What Price Mastery? The Place of Culture in Education
Much has been written recently, both about mastery and the way in which it is interpreted in different cultures. I have been fortunate enough to be able to travel widely both in the UK and abroad, and rarely miss an opportunity to learn about education wherever I go. While usually my trips are predominantly to […]
School. Or Education?
Education. Everyone in the world gets one. To doubt this is to confuse the concept of education with the idea of schooling. My view of education is perhaps a little different from many: I define it as the sum total of your experiences, how you choose to interpret them, and how you choose to respond […]
The Textbook Dichotomy
There has been lots of talk in recent months about the merits or otherwise of using textbooks in primary mathematics. Inevitably whenever such a contentious issue arises in education, differing points of view all attract their share of passionate advocates, and this particular issue has proved to be no exception. In my experience, however, things […]
Left, Right, Read, Write…
“Plus ça change”, say the French, “plus c’est la même chose”. It’s all go on the front benches, isn’t it? I have been engaging with politics more in middle age then when I was a young student (though admittedly we were all lefties in those days because protesting and perceived social injustice was the fashion). […]
Flipping Father’s Day: Maybe it’s a day to BE a father.
Confession time. I have been looking forward to Father’s day as I do every year, and today was certainly a good day. But I read a disturbing piece on the internet this morning about a father who came to his senses and realised that he had become obsessed with his various headships. […]
This Happened.
Yesterday something brilliant happened, which I think deserves a wider audience. Some of you will know that my brain does not work in the same way as many others, and one symptom is an extreme inability to retain visual memory. This means that if I put a cup of tea down somewhere I will instantly […]
When your head’s not in the game
Tomorrow sees the start of the new term. Are you mentally ready? Today marked the final ‘long’ run of my 2016 marathon preparation. 8 miles to Brighton Marina and back marked the end of my ‘tapering.’, and now it’s just a case of relaxing and keeping as loose as possible for the next six days. Things […]
What the Baseline FIasco Teaches us about Forced Academisation
It is telling that my first thought upon waking this morning was the announcement yesterday by the Department for Education that they were not after all going to use the Reception Baseline assessment as the starting point to measure pupils’ progress through primary school. For reasons I outlined in this blog last year it is no surprise […]
Response from the DfE re. Baseline
Dear Mr Jeffrey I am writing on behalf of the Secretary of State to thank you for your letter about baseline assessments. I was very sorry to read that you were disappointed with the content of Ben’s report , and that the school does not seem to have recognised some of the qualities that Ben […]
Open Letter to Nicky Morgan, Secretary of State for Education
Dear Secretary of State, I am writing to you partly as an educationalist but perhaps more importantly as a fellow parent of a primary-age child. I want to spend a few moments to talk to you about Ben. He is our third and final child, and has just completed his Reception year. However, importantly it […]