Archive

The importance of play (and why it's better to avoid bullshit)

Dec 10, 2019 | Category: Featured

Play is an essential part of learning. The young of many species play in order to test their physical limits, form bonds with others, explore the environment, practice hunting behaviours and generally...

#Stephen Pinker #James Tooley #Karyn Purvis #Moravec’s paradox #play-based learning

My favourite reads this year

Dec 09, 2019 | Category: Featured

In no particular order, these are the books I have most enjoyed reading during 2019.Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind, Tom HollandAs a long-time admirer of Holland's brand of history, I was ver...

The distorting lens of perspective (and why teachers need to be professionally sceptical)

Nov 26, 2019 | Category: Featured

We view the world from our own stance. Our view is unique which means we have unique insights and observations to offer, but it also means other people, viewing from different perspectives, see someth...

The road to hell

Nov 24, 2019 | Category: Featured

My default assumption is that everyone working in education has good intentions. We all want children to be happier, healthier, safer, more creative and better problem solvers. But, good intentions ar...

What works best for children with SEND works best for all children

Nov 17, 2019 | Category: Featured

What works best for children with SEND? That, of course, depends upon the precise nature of children's particular needs. That said, we can draw some generalisable conclusions by thinking about some of...

Are schools ever at fault for exclusions?

Nov 11, 2019 | Category: behaviour

Sometimes schools get it wrong. It may even be that there are some schools led by nefarious headteachers who, in an effort to game league tables, seek to get rid of those students who are most likely...

#exclusion

What causes exclusion and what does exclusion cause?

Nov 10, 2019 | Category: behaviour

Adult authority in schools is a paper tiger which depends on students agreeing to accept it. Some children choose not to and therefore have the power to make the lives of others miserable. Over the ye...

#exclusion

What should schools teach?

Oct 29, 2019 | Category: Featured

All knowledge may be precious, but it's hard to argue that it's equally precious. The time children spend in school is strictly finite and so, when deciding what to teach we must must make choices. Of...

The trouble with Shakespeare, or Should everything be made simple?

Oct 26, 2019 | Category: English

I'm regularly inundated by unsolicited emails from folk hoping I'll endorse their products. Recently, I received one asking me if I'd be interested in writing about a collaboration between the softwar...

#Shakespeare

What do Ofsted reports reveal about the way schools are being inspected under the new framework?

Oct 17, 2019 | Category: leadership

Ofsted's new inspection framework went live at the beginning of September and the first reports have now been published. Anecdotally, I've heard whispers from two different inspections about the sorts...

#Ofsted