Cooperatives and Cooperation in Scottish Education

The Themes

Dealing with change

Dealing with complexity

Thinking about learning

Thinking about governance

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

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

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

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

Meet Jamie

Mental Health

Family Life

Peer Pressure

Drug Exposure Exposure

Behavioural Issues

Legal Problems

The Present

Getting it Right for Every Child

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

Improvement will not be enough

Effective

Ineffective

Traditional

Forward Looking

“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

“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

“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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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