Sunday, September 9, 2024
Back to School
Think of a number. No, not that one - a number between 9 and 10. Chances are, if you’re thinking 9 ¾, you’re a Harry Potter fan. 9 ¾, of course, being the number of the mysterious railway platform, first namechecked in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, from where the Hogwarts Express departs, allowing the adventures to truly begin.
Up until this year, there’s even been a Back to Hogwarts tradition, involving an annual announcement and a notice on the Kings Cross departure boards to celebrate the start of the academic year at the famed school of Witchcraft and Wizardry on September 1st.
Ah, that back to school feeling - does it ever leave us? “Harry woke at five o’clock…. and was too excited and nervous to go back to sleep.” We’ve all been there. There’s a primary school at the end of our road, and, come the first week of September, you better get out of the way cos here they come - a screech of cars, a blur of scooters, a few parental piggybacks (it’s that kind of school) - all bundling through the gates to greet the new academic year.
But that’s not the full story. In 2022-23, over 1.5 million children were registered as ‘persistently absent’ from school, a lost generation who stopped attending during Covid and haven’t re-appeared. It’s an ambivalence to learning that stretches way back - at least as far as Shakespeare’s Seven Ages of Man, “the whining school-boy …..creeping like a snail unwillingly to school,” probably even further.
I’ve been returning to school for over 50 years now, and I do get it. On occasion, I still feel a twinge of what movie ratings might describe as ‘mild peril’, though, as a Lexonik Regional Trainer, it’s not the forgotten homework I’m worried about. Will the car start? Will the roads be clear? Will I ever complete the sign in? One receptionist checked my details and informed me that someone would arrive shortly to take me down to the kitchens. I was half tempted to abandon the delegates and make a nice pizza instead.
Then there’s the lanyards. DBS documentation notwithstanding, sometimes you’re straight on to Visitor Red. Other days, (hurrah!) the freedom of the school beckons and you’re Access all Areas Green. But this too can be problematic given my shocking sense of direction. A happy compromise would be flashing amber- ie safe to wander unaccompanied but will probably need help finding his way back from the toilet.
There’s other stuff too. In high summer, I’ve trained in rooms with no air conditioning, watching wilting delegates fan themselves with homework (we told you this would be important) before 10am. I’ve sat on chairs with faulty height adjusters (“Does anyone else think I’m disappearing under this table?”). In Walsall, training was brought to a standstill by the surprise arrival of a plate of muffins. And so on.
But whatever my trials and tribulations, I know they are small fry compared to the experiences of many of the young people we strive to support; students for whom, due to lack of confidence in literacy, every day presents a fresh struggle.
At the start of the month, I was up in Salford, alongside my colleague Kate Jones, delivering Lexonik Flex training to EdStart tutors, a dedicated bunch of professionals who work with some of the hardest to reach young people outside mainstream education.
There’s so much about the multisensory Flex package that has the potential to re-engage these learners. The gamification. The challenge. The fun. I ask delegates how they imagine the programme will be received. “This will make them feel cleverer,” says one.
So maybe this year, for some, the return to school will feel a little different. Not quite Hogwarts, but a kind of magic nonetheless.
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