Chapter 1:
Journeys Pull a thread here and you'll find it's attached to the rest of the world Nadeem Aslam1 As with any story or journey, this one has no single beginning, and no precise way to delineate the contexts or the conditions that prompted it. But as with any book, this one needs an introduction. This book describes the separate and entwined journeys of Netherfield Primary and Pre-School in the UK, and a charity for children and young people, the ecl foundation (Enhancing Children's Lives). Both organisations are focused on, and passionate about, the care, development, teaching and learning of children and young people in courageous and creative ways. One organisation, the school, is positioned within the education system, striving, and in many ways succeeding against odds, to maintain standards and status in the political and economic giant that is the institution of education. The other organisation, the ecl foundation, is positioned outside of the education system, independent, international, and interdisciplinary; working with the education system along with systems of heath care, social care, business, sports, arts and culture. The partnership of these two organisations came about due to the shared belief in a systemic, 'whole child, whole system', approach to teaching, learning, and care. The partnership at the heart of this narrative, came about through the relationship of two people, Sharon Gray and Terry Ingham, who shared an instinct and a passion and co-created an approach to developing and leading a school with children at the centre of all policy and practice; with children's well-being prioritised in the journey of academic and socio-emotional development. We will hear more about these people soon and their stories will resonate throughout this book. Terry Ingham's leadership of the ecl foundation and Sharon Gray's leadership of Netherfield Primary and Pre-School (since 2009) provided the structure, the space, and the materials to implement a year-long research project in 2014/15. The project set out to explore and articulate the successes, the challenges, the structures, and the ethos of an ecl ('whole child') approach to education in a mainstream UK primary school. In unpacking and exploring the journeys of the ecl foundation and Netherfield Primary, we present and propose an alternative approach to the teaching, learning, and care of children within the education system. This approach is grounded in the premise that the patterns of connection between parts or people in any system is not random, that interconnecting parts function as wholes, and the behaviour of individual children and adults is affected by the structure of the whole. This approach attends to the education, development, and well-being of children and young people with the understanding that all behaviour (from child or adult) is communication that needs to be attended to; that we have multiple ways of knowing and being in the world; that our ability to succeed in any structure or system is not an individual pursuit; but intricately dependent on the contexts around us, be that family, peers, nutrition, physical comfort, and so on. One important element of ecl's practice is the personal or internal journey often required in order to bring awareness to our own contexts or interacting systems. Self care and self-awareness is a component that we hold essential to the contributions that we can make in this world. It is from this state that we can move into places of real connection, and clear sustainable support of the people we work with. And for the vast majority of us, this self-awareness and self-care requires a journey. With the metaphor of a journey we embrace the idea that journeys do not necessarily take us in one linear direction, that they can loop back on themselves and happen at all sorts of speeds. With this energy of movement, and yet freedom of direction, we launch into the introduction of this book and invite you to journey with us for a while.
ecl's departure points The ecl foundation was originally founded and developed within the nowhere Foundation from the inspiration and intention of Nick Udall, Judith Hemming, Terry Ingham and many other committed practitioners. In January 2002, a group of teachers, educational researchers, and systemic practitioners gathered in London, UK, to explore the possibility of a fresh approach to education, one which could create a different climate for learning in our schools and support a joy in learning and creativity in our children and young people. We were inspired by a then recently published, 'All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education' report created by a National Advisory body headed by Sir Ken Robinson
2. We were struck by how little practical support there was to move forward, and united by a common concern that, even after unprecedented levels of funding and the unquestionable passion and care of so many individual teachers, conventional approaches to education were not serving the needs of children. As headteachers, teachers, academics and parents ourselves, we could see vast numbers of children disengaging from learning as they moved through the education system. We recognized that our children hold the keys to a future that we could only begin to imagine and so we asked ourselves, how we, as their teachers and carers, could equip them to love learning and live their lives as a creative adventure. Under Judith Hemming's guidance, the starting point for the exploration was to look at schools, classrooms, and families as living systems and to recognize that we needed to look beyond improving just literacy and numeracy skills and outcomes, to a fuller picture of the whole child. The exploration ignited a spark. By that summer, the nowhere Foundation had received funding from the River Rock Foundation (Maine, USA), to set up an innovation and research project in partnership with three UK primary schools and one secondary. The project was called, 'The Schools We Need'. The project was focused on finding better ways to support leaders in schools. It ran for 17 months and its impact on the levels of performance and outcomes for all of the participants, along with the depth and breadth of ideas that began to emerge from them, exceeded all expectations. Over the next ten years, with two vital sources of funding, the UK Government Department of Education and the nowhere Foundation, individuals and groups in England continued to explore the nature of schools and families as interrelated living systems. In addition to the initial leadership focus, we expanded our enquiry into a number of areas of school culture, developing specific aspects of the curriculum; resourcing vulnerable children; supporting emotional health and well-being; understanding behaviour change; as well as enhancing parenting skills in the home. At the core of each project was a co-creative methodology that encouraged all involved (teachers, leaders, parents, and researchers) to document and reflect on practice, to make sense of what has happened and be innovative. As the work expanded, the ecl foundation began to receive requests to take ecl practice to other regions of the world. In South Africa and Namibia it took root when Jane James (Catalyst at nowhere) led an ecl workshop in Johannesburg: 'Every single person in this workshop was touched and inspired by the personal shifts they experienced. It touched their souls and opened the possibility for enhanced relationships with both colleagues and the children they teach'.
3 The systemic perspectives we were working with in England and now in South Africa seemed to offer simple solutions to problematic issues of emotional well-being, aspects of behaviour, potential classroom disharmony and dysfunction. We developed tools and exercises based on a view of people as social beings using Bert Hellinger's notion of 'conscience' groups and 'ordering forces'
4 as well as John Bowlby's theory of 'attachment'.
5 By doing so, groups could develop a greater sense of belonging and bonding, which led to a mutual responsibility for each other's well-being. Participants developed qualities of respect, concentration and engagement with learning; and importantly, strengthened the partnership between home and school life. The workshops in the UK and Africa enabled teachers and social workers to experience these phenomena for themselves before taking them into their own settings and workplaces. The ecl foundation is now an independent, registered charity in its own right, and beginning to extend its reach across the globe. We have ecl catalysts in England, South Africa, Namibia, the Netherlands and the US, co-creating a growing library of insights and resources. Knowing there is no one right answer, we are tapping into the rich diversity of people in their different contexts with their different approaches and insights. The ecl foundation is still in its infancy, we make no claims to have all of the answers - but we have an approach to working with creative and learning processes that opens up the possibility to transform how we develop and care for the next generation. We do claim an objective to enhance children's lives (the letters of our name), in particular through our attendance to, and understanding of, three essential elements of the practice of education and care - emotional well-being, creativity and learning. As we begin this process we would like to turn around and acknowledge the holding and encouragement of our founding company,...
