CEO Thought for the Week

Hi Everyone!

I hope you’ve had a good week.

Last week I wrote to you and discussed the topic of “Ceiling Inducing Language” and how our words can limit our aspirations and achievements. I want to add a bit more to that theme this week with a few comments on “labels”. In Education, we love acronyms! If we can attach a three-letter acronym to something, we will… even I’ve got one “C.E.O”.  Whilst some of these acronyms and labels can be helpful and enable us to have a shorthand amongst ourselves it’s really important to ensure that the labels themselves don’t come with limiting expectations and unwitting connotations.

For example, PP kids! When we talk about PP kids, we’re referring to children who are in receipt of the Pupil Premium. As schools we are expected to know who these children are, provide them with additional support and to track their progress. However, we must be careful that the label of “PP kids” doesn’t become a negative one. That it doesn’t come with an assumption of low academic performance, or challenging family lives or even that all kids with the label are the same and are effectively a fixed group. In fact, I don’t really like referring to these children as “PP kids” at all because really what they are is under-served. Under-served by their circumstance which means they come to school needing some additionality to put them on a level playing field with their peers. So, you can see labels can be dangerous and can quickly put us into a fixed mindset about what children with that label can achieve. If I’d been at school now, I would have probably had the PP label attached to me! And I think I’ve done ok!

The same can be said of the SEND label. Do we allow this label to make us automatically think- low performance, high challenge, no hope? Does the EAL label lead us to discounting some of our children as struggling and not able to access the curriculum or needing “easier” work? It’s our responsibility to know our children. Yes, recognise their circumstances (PP, EAL, SEND etc) but more important than that we need to know them as individuals. What are their strengths, what do they enjoy, where do they need support, what works best for them- making adjustments based on them as an individual rather than an automatic offer generated by their label. E.g. all PP get this, or all SEND kids get that!

These are our children, and it is our job to help find a way to enable them to succeed regardless of the labels they come with or if they are under-served in their homelife. We have an ambition in our Trust that every child is prepared by us to flourish in their lives. That means giving them to the confidence and belief that they can shake off the labels and the acronyms and thrive now and into the future. Let’s help each other to not be trapped in the label stereotypes and instead champion every child to be the very best that they can be.

Have a great end to the week!

Best Wishes

Gavin