Imagine you’re Gavin Williamson, how would you “Do Good Better?”

Suppose you’re Gavin Williamson right now. 

Get into character, you are Secretary of State for Education (at time of writing), MP for South Staffordshire (at time of writing), you (allegedly) once owned a tarantula that you kept on your desk and are (allegedly) a big fan of the original UK House of Cards series. We’re going to concentrate on the first of these facts. What do you do with the power you wield? There are any number of things you have responsibility for, including:

• early years.
• children’s social care.
• teachers’ pay.
• the school curriculum.
• school improvement.
• academies and free schools.
• further education.
• apprenticeships and skills.
• higher education.

So, where to start? Holding the position of Secretary of State for Education (or equivalent roles, as the name and exact responsibilities have varied over the years) can be seen as a place to make your name in politics. It has been held by a number of heavy weights (politically), including Ken Clarke, David Blunkett, Shirley Williams and who could forget Margaret Hilda Thatcher? If you want to delve into more detail on previous politicians who have held the post, I would recommend the excellent website: https://greatedusecs.com/ curated by Laura Mcinerney. 

I was only a secondary maths teacher for a few years and yet, thanks to Michael Gove, managed to experience a fair amount of change in the curriculum. This year we have had a new Ofsted Inspection Framework launched and party conferences are full of promises on how to improve education, including a policy from Labour which would abolish Ofsted. 

As part of my role involves creating the resources and training for Action Tutoring I know from first hand experience the temptation to continually make changes and tweak things. I have hundreds of ideas of my own and then when you open it up to our team and tutors we could probably collate over a thousand suggestions of things to change. With so many things to change, we’d better get started! 

But wait. 

Hold on a minute…

Are these changes always good?

Are these changes all effective?

Do these changes make a difference in what we’re really trying to achieve or do they just keep us busy and look good on the surface?

If you haven’t heard of Effective Altruism or the book Doing Good Better, I want you to go away and look at least one of them up right now. Go on, I’ll wait…

Back? Good, I told you I would wait, didn’t I?

I first read Doing Good Better in June 2018 in Uganda. I then re-read it when visiting Ghana in November that year (I promise these holidays are the exception not the rule, I’m usually found in Bristol or London working very hard). Ironically, I gave my copy away when I was in Ghana last year and had to buy another. I would really recommend you reading it too… here… have my copy. 

Here is a brief introduction to the book from https://www.effectivealtruism.org/doing-good-better/

Do you care about making the world a better place? Perhaps you buy ethical products, donate to charity or volunteer your time in the name of doing good. But how often do you know what impact you really have?

William MacAskill, Research Fellow at Cambridge University, has spent the last five years developing the philosophy of effective altruism, which applies data and scientific reasoning to the normally sentimental world of doing good. In the course of his research he’s come to the remarkable conclusion that most ways of making a difference achieve little, but that, by targeting our efforts on the most effective causes, we each have an enormous power to make the world a better place.

Such was the impact that reading the book has had on me, I managed to persuade the team at Action Tutoring to make it our theme and focus for the year.

Part of the reason for this is that over the last year, I’ve become more involved in working on our impact planning. This has been a mix of carrying out a piece of work on quality assurance, working with The Centre for Education and Youth (formly LKMco) and attending Impact Forums with other charities, run by our funder Impetus. 

One of the outcomes of this is working with our Data and Evaluation Manager to come up with an Impact Improvement Strategy for Action Tutoring. I already know this piece of work isn’t perfect, but it’s a step towards being more effective and having the biggest impact with the resources we have. 

Hold on, Gav! Gav! Pssst, that’s you… you’re Gavin Williamson, remember? 

What are you going to do to have the biggest impact on education in this country? 

If you’re still not sure, one suggestion that piqued my interest this week was from Becky Allen https://rebeccaallen.co.uk/2019/09/29/the-ungameable-game/ 

It ties into some of the ideas that Doing Good Better raises. Whatever activities we’re doing, we will almost certainly change how we carry them out by how those activities are judged. To ensure we’re having the biggest impact we can, maybe we shouldn’t focus only on the activities we’re doing, but what and how we’re really trying to measure at the end of the process. 

Or if we’re more interested in our personal ‘success’ we could all get tarantulas for our desks and rewatch House of Cards to pick up tips from Francis Urquhart on how to make our way to the top. 

World Mental Health Day- The importance of staff wellbeing

World Mental Health Day is a day for global mental health education, awareness and advocacy against social stigma. This year it will be held on 10th October 2019 and we will definitely be marking it as an organisation to boost the conversation on mental health. At Action Tutoring we have been doing a lot of work over the past year to increase focus on staff wellbeing and positive mental health. So many of us have been affected by mental health – according to the World Health Organisation, one in four people in the world will be affected by mental or neurological disorders at some point in their lives. This is not something any organisation can or should ignore.

To me, it makes so much sense to prioritise the wellbeing of our staff. Healthy staff will perform better in their roles, have positive relationships at work, take fewer sick days, stay in the organisation longer and be much more engaged and motivated. But most of all, I want Action Tutoring to be a good, considerate employer that looks after our staff well. According to this book we spend around 80,000 hours at work, and this time can have a huge effect on our wellbeing. If our workplaces don’t prioritise our mental wellbeing, that can have big consequences.

