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  • Can you win at anything if you practise hard enough?

    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  Our education is stuck in outdated and self-limiting ways of thinking.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…

  • On a conveyor belt to university

    Is the aim of schooling, only to produce ‘university ready’ students?   Is school just a conveyor belt?? If we take this logic backwards,  are primary schools’ simply to prepare students for secondary school?  So they are either ‘ready’ or ‘not-ready’?  The Finns believe this is putting the horse before the cart. Apparently the job of…

  • Modern policies, poor results?

    This week Finland announced it was no longer going to teach math, science and English – as discrete subjects – in favour of joined up lessons, thematically based lessons. However scratching beneath the surface reveals a nuanced reform, not a radical one. Certainly, this is a reform that John Dewy would have approved of.  Pasi…

  • The early bird misses the worm…

    Teenagers need more sleep!! Jet-lagged Teenagers … Two statements that all of us have heard,  but why are we so quick to dismiss? Are we so distant from our own teenage years? Have we forgotten about biological natural variation? Very interesting reading lies in a review of the research literature, conducted by Kelley, Lockley, Foster and…

  • Andy Hargreaves: Why It is Impossible to Reform Math and Reading All at Once

    Originally posted on Diane Ravitch's blog: Reformers like to tell us that they are in a hurry. They want everything reformed now, or yesterday. They can’t wait. They can’t even wait to find out if their reforms make any sense. Their motto might as well be, “Don’t just stand there, reform something.” ? But…

  • Phonics… something doesn’t sound quite right…

    Today’s Guardian lauds the success of synthetic phonics in primary schools: Which surely appears like good news to the Government and bad news to doubting academics who seem in abundant supply (Marshall, 2012).  However not content with such success, the DfE has even taken a broadside at teachers, implying they previously tried to manipulate results in…

  • It’s a tempting mistake to make…

    Schools can be so busy, right? But what if policy and actions, designed to help, are detrimental to the time available? Theoretical simplicity – easy to understand, fast to apply and generates rapid and catchy headlines. However, the potential for serious problems also exists. Making the wrong decision can lead to countless more hours and…