Ben Page summarises the public mood

Ben Page of IPSOS MORI gave the conference an amusing, whirlwind tour of the findings of multiple polls of British public opinion. It was a story of both good news, rising anxieties and potent contradictions:

• The public have never been more satisfied by their experience of the education and health systems.


• Teachers remain the second most trusted profession in the country after doctors.


• This tells us that when government and public servants solve a problem, they are not thanked. Rather, they are then expected to solve other problems.


• Unsurprisingly, we are more concerned about the economy than we ever have been before.


• A significant majority of the public think teenagers have too much freedom and not enough discipline. Yet when teachers and school leaders are polled about the most important issues facing them, discipline comes bottom of the list.
  


• As a nation we are healthier and wealthier than ever and most of us feel that we have done well out of life and yet there is a rise in nostalgia for a perceived simpler past.


• A majority report 'my family are more important to me than my friends'. And yet the UK tops the European divorce league.


• When asked what would make us happier, we cite 'more time with my family' higher than any other thing. However, the least happy segment of society are middle-aged people with teenage children!


• After a certain level, money does not make us happier. Gardening, sport, exercise and learning DO!
  

Ben finished by identifying some key challenges that sit right at the door of school leaders:

• We have real work to do to raise the aspirations and expectations of education amongst the poorest households. There is a real class divide in educational aspirations. Since we can expect unemployment to rise in the next five years, we need to work very hard on this issue.


• We can be really proud of what we have achieved in the last decade but it's not as much as we might have done and the money is now running out. How will that play out in the next 10 years?


• More than ever, public opinion expects schools to do more than educate children.
  

So, it's been a successful and complex and contradictory last decade. However, Ben finished by counselling that we'll do our best if we are very clear about what we want to be famous for.