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Enough is Enough

Let’s start with the children, shall we? I mean this is where we as schools would always say we start from – putting children truly at the heart. We have created a system where statutory tests determine the curriculum we teach. There are schools across the UK where Maths and English is taught all morning and all afternoon – or where there are interventions all afternoons for children not ‘meeting standards’ where they are then missing out on all the other diverse subjects schools should be teaching. It’s a system where leaders and teachers sometimes manipulate data and even take part in somehow controlling the outcomes of the tests – obviously one would question any leader who participates in this and doesn’t lead with anything but integrity – but this is the system that is created – where leaders even feel this is a necessity – to put their jobs at risk because of the pressure to perform. This is why phonics is often taught all day to Key Stage 1 children, small groups taken out to ‘catch up’ with the sounds they just haven’t grasped – where children are given a diet rich in remembering how to take the

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We’ve got it all wrong…

Ken Robinson tried to tell us…he pleaded with us to get it right – to prioritise the things that will make a difference to our children’s lives – to focus on the things that will really have an impact – to stir up the creativity in us all. We’ve got it all wrong. Now, more than at an other point during our lifetimes, we have the chance to change it all – but what are we doing? We are standing still, doing the same old things, reverting back to type – not changing a thing. If you talk to any teacher, they can always tell you something they think is wrong with the education system. We know there are massive flaws – it’s a system that hasn’t really had any major rehauls in almost 30 years. That’s three decades. There have been changes, I know – but not a complete rethink of the system. It’s always been the same. Looking across the world, the majority of classrooms look comparable, have similarities, follow the same type of learning sequence, formula and approach. What is it going to take for a complete reform to take place? The DFE, Ofsted and all the

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Burning Brighter in 2022

A new post, a new website, a new beginning and a new year… Where to even begin? This will be a ramble I know…so apologies from the start. The end of the year is always the time many people reflect – reflect on the year just past, reflect on their accomplishments, their successes, their mistakes, their failures and indiscretions. It’s a time where many begin to think about what they want to change – what they want their new habits to look like – which is where resolutions start to take shape. However, as we know from research and from our own experience of doing this year after year – for new habits to actually be formed, they must be practiced daily, consistently and with purpose. While the end of the year is a wonderful place to think about these things, regular reflection and analysis about what we want to change should be a regular discussion we have with ourselves. It’s about how we move forwards, how we change and adapt to the world around us, how we become better humans, more aware of our purpose in the world – it’s how we shine and burn brighter in all that

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