April 2015

Perennial questions that keep resurfacing: What’s the Finnish secret?  and Should UK education become more like Finland? Perhaps though, we have more in common with Finland than we think? The 2010 OECD report on education in Finland lists a number similarities to UK initiatives: A core curriculum that has become increasingly less prescriptive Choice for…

We now live in a relentless, evidence based race to brilliance…  or so some would say. If you can’t measure progress, current rhetoric holds that progress didn’t take place!  ergo… If you can’t test it,  don’t teach it…  some say. Others reject regular progress testing…  but who is right? The recent debate about a Singaporean…

Chess Champs have Superior Memory !! or do they? It seems obvious – surely Chess Champs are champs because they have superior memory?  Or maybe they have mastered their learning style?  Or perhaps they just have better genetics? Such claims are the enemy of hope.  Students that hope to excel. Parents that dream for their…

The UK has an attitude problem.  Our education is stuck in outdated and self-limiting ways of thinking. Is ability in-built?  Do some fortunate few have a ‘math-gene’ or is sporting talent a ‘gift’?  Are some truly ‘gifted and talented’ whilst others consigned to fate by their genetics?  Not so, says Matthew Syed, international table tennis…