Measuring value by degrees
How will the university landscape impact the next generation? Go on then – what is it worth? Not your second-hand car or even your best tip for the Grand National. No, your degree. When did you get it and what is it worth?
Well, what do you know?
Does everything have a right and wrong answer? Which subjects can’t be tied down to assessment objectives? If spring is here, can exams be far behind? Of course not. The academic and calendar years tick by – a teacher told me last week that by week four of the spring term, they were exactly half… Read More: Well, what do you know? »
The real thing: authenticity in the classroom and beyond
Buried in a breathless review of the recent exhibition, ‘Raphael: The Drawings’, at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, there’s a reference to something I know – recognise – but have never heard named thus. It’s a term that really nails a complicated and attractive quality one might wish one had, particularly if one was a… Read More: The real thing: authenticity in the classroom and beyond »
It's all about the money
Have we arrived in a place where cash is king? OK, so when did the purpose of education become a hard-nosed process of steering as many students as possible in the direction of loads of money? Climb aboard at the age of five and head straight for the door covered in pound signs. Your path… Read More: It's all about the money »
Are PE lessons awesome?
You can’t travel any time-distance to 2017 without being aware you have lived/are living in revolutionary times. Consider education – who could have seen its current shape and concerns 20 years ago? Which is amazing, given it’s still – presumably – trying to do much the same thing. Or not. How disheartening recently to ask… Read More: Are PE lessons awesome? »
Noteworthy
Gimme a soap box, and I will happily rant for 10 minutes about music. Specifically, music in schools. I owe my glancing acquaintance with playing the violin to the free instrumental lessons which were available in my grammar school in North Wales. They took me to Grade 4 and a rather short-lived place in the… Read More: Noteworthy »
Keeping up appearances
Are schools doing enough to look after their staff? They say that by your works shall ye be known. Actions, reportedly, speak louder than words. Don’t announce what you will do to improve things, or describe your good intentions: just do it, to coin a phrase. So, if it is a school’s intention to do… Read More: Keeping up appearances »
Social workers reject boarding school plan
My letter to the editor of The Times, below, was published on 7 February 2017: Sir Nicola Woolcock reports that social workers have blocked access to boarding schools for vulnerable youngsters, and not for the first time. On the two previous occasions, in 2006 and 2009, I was National Director of the Boarding Schools’ Association,… Read More: Social workers reject boarding school plan »