News | 12 September 2023
IES 30 years of no excuses
Damian Brunker, principal at IES Eskilstuna, participated in a seminar at Svenskt Näringsliv about the no excuse model and how to increase the academic results in challenging areas, with famous British school leader Katherine Birbalsingh and researcher Gabriel Heller Sahlgren.
What is needed to turn around the academic results in schools in challenged areas? Yesterday Svenskt Näringsliv (the confederation of Swedish enterprise) launched a report about the No Excuse model, written bu researcher Gabriel Heller Sahlgren. The No excuse model is successfully used by schools in America and Britain, mainly in deprived areas. Heller Sahlgren also emphasized the legal obstacles in Sweden that stands in the way of implementing a similar model i Sweden.
At the seminar Katherine Birbalsingh, famous British school leader and founder of the Mikaela School in London, gave her perspective on what are the problems with most schools in the western world and what is needed to change things for the better.
As a Swedish example Damian Brunker spoke about the work he and his colleagues at IES Eskilstuna are doing, in Fröslunda, with 77 percent students with a foreign background and where gang violence and shootings now are parts of everyday life. With a strong ethos and focus on Discipline, Knowledge, School Spirit, Community the team at IES Eskilstuna has accomplished impressive results, with 96 percent of the students leaving the school qualified for upper secondary school, compared to the national Swedish average of 85 percent.
You can watch the whole seminar here (partly in English): https://www.svensktnaringsliv.se/skolforum/gar-det-att-lyfta-kunskapsresultaten-i-utanforskapsskolorna_1201254.html
Here you can download Gabriel Heller Sahlgrens report (in Swedish):