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The Making of Us: Why School Matters
What makes a good education?‘A crucial book of the the best-informed education insider laying out how schools should work’ David Bodanis
In a brilliant blend of memoir and manifesto, renowned educator Clarissa Farr tells stories from the frontlines of schools to offer vital lessons for the way we teach.
What are the challenges facing students and schools today? How do we encourage girls to become tomorrow’s leaders? What must change for students of all backgrounds to find ambition and succeed?
A handbook, a memoir, an urgent message for our time. If we care about the future of our schools and young people, here are the changes we must make.
‘Part memoir, part love letter to the mad, wonderful world of schools and school leadership, Farr brings to life her own experiences and interweaves them with wider reflections upon education in the UK today… She does not pull any punches … A warm and witty book’Times Educational Supplement
‘Elegantly written … It is about the importance of good teachers and the influence a school community can have on the lives of children’Sunday Times
‘Wise, courageous and compassionate’Sir Anthony Seldon
‘An urgent call to improve the way we help young women prepare for this complex world written by someone with oodles of experience and a load of passion for good education’George Osborne
In a brilliant blend of memoir and manifesto, renowned educator Clarissa Farr tells stories from the frontlines of schools to offer vital lessons for the way we teach.
What are the challenges facing students and schools today? How do we encourage girls to become tomorrow’s leaders? What must change for students of all backgrounds to find ambition and succeed?
A handbook, a memoir, an urgent message for our time. If we care about the future of our schools and young people, here are the changes we must make.
‘Part memoir, part love letter to the mad, wonderful world of schools and school leadership, Farr brings to life her own experiences and interweaves them with wider reflections upon education in the UK today… She does not pull any punches … A warm and witty book’Times Educational Supplement
‘Elegantly written … It is about the importance of good teachers and the influence a school community can have on the lives of children’Sunday Times
‘Wise, courageous and compassionate’Sir Anthony Seldon
‘An urgent call to improve the way we help young women prepare for this complex world written by someone with oodles of experience and a load of passion for good education’George Osborne
- GenresFeminism
321 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 22, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 27, 2020
Coming back from teaching to my office, I find an intricate, pop-up paper sculpture made from the insides of a book perching like a curious bird on my desk, with a note from the artist. Meanwhile, a shock netball match result against a team we were certain to beat reverberates around the building. A tutor reports that a head of peacock-blue hair has materialised in the Lower V (surely it was brown yesterday?) and we discuss whether this requires a response. On results day, a girl is face down on the marble concourse after it emerges she has a near-disastrous GCSE profile of nine A*s and one A. Four of our youngest girls come to see me to ask if I can be filmed saying the first word that comes into my head when they say ‘Paulina’ (‘independent’).
Clarissa Farr was, after the chance of running the schools’ equivalent of Manchester United came up, High Mistress of St Paul’s Girls School (SPGS) from 2006 to 2017.
I have three girls, two of senior school age, both at SPGS, albeit both joined after 2017. So there was an additional fascination to this book for me, including seeing how much of the school’s current ethos was influenced by Ms Farr (such as the excellent lunches – “we dealt with conflicted attitudes to eating by having incredibly attractive, delicious, healthy school food cooked by people the girls got to know, creating a positive culture”) and what may have been changed by the current head (perhaps a more positive attitude to the use of technology in teaching).
And it is at times hard to get away from the fact that the world she describes is largely one of private schools with their relative privilege as well as idiosyncrasies:
the small, eccentric ways of doing things that often defy logic and seem to have evolved of their own accord. Take, for instance, the gloriously illogical way St Paul’s labels its different year groups. The eleven-year-olds are known as the Middle IV, or ‘MIVs’, who then become UIV, progressing to Lower V, V and finally VI, VII and VIII. Where were the Lower IV? Or the Middle V? Nobody knew. This system regularly defeated busy parents who had enough trouble getting a handle on the term dates. But change to standardised national curriculum years 7–13? You must be joking.
Nevertheless. this is a worthwhile book for all interested in education, particularly of teenage girls – heads, teachers and parents alike.
Indeed, I would say the interest is wider than this – one of the chapters that most grabbed me was on leadership, with many direct read-overs to any line of work. For example this on joining as a new head:
When you join a new school as the head, it’s a bit like boarding a moving train. Nothing stops for you: clambering on, you haul up your suitcase, steady your balance and, moving up through the carriages as best you can, find your way to the driver’s seat. Meanwhile the life of the school and its journey into the future continue and you must learn about them and how you want to steer the train while it hurtles along.
…
Settling in involves watching and listening. Especially you have to understand the mood and climate of the staff and to find out what they are used to. It takes time to work out the exact shape of the hole your predecessor left.
She was mentored by the bioss organisation (http://www.bioss.com/) whose philosophy she quotes approvingly:
‘In an organisation that induces confidence and respect, people work together in ways that strengthen bonds of mutual trust and fairness, enhance imagination and innovation, and ensure competence; thus the organisation achieves its purposes and contributes to the wider society.’