According to Mental Health First Aid (MHFA):

• Stress, anxiety and depression are the biggest cause of sickness absence in our society.
• Mental ill health is responsible for 91 million working days lost every year.
• Mental ill health costs UK employers £34.9 billion each year

Over the past year, there are a few ways we have tried to improve our staff wellbeing. These include:

1. We have had an Employee Assistance programme in place for a few years however usage has historically been low. We have promoted this much more this year and have seen usage increase. One way that has particularly helped is through people openly talking about their experiences using the service and breaking down any taboos of accessing counselling or other support.
2. We have trained two Mental Health First Aiders who, as well as being a safe person for employees to speak to if they are struggling, are also taking a lead on improving our communications and openness around mental health.
3. We have introduced ‘Headspace for Work’, offering a subscription to the meditation app to staff, to help support their wellbeing. Research has shown 30 days of Headspace use lowers stress by 32%, and just 4 sessions reduces burnout by 14%.
4. We have included staff wellbeing sessions at team away days, on weekly email bulletins, team meetings and as part of our induction process. We use these to promote what services are on offer, share tips for positive wellbeing and personal experiences.
5. We have introduced a Staff Wellbeing Guide which includes a summary of all services on offer through Action Tutoring, some tips and advice for supporting our own wellbeing as well as those around us and links to local external services for all of our staff around the country

If you are interested in changing your workplace wellbeing culture, there are many places to go for free resources and advice. Mind, MHFA, Time to Change are just a few. I am so pleased with the impact this has had on our team and the feedback we have received, there are so many benefits and you will have a happier, healthier workforce as a result.

Collective Sustainability – Quality education

This article is part of a series to explore how everyday citizens can support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) locally through the power of collective action.

Education for my sister and all!

This article will be a bit more personal than all the others for one simple reason: if I needed to pick only one SDG to support for the rest of my life, education would be it. As they say, if you want to find your passion, you do not need to look for it, it is already there in one form or another. Probably my younger sister could tell you even more about this, accompanied with some rolling eyes, as she was the guinea pig of my early teaching attempts. It was obvious which books I was trying to use to teach her, their first few pages were full of writing and crinkles, the rest pristine, as eventually she always went on strike. I had to convince her again and again, “just one more class, it will be fun, I promise!”

Jumping forward in time eventually teaching did come back into my life, not as a full time career but, through an initiative I started with my friends to teach presentation skills to children. I absolutely loved teaching, it was the highlight of my week. As soon as I left the classroom I started thinking of new ideas to make sure the children understood the concepts and enjoyed the class at the same time. I currently work for an online education company, with which I can indirectly contribute to the lifelong learning of thousands of people around the world!

Getting back to the roots

When I moved to London I left our initiative behind. Despite my job in education, I did miss hands-on teaching. My favourite subject at school was maths. I truly enjoyed those extra exercises and brainteasers, so it was quite an obvious idea to give the love of maths to others (‘cringe-factor’ 10 out of 10!). After a quick Google search I stumbled upon Action Tutoring, which is one of the largest education charities offering volunteer tutoring opportunities in the UK. They specialise in helping pupils who are from disadvantaged backgrounds and struggle with English and maths, but could not afford to pay for extra support.

After my induction training I found myself standing sleepily at 8am at the gates of a primary school at King’s Cross, with ten other volunteers. Initially, I thought that the hard bit would be to make up the exercises and cover the whole curriculum. This is not the case though, as Action Tutoring provides a top-notch exercise book, with some really engaging exercises and games. The more challenging bit is motivating your pupils. I mean for one thing I am not a morning person, but imagine the enthusiasm the pupils have at 8am for two subjects they are struggling in. However, the mood always lifted by 9.30am and the pupils leaving with a smile on their faces.

Maths – not an all-time favourite?

Especially not fractions. I broke out in sweats several times, trying to find a way to explain the topic so that it finally clicked. First, you try to describe it as you remember it from when you were 11. You draw a big apple pie and ask them to colour the slices in, “You see, 1/4 is the same size as 2/8. Easy!” Blank looks. Right, so they don’t like apple pies, that must be the issue, let’s try with pizza. Same look, this time with eyes wandering to the window. Oh no, oh no, I am losing him! Do something! Am I explaining it wrong? No this can’t be, I tried the apple pie AND the pizza! Clearly, he is a lost cause, maybe we should just practise converting grams to kilograms. No, come on, one last time.

And then you hear an “Aaaaaaaahhh”, which usually comes with a smile. A word that is so genuine that no one can fake it and it means that you can finally relax and breathe. Your job done for the day. With one of my pupils I had to wait for this moment for several weeks, and in those sessions she was yawning more than the number of exercises we solved. And then one day, she turned to me and said: “You know what? I don’t hate maths anymore, I actually like it now!”

Education in numbers

Just as we have seen with health and wellbeing, social disadvantage plays an important role when it comes to education outcomes as well. Already at a young age it affects school attainment as, on average, disadvantaged children are four months behind at the age of five, nine months behind by age 11, and 18 months behind by 16 years of age in England¹. Later on, the scissor does not get narrower, as in 2018 only 20% of 18 year olds from the most disadvantaged areas entered full time Higher Education, which is higher than ten years ago. This figure for the most advantageous areas was 47%². This is why initiatives like Action Tutoring are key to help these young people to fall behind with their education.

How could you get involved?

Action Tutoring runs its programmes in school terms, and you can join them for any term during the school year. They work in over 80 schools in London and another seven cities around the UK. A full-time job is not an issue as you can tutor just before work, to start your day on a high note!

1 Education in England Annual Report

2 UCAS End of cycle report