a considerable number of young people were not inspired to carry on. And this should be telling us something about state education generally. Certainly, it can come as no surprise that the numbers of looked after children continuing in education are so low.

As a society, we should be asking why we are in this situation.

Foster carers will be aware of one thing – the importance of supporting the youngster(s) in their care through their school years. Foster carers want to be ambitious for the children they look after – they know how disadvantaged they are. They see levels of abuse and neglect that the rest of us would find shocking. So, more than any other group, foster carers should be able to rely upon an education system that can help these youngsters to catch up and make good the loss of opportunities they have suffered. It is not unreasonable to think an educational system would recognise this and put in place measures to support such disadvantaged children. But, perversely, what we have is a system that militates against large numbers of children – and not just those unfortunate enough to find themselves in the care system. This is why: Dr Guy Roberts-Holmes, senior lecturer in Early Childhood Education at UCL Institute of Education, University College London, has recently warned of the dangers of ‘grouping’ in nurseries. At the recent Pre-School Learning Alliance conference, he said:

“Grouping begins in some nurseries at the age of three. The irony is research has shown that grouping does not necessarily lead to greater attainment at all. And further –

“The children in the high ability group do not make much more progress and it can become very hard for children in the low ability group to move out of that group.”

Dr Guy Roberts-Holmes says that any benefits of grouping are “highly questionable” but, despite this, it is being seen increasingly in the early years practice. The problem is children are aware of which group they are placed in and for many it can “really damage their self esteem.” The study he conducted revealed forty five per cent of nursery practitioners and teachers believed ability grouping damaged some children’s self-esteem. Sixty five percent reported that children are aware which group they are in.

Foster children are disadvantaged

What seems to be happening is that the pressure to pass tests sat by six year olds in phonics has migrated to nurseries which, in turn, feel pressured to ensure a certain level of competency has been reached by children before they start school. What is particularly damning is the claim by Dr. Roberts-Holmes that ability grouping is a “form of educational apartheid.” His opinion is that it “lowers expectations and reduces aspirations.” whilst accepting that it benefits some children it is at the expense of others. Children are labelled and for some they can be judged a failure by the age of seven. As a group, Foster Children already suffer from being labelled and; if the concerns of  Dr. Roberts-Holmes ate accepted, they find themselves in a system set that can only reinforce negative persecutions they are likely to have. A very strong argument can be mounted that this is why we have such low levels of foster children and care leavers going on in further education.

Because of their experiences, foster children are likely to need even more support. The worst outcome is for foster children to feel further stigmatised because they are placed in low ability groups.

Why are children – including foster children in this situation?

In a word obsession. For many years, we have had governments who have become obsessed with the idea of testing. Dr. Roberts-Holmes, with good reason, also thinks we are seeing the ‘datafication of childhood’. This is the inevitable consequence of testing obsessed governments – data has become worshipped for its own sake, just because so much of it can be generated. What is so ironic is that the likely result of all this testing is we will; at great financial and human cost, have discovered that testing itself doesn’t work. Why hasn’t something as fundamental as this actually been considered? In a further irony, it would seem this is evidence of deeply unintelligent thinking from our political masters and the educational elites that surround and support them. What makes the situation worse is that there is no excuse: there has been for some time, incontrovertible evidence that Scandinavian countries achieve much more. In Finland, for example, there are no tests, but this has not prevented their education system becoming ranked as one of the best in the world. It is also interesting that they do not bother with inspections or even school uniforms. How can this be? The reasons are not that complex: in Finland, teachers have the freedom to set their own curriculum. In the UK schools must work within a national curriculum. The approach of the Finnish government is to place their trust in their teachers to simply perform their job without rigid government oversight. This is best expressed by The Finnish National Board of Education who look at equal opportunities for all states: “The focus in education is on learning rather than testing. There are no national tests for pupils in basic education in Finland.” And further, having a government body, like Ofsted; able to monitor schools and place under performing ones in ‘special measures’, is unheard of in Finland.

When comprehending this in the UK; a place that has been gripped by the psychodrama of testing for decades, it seems almost unbelievable. It is certainly a shame that under performing governments can’t be placed in ‘special measures’. We seem to have built a system that guarantees we shall never be highly placed in the world rankings for education. For governments with a fondness for testing, the results are in and they could be doing an awful lot better: it is they that have failed rather than our children. Doubt this? These are the facts:

• An 2016 OECD study of basic skills ranked England lowest in the developed world for literacy.
• Again, in a UCAS report from 2013 – ‘Looked after Children & Care Leavers’, it was found that only 6% of ‘looked after children’ and care leavers in England were found to have been in higher education. This compared to approximately 40% of the general population.

When considering the importance of literacy and the development of reading skills, there are disturbing social factors that urgently need to be addressed – more than 770,000 children in the UK ‘Don’t have books of their own’. And research has shown that children without books are fifteen times less likely to be good readers than their book owning peers. These statistics show how important it is that foster children be encouraged to think positively about reading and develop a love of books. At Rainbow we are running competitions for our foster children to encourage them to discover the pleasure that reading offers now, and for life.

Foster a new mindset.

The first thing that needs to be done is to insist that governments – of all hues – subscribe to a very different mindset. In Finland the emphasis is on learning not testing. Applied here, such an approach would result in a very different kind of system. But it has to be realised there are many vested interests that do well out of the current modus operandi. It is an observable truth that education has for years been a political football with parties basically trading on the paranoia of parents. The political advantage of repeating the mantra about testing has been seen. However, there have been considerable costs. Quite apart from failing to deliver results that come remotely near to those achieved in Finland, the government has demoralised and demotivated teachers. And now, according to Dr Guy Roberts-Holmes, grouping pre-school children is demoralising and demotivating significant numbers of children. This can only mean that foster children are likely to be affected.

The legendary Groucho Marx had it right “politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.” This can certainly be applied to politicians and the way they have tampered with a system and brought it to its knees for perceived advantage. We have even experienced such zany effects as an Ofsted rating being so important that house prices can fluctuate based on good or outstanding schools in a certain area. What is telling, is that the paranoia created has – according to an ITV News Report from 2016 – resulted in “Hundreds of parents caught lying about where they live to get their child into a better school.” When parents have been forced to try and cheat the system to beat school catchment area rules, it speaks volumes about the system itself.

Have you been thinking of becoming a foster carer?

We think that’s really good news and we would love to send you an information pack. This will tell you in more detail what providing foster care is all about. But first, we’d like you to call us for a simple chat so we can understand what your motivations for becoming a foster carer are. We can give you plenty of advice – you’ll acquire a good understanding about what joining Team Rainbow will involve. Simply call 020 8427 3355 or our National line 0330 311 2845 and one of our foster care experts will be delighted to talk to you. We will, as part of the training we offer, make it possible for you to meet with some foster carers so that you can hear for yourself at first hand what foster care is all about – as well as the care and attention needed to create a loving foster home.

All blogs written by Will Saunders: Rainbow Fostering – Content Management/Marketing

Read our foster care news at –

https://bit.ly/2MjkBNc

The good news at the end of the is foster care Rainbow:

Kim, our manager, has vowed to learn to swim so she can be out there amongst the inflatables and obstacles. AND the good news is she can already swim 20m unaided! And a thank you to our foster children who have entered our reading review competition. We are looking forward to more entries.

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