The organising principle of the book is chapters based around the school life that unfolds, month by month, starting of course in September, which makes for a well-defined narrative but enables her to digress into other topics. Each chapter begins with a beautifully designed collage including pictures of schooling old and new, Farr’s own school reports, inspirational quotes and a monthly ‘to do’ list – I particularly appreciated February’s which begins “Compile English interview questions” and ends “Buy marmite”:
The English teacher interview question was a beauty as well - 'You're teaching The Merchant of Venice to a GCSE class, and a parent emails you to complain you're promoting anti-semitic literature. How do you respond?'.
For a book published in late 2019, the rationale for the school’s two-week October half term is oddly prescient – one might perhaps even call it a ‘firebreak’:
Bowling along at full tilt, everyone is glad to reach the two-week October half term. What’s the difference between a two-week half term and a three-week school holiday, for example at Christmas? Answer: one week. And in this way, we have effectively by stealth introduced the four-term year, with the result that having had a proper break, there are fewer coughs and colds in November and December and we can normally get through the Christmas musical events without a mass epidemic of throat infections.
although the advocation of the health benefits of loud communal singing perhaps less so:
to sing together in a large group is beneficial both to mental as well as physical health. Some of the big corporates should try it first thing in the morning,
Farr is open-minded on the rationale for girls’ schools. She is unconvinced of some of the ideas that girls brains are wired differently for learning (is it nature or nuture?), and also admits that Paulinas often have a shock when they leave the school and encounter the still-sexist world of work, but then argues, rightly, that sending out confident young women to challenge and change that world is the answer:
So far from their being an anachronism, in fact, it turns out that girls’ schools are ahead of their time – the problem is that society isn’t quite ready for the young women educated in them.
…
The role of schools is to shape change. I don’t believe that learning to ‘adapt’ earlier – which all too often means learning how to play nicely, avoid appearing too clever, succeed by flirting and conform to male expectations of what you will be good at – is, in the long term, what girls should be doing.
And Farr and SPGS were instrumental in founding the important Dads4Daughters group (inspired by the UNWomen’s HeForShe initiative) - https://dads4daughters.com/about-us/ - developing ideas such as reverse mentoring for senior male business leaders:
where an older man is mentored by a less experienced, younger woman who is able to help him look critically at his behaviour towards female colleagues and call him out for evidence of bias that may be so ingrained that it’s unconscious. She will check his use of language (grown-up women don’t like being referred to as girls or being described as ‘feisty’), his assumptions about gender roles (women are not automatically better at making tea or taking notes) and will help him see the world more clearly from the female perspective.
It is also interesting that she feels the move to encourage girls into STEM subjects – maths is by far the most popular A level choice at SPGS, followed by chemistry – may have perhaps succeeded a little too much, given the increasing need for the sort of skills taught by humanities.
Overall, an enjoyable and stimulating read – certainly 4 stars for me, although it is harder for me to vouch for the wider interest to others.
Clarissa Farr was, after the chance of running the schools’ equivalent of Manchester United came up, High Mistress of St Paul’s Girls School (SPGS) from 2006 to 2017.
I have three girls, two of senior school age, both at SPGS, albeit both joined after 2017. So there was an additional fascination to this book for me, including seeing how much of the school’s current ethos was influenced by Ms Farr (such as the excellent lunches – “we dealt with conflicted attitudes to eating by having incredibly attractive, delicious, healthy school food cooked by people the girls got to know, creating a positive culture”) and what may have been changed by the current head (perhaps a more positive attitude to the use of technology in teaching).
And it is at times hard to get away from the fact that the world she describes is largely one of private schools with their relative privilege as well as idiosyncrasies:
the small, eccentric ways of doing things that often defy logic and seem to have evolved of their own accord. Take, for instance, the gloriously illogical way St Paul’s labels its different year groups. The eleven-year-olds are known as the Middle IV, or ‘MIVs’, who then become UIV, progressing to Lower V, V and finally VI, VII and VIII. Where were the Lower IV? Or the Middle V? Nobody knew. This system regularly defeated busy parents who had enough trouble getting a handle on the term dates. But change to standardised national curriculum years 7–13? You must be joking.
Nevertheless. this is a worthwhile book for all interested in education, particularly of teenage girls – heads, teachers and parents alike.
Indeed, I would say the interest is wider than this – one of the chapters that most grabbed me was on leadership, with many direct read-overs to any line of work. For example this on joining as a new head:
When you join a new school as the head, it’s a bit like boarding a moving train. Nothing stops for you: clambering on, you haul up your suitcase, steady your balance and, moving up through the carriages as best you can, find your way to the driver’s seat. Meanwhile the life of the school and its journey into the future continue and you must learn about them and how you want to steer the train while it hurtles along.
…
Settling in involves watching and listening. Especially you have to understand the mood and climate of the staff and to find out what they are used to. It takes time to work out the exact shape of the hole your predecessor left.
She was mentored by the bioss organisation (http://www.bioss.com/) whose philosophy she quotes approvingly:
‘In an organisation that induces confidence and respect, people work together in ways that strengthen bonds of mutual trust and fairness, enhance imagination and innovation, and ensure competence; thus the organisation achieves its purposes and contributes to the wider society.’
