Cooperatives and Cooperation in Scottish Education

1. Cooperatives and Cooperation in Scottish Education

2. The Themes • Dealing with change • Dealing with complexity • Thinking about learning • Thinking about governance

3. Why so challenging? • Globalisation changes everything for us – we need to be competitive • The massive challenges that we face require innovative responses • Unpredictability demands creativity • Concerns about inequality, well being and the complex nature of poverty • We need to do better

4. Eric Hoffer • In times of change, the learners shall inherit the earth while the learned will remain beautifully equipped for a world that no longer exists

5. David Cameron • And the learners who can identify opportunity and manage risk, who can innovate and create, will shape that inheritance and define the future

6. Adding value is not enough for some of our young people, we need to challenge their destinies. We are not editing life stories, we are creating new narratives

7. Mental Health Drug Exposure Exposure Family Life Behavioural Issues PeerPressure Legal Problems Meet Jamie

8. The Present

9. Getting it Right for Every Child

12. Our greatest debts are not those accrued in the past; they are to the future and to the provision of the best possible inheritance.

13. Improvement will not be enough Effective Ineffective Traditional Forward Looking

14. “It is those who are successful, in other words, who are most likely to be given the kinds of special opportunities that lead to further success. It’s the rich who get the biggest tax breaks. It’s the best students who get the best teaching and most attention. And it’s the biggest nine- and ten-year-olds who get the most coaching and practice. Success is the result of what sociologists like to call “accumulative advantage.” ― Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success

15. “The lesson here is very simple. But it is striking how often it is overlooked. We are so caught in the myths of the best and the brightest and the self-made that we think outliers spring naturally from the earth. We look at the young Bill Gates and marvel that our world allowed that thirteen-year-old to become a fabulously successful entrepreneur. But that's the wrong lesson. Our world only allowed one thirteen-year-old unlimited access to a time sharing terminal in 1968. If a million teenagers had been given the same opportunity, how many more Microsofts would we have today? To build a better world we need to replace the patchwork of lucky breaks and arbitrary advantages that today determine success - the fortunate birth dates and the happy accidents of history - with a society that provides opportunites for all. ” ― Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success

16. “To build a better world we need to replace the patchwork of lucky breaks and arbitrary advantages today that determine success--the fortunate birth dates and the happy accidents of history--with a society that provides opportunities for all.” ― Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success

17. What do learners need? • The capacity to think, learn and adapt • The ability to innovate and create • The skills to access knowledge including the skill of questioning • The ability to choose, and use, the tools for learning, life and work • The commitment to sustained enquiry or task • The specific skills required by disciplines or vocational choices

18. What sort of learning? • It has to be active • It has to involve the quest for meaning • It has to be varied • It needs motivation • It should respect disciplines but not be dominated by them • It must be assessed in terms of breadth, depth and application

19. What we teach must work for all the children and tap all their potential talents, not just some of them. The curriculum that we offer must be broad, balanced and progressive. It must reach out and touch all children in a way that makes sense to each individual child. It must motivate each child, involve each child, inspire and enlighten each child. It must be a curriculum that recognises that there are many kinds of knowing, feeling and expressing truth.

20. Assessment • You can’t assess teamwork without looking at the team • We have the technology • We have limited precision in any case • Experiences and Outcomes • We have the experience

21. Effective Qualities • Sharing the management of learning with pupils • Promoting the belief that attainment can improve • Using a wide range of sources of information • Identifying a range of needs • Responding to needs • Giving and receiving feedback • Using a range of sources of support

22. The Co-operative College has recently overseen the development of a new co-operative organisation which is being registered as a society for the Benefit of the Community – generally known as a Bencom. • The Schools Co-operative Society, which will create a national network of co-operative schools, will be managed by trust schools together with the Co-operative Business and Enterprise Colleges and co-operative academies. • The Co-operative College will actively support the network but from its inception it will operate as a co-operative.

23. More than 100 primary, secondary schools and colleges in England are set to pool resources, expertise and buying power in the first organisation of its kind in the UK – the Schools Co-operative Society (SCS).
 
The announcement today (31 January) comes at a time when the Government is encouraging greater independence in education as part of major reforms and is designed to help schools help themselves in accordance with Co-operative values and principles.
 
Already registered as a Co-operative, the organisation’s governing body is now working on a strategy that will include:Sharing best practice in terms of teaching and management.Advancing the Co-operative cause in the field of educationUsing combined buying power – estimated at £100 million plus - to purchase a range of goods and services including energy, administrative services

24. According to the Local Government Association (LGA), the decisions by town hall chiefs to set up cooperatives are part of a growing trend across the country as councils attempt to fill the increasing void between schools and central government."Creating a cooperative is one of a number of ways to provide central services that would otherwise be under huge pressure because of government savings," said councillor David Simmonds

25. Final Thoughts • Collaboration educates and enriches • Cooperation develops learning skills and understanding • Individualism and competitiveness create casualties even if there is subsequent trickle down • We wouldn’t have cliches, if they weren’t true – no smoke without fire