RSA Education has begun a new partnership with Service Children’s Education, the agency responsible for the children of Ministry of Defence personnel, service and civilian, who are based overseas. SCE currently provides education for over 10,000 pupils in 38 schools in nine countries.
To begin the partnership, I spent two fascinating, inspiring days at JHQ, a garrison in Rheindahlen near Dusseldorf that serves as the central headquarters of the British Forces in Germany. JHQ will close next year, and the start of this process has been wonderfully documented by pupil Callum Kelly through his Gold Arts Award.
We are working with SCE to help them think through their education offer during a time of considerable change for the organisation, and plan some projects that connecting their schools to our work on Opening Minds and the Area-Based Curriculum. This builds on some fantastic work SCE schools did through Creative Partnerships, including this animation that connected primary pupils at St Patrick’s School to their grandparents back in the UK.
Overall, I was struck by both the deep similarities and the subtle but significant differences between SCE schools and schools back here in England. Staff attrition is lower but pupil turnover much higher; teachers are ‘deployed’ as civil servants; headteachers do not have control of their own budgets, but, with the power of Commanding Officers, can issue parking tickets, and are informed immediately if their teachers ever have contact with the Military or host nation’s police!
It is clear that SCE schools are delivering a high quality education for their pupils. Their schools, leaders and teachers have expertise, especially around mobility and bereavement issues, as well as around closing schools properly, that the rest of our system needs to learn from. The Year Six and Eight pupils I spoke to handle their own regular ‘redeployments’ with resilience (as well as with Skype and Facebook). The two schools I visited were a highly creative and clearly deserve their Artsmark Gold awards. Windsor school has taken on the challenge of disconnection and isolation to make sure that, despite being on a garrison, their students experience as many external learning opportunities as possible. Teacher Chris Scholl’s Comenius project has connected pupils to other countries, and to help them explore aspects of their own identities.
The passion that the two remaining JHQ schools showed for ensuring a fantastic final year for their staff and students is extraordinary. The schools wish both to carry on as usual, and mark the end of the schools and JHQ through celebration as a ‘teachable moment’. We are exploring options for a Heritage Lottery Fund project, led by schools, but exploring the history of the whole garrison.
In many ways, SCE operates like an old fashioned local authority, in the best sense of the word. The inspectors and advisers have the up to date knowledge, resources and authority to make a real difference to school improvement. Schools appear to have the autonomy they need to do the job well, without some of the burdens that control over budgets, staffing and governance bring. With a reduction in schools and personnel this may change in the years ahead, and SCE is already thinking deeply and carefully about new structures and partnerships. However, there is something precious and special about the existing infrastructures and relationships, and even some of the quirkier rules and regulations, linked to their ties to the Ministry of Defence. We hope that, in the year ahead, RSA can help SCE and its schools to design their own future, rather than have an outsourced solution thrust upon them.
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Thank you Joe, once again!
As a teacher in SCE, I most certainly agree that SCE is a unique model with varied and rich opportunities. Of course, with the 'elephant in the room' that closure and drawdown could potenially be, there are two options; to let that fact cast a cloud over the remaining time, or to carry on to the very last, working hand in hand to provide the most rich and full learning opportunities for our pupils. I am proud to say I've not met a teacher in SCE yet who hasn't wanted to make the most of the time we have, or to continue to improve the provision we offer our pupils.
Sometimes, its just the way to best offer that, that can be the challenge.
Whether it be 1 year, 3 years, or a school that will be there to the very end, schools are still looking at what we can do, with the resources available. A you mentioned, Creative Partnerships is running with an SCE model. My own school, Weser School, serves the children of 28 Engineer Regiment here in Hameln and is a primary school taking part. My school is very fortunate to have a head commited to the arts and who has been fully behind every new opportunity that I and other staff members have wanted to offer to children. We are a school that has recently been accredited with Gold Artsmark, and have been involved with the TRUCE Project, as well as Arts Award Bronze, and having completed the first phase of our Creative Partnerships are now in the evaluation phase for this- Looking at our next steps to improve the arts provision we offer and the ownership of learning our children take.
With regards to an Area Based Curriculum, I suppose we as an individual school are showing aspects of this; we have chosen to follow the IPC (International Primary Curriculum)which is a thematic way of learning through themes- whether from chocolate, to the Olympics, to clothes. Our children stll meet the National Curruclulum requirements, but we were able to select our themes based on our locality, resources, interest- Although where we have differered is perhaps in terms of co-designing it.. Though I feel we are certainly moving forward, this is certainly an area to look at in the future.
With that, we are very lucky to be working with experienced advisors and consultants such as Joy Harris, and for SCE to have begun the partnership with RSA Education. I am most definitely looking forward to continue my own learning journey, and to continue to improve what I can offer to the children I teach, and the Arts support and CPD that staff can be given.
For myself? I am passionate about the arts, and I have relished working in SCE and the opportunities I have been given and taken with both hands; from sketchbook skills, to the Artsmark Gold journey, from working with a Creative Partnerships professional artist in developing my own knowledge, to Shakespeare at the Globe..
I can't wait to see what the future holds, for myself and the children that I love to teach.
Tori Boyes, Visual Arts Co-ordinator, Weser School
A very perceptive write-up about SCE by Joe. Like all organisations, SCE has odd idiosyncratic quirks that are often difficult to comprehend! However, it has to be said that the schools provide a fabulous opportunity for students to learn in an environment that is both supportive and challenging. I, especially, miss the support for the Arts that SCE is committed to providing which is not replicated by Local Authorities in the UK and our children's creativity, and opportunities to be creative, are diminished as a result. I hope the partnership between the RSA and SCE continues to drive the work of the Arts Practitioners in fostering times for students to express themselves through a variety of artistic forms, so essential at times of stress, and to celebrate their fabulous achievements.
Joy, email me at steve (AT) prasino.eu
Yes....................thinking about it but yes for sure
Thanks for all these comments. They made my Jubilee Weekend (well, them plus and BBC Radio 6 Music's celebration of all things punk). I was wary of introducing the term 'military covenant' in the title, but this has touched a positive nerve with other RSA staff and Fellows. Is there something we can do together here that goes even beyond the SCE brief?