The organising principle of the book is chapters based around the school life that unfolds, month by month, starting of course in September, which makes for a well-defined narrative but enables her to digress into other topics. Each chapter begins with a beautifully designed collage including pictures of schooling old and new, Farr’s own school reports, inspirational quotes and a monthly ‘to do’ list – I particularly appreciated February’s which begins “Compile English interview questions” and ends “Buy marmite”:
The English teacher interview question was a beauty as well - 'You're teaching The Merchant of Venice to a GCSE class, and a parent emails you to complain you're promoting anti-semitic literature. How do you respond?'.
For a book published in late 2019, the rationale for the school’s two-week October half term is oddly prescient – one might perhaps even call it a ‘firebreak’:
Bowling along at full tilt, everyone is glad to reach the two-week October half term. What’s the difference between a two-week half term and a three-week school holiday, for example at Christmas? Answer: one week. And in this way, we have effectively by stealth introduced the four-term year, with the result that having had a proper break, there are fewer coughs and colds in November and December and we can normally get through the Christmas musical events without a mass epidemic of throat infections.
although the advocation of the health benefits of loud communal singing perhaps less so:
to sing together in a large group is beneficial both to mental as well as physical health. Some of the big corporates should try it first thing in the morning,
Farr is open-minded on the rationale for girls’ schools. She is unconvinced of some of the ideas that girls brains are wired differently for learning (is it nature or nuture?), and also admits that Paulinas often have a shock when they leave the school and encounter the still-sexist world of work, but then argues, rightly, that sending out confident young women to challenge and change that world is the answer:
So far from their being an anachronism, in fact, it turns out that girls’ schools are ahead of their time – the problem is that society isn’t quite ready for the young women educated in them.
…
The role of schools is to shape change. I don’t believe that learning to ‘adapt’ earlier – which all too often means learning how to play nicely, avoid appearing too clever, succeed by flirting and conform to male expectations of what you will be good at – is, in the long term, what girls should be doing.
And Farr and SPGS were instrumental in founding the important Dads4Daughters group (inspired by the UNWomen’s HeForShe initiative) - https://dads4daughters.com/about-us/ - developing ideas such as reverse mentoring for senior male business leaders:
where an older man is mentored by a less experienced, younger woman who is able to help him look critically at his behaviour towards female colleagues and call him out for evidence of bias that may be so ingrained that it’s unconscious. She will check his use of language (grown-up women don’t like being referred to as girls or being described as ‘feisty’), his assumptions about gender roles (women are not automatically better at making tea or taking notes) and will help him see the world more clearly from the female perspective.
It is also interesting that she feels the move to encourage girls into STEM subjects – maths is by far the most popular A level choice at SPGS, followed by chemistry – may have perhaps succeeded a little too much, given the increasing need for the sort of skills taught by humanities.
Overall, an enjoyable and stimulating read – certainly 4 stars for me, although it is harder for me to vouch for the wider interest to others.
March 17, 2020
So. Well worth a read; sensible stuff for the most part, with real wisdom in the latter chapters dealing with risk and loss. But I found the blind spot on socio-economic status (or we could call it it's old name, class) really odd in such an otherwise well-rounded book. Take as an example the no school uniform rule, discussed with vigor in terms of individualism and responsibility. The fear felt by many students on mufti day due to pain of going into school in something non-branded is ignored, but then perhaps this wasn't an issue for Farr's students in her fee paying school. Different post-school options are discussed as a radical breakaway from the university path...but it's all within an upper middle class framework of appropriateness, rather than setting up your own nail business as a bright 18 year old I know has just done. Talks from international business leaders or government ministers are blithely referenced with no acknowledgement that this is real privilege. So three rather than four starsfor this odd imbalance.
(I hope this doesn't come across as chip on shoulder in terms of my own education. I had a fantastic comprehensive education that served me well enough to get a first class honours degree).
(I hope this doesn't come across as chip on shoulder in terms of my own education. I had a fantastic comprehensive education that served me well enough to get a first class honours degree).
September 29, 2019
As a teacher myself, I really did enjoy this book. I listened to the audiobook read by Clarissa Farr herself and thought it was brilliantly put together.
May 22, 2022
Some interesting musings on education. I found myself particularly in tune with the chapter on leadership but there were other thought provoking topics to consider. It’s written, of course, from a place of privilege and abundant opportunities and so is not a book on how to educate but more on general thoughts about the modern world. As an ex-student of the school around which it is based it had an added dimension too. Easy to read and similar in style to Cleverlands.
June 14, 2020
.
Not just for those in the education world, as might be assumed, but a lively, engaging and often funny glimpse into the world of the headteacher. Compassionate and immensely well-informed, written by someone with rare emotional intelligence and fair-mindedness. If you went to school, any school, you will gain something valuable from this book.
Not just for those in the education world, as might be assumed, but a lively, engaging and often funny glimpse into the world of the headteacher. Compassionate and immensely well-informed, written by someone with rare emotional intelligence and fair-mindedness. If you went to school, any school, you will gain something valuable from this book.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews