For increasing numbers of young people, going through secondary school involves long spells in isolation, after-school detentions, and being treated as if you will not amount to anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was certainly my experience at the first secondary school I attended. I was not going to achieve eights and nines and I didn\u2019t want to follow their preferred pathway, so I quickly found myself on track to being excluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being told I would never achieve anything left me broken and feeling lost in life. So in Year 9, I got myself out of that school and moved to UTC South Durham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There, I thrived. I started saying yes to every opportunity and totted up 13 work experience placements, through which I developed a passion for construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On my 16th birthday, I travelled to Manchester to interview for a management trainee programme I was nominally too young for. A couple of months later, I was accepted as one of eight trainees \u2013 once they\u2019d extended the programme to fit me in!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was a mark of how confident I had become through the UTC, which I put down to the UTC\u2019s behavioural system (which made me responsible for my decisions) and curriculum (which allowed me to explore a true breadth of options).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are countless others like me in our school system right now. The children\u2019s commissioner\u2019s Big Ambition<\/em> report<\/a> (which I worked on) found secondary-aged children were the least likely to agree that they enjoy school. There is a direct relationship between this and growing concerns about behaviour<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A punitive approach of detentions and isolations followed by suspensions and exclusions will do nothing to engage them. But being given more responsibility for their behaviour, in tandem with a curriculum that allows them to explore different pathways, could be life-changing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n UTC Derby Pride Park, which has been commended by Ofsted<\/a> for its students\u2019 \u201cimpeccable behaviour\u201d, has developed a behaviour system with its employer partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In industry, where the relationship with an employee has broken down, they do not get a detention. Instead, they and their manager have a restorative conversation and set some targets which are regularly monitored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My time at the UTC has taken me from the isolation block to parliament<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n UTC Derby has a policy that balances necessary consequences for bad behaviour with restorative practices. This helps students understand what they have done wrong and how to improve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When a UTC Derby student is sent out the classroom, they are not put back into circulation until they have reflected properly. That includes going back to their teacher for a conversation on moving forward, like a quick business meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since this approach was introduced, instances of students being removed from class at UTC Derby Pride Park have decreased by two-thirds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the behaviour policy alone wouldn\u2019t achieve these results. Going back into classrooms to receive the same curriculum is unlikely to re-engage apathetic or disruptive students. For me and many others, the simulated workplace environment of the UTC, learning skills through hands-on experience and engaging with employers was transformative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So UTCs are enthused by Labour\u2019s curriculum and assessment review, but we should be careful that this doesn\u2019t lead to schools offering a bland, limited technical and creative offering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead, it should connect two of the new government\u2019s key pledges: to support children to study a creative or vocational subject up to 16, and to guarantee two weeks\u2019 work experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If this can be delivered in partnership with employers and allows students to take part in multiple placements in a variety of fields, it could be effect real change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Catherine, South Durham\u2019s deputy principal, will confirm that, for all my progress, I still was not the easiest of students to teach. But my time at the UTC has taken me from the isolation block to parliament, where I have discussed my experience with a cross-party group of MPs and peers<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I now work with the Careers and Enterprise Company and the Children\u2019s Commissioner on careers education policies, driven to ensure that no young person will feel like I did until year 9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a feeling I\u2019m sure no teacher wants their pupils to feel, and restorative practices can help to reveal these feelings and even improve behaviour. In isolation from curriculum reform however, it\u2019s unlikely to deliver the deep transformation young people are clearly crying out for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And likewise, a curriculum review that doesn\u2019t take young people\u2019s views into consideration won\u2019t get to the heart of what\u2019s driving behaviour, attendance and mental health ever downwards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Curriculum and behaviour can\u2019t be tackled in isolation. Fixing both requires a radical look at young people\u2019s experiences<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":311124,"featured_media":96153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"post-theme":[3550],"class_list":["post-210602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","post-theme-opinion-curriculum-review"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n