White and Bhavini Pandya

“Learning is not the product of teaching. Learning is the product of the activity of learners.” – John Holt, American author and educator.

The concept that childrenʼs learning does not follow as an automatic consequence of what they are taught is well established. Loris Malaguzzi, in developing the Reggio Emilia approach, believed that children are capable individuals with the ability and desire to develop their own knowledge. He recognised, as part of his work, the value of space and, in his own words, wanted to ensure “a handsome environment with its potential to inspire social, effective and cognitive learning”. His thinking was influential in developing the concept of space being described as the “third teacher”.

Such an approach focuses on meeting the needs of the whole child and involves moving from a culture of teaching to a culture of learning, and where learning experiences move towards the design of a meaningful, empowered and creative world for children, enabled by the teacher.

The spaces and places where children learn therefore matter and they are inspired by aspirational pedagogy. It follows that the design of all environments for learning should be both learning and learner-led and set within the distinctive culture, ethos and values of the school and its learning community. Our experience working with many schools has been that you canʼt successfully design education spaces unless you fully understand the learning and teaching practices that they need to support.

Planning Learning Spaces in Practice, and Autens, have worked together in collaboration with Gesher School to help make a reality of the schoolʼs vision for learning through the design of learning environments for the school and community. Gesher is developing an approach that is focused on a learner-centred curriculum and is designed to develop the whole person, balancing “head, heart and hand”.

The scope at Gesher embraces conventional areas such as ʻclassroomsʼ (flexible furniture design and arrangement, decor, resources and equipment, images, fluid links between rooms), display areas, corridor environments, dining and social areas.

It also involves the co-design of an ambitious integrated Maker Space; creation of large exhibition areas; and creative incorporation of external environmental features into the everyday learning ecosystem of the school.

Lene Jensby Lange at Autens recognises that “learning environments are an expression of a learning culture and need to be designed to strengthen that culture”.

As a team we are excited and honoured to be part of the learning journey of Gesher School seeking collectively to reimagine opportunities for learning. We are confident that by creating an active engagement process around current and future practice with teachers, learners and community, a transition to new and innovatory learning environments can occur. We believe that teachers and learners must be fully engaged and empowered to fully contribute to the design process.
As a design team, we have engaged with learners and school staff to develop thinking about what will excite, motivate and interest learners and teachers in the design and furnishing of the learning spaces. It has been inspiring to see the level of detail and innovative thinking that learners and staff have brought to the design of spaces, both inside and outside the building.

Learners and staff together are becoming the creators and designers of the spaces and places in which aspirational learning will occur.

“The task of good school design is to create the best physical environment – the best habitat — for that to happen. For that reason, reimagining schools is one of the most creative challenges in contemporary education.” Sir Ken Robinson. Planning Learning Spaces. (Hudson and White) Laurence King Publishing.

Bhavini Pandya and Terry White are co-directors of the Planning Learning Spaces in Practice Projects. Sir Ken Robinson was a British author, speaker and international advisor on education in the arts to government, non-profits, education and arts bodies.

Professional Prompt Questions

Is the vision of the school reflected in the day-to-day learning experience for all?

Whose needs does the learning space serve?

What value do you place on learners taking responsibility for their own learning?

How dynamic and adaptable are your learning spaces?

Are your learning spaces encouraging enquiry, collaboration, creativity and physical movement?

Are you placing equal value on inside and outside learning spaces?