Imagine your boss comes along and asks you: 'How can we improve your working life?' What do you say? If my experience of asking lots of questions to teachers over the years is anything to go by, most people will freeze … Read More
A few weeks ago (April 26th) I had a dream about how school should work post-lockdown. Not a Martin-Luther-visionary kind of way. An actual dream. In it I was travelling to pick up newly arrived international students to take … Read More
Yesterday I wrote a piece over at LKMCo about the reasons why secretary of state for education, Michael Gove, was right to big up private schools as being better than state schools. (Even though he wasn't correct). Writing the piece reminded me … Read More
The FT's Helen Warrell today ran a piece suggesting that momentum is developing behind a campaign to subsidise the cost of private school tuition for the poorest pupils. She wrote: Under the programme, the government would divert the average £6,000 spent on … Read More
This is Figure 1 from the 2013 CREDO Study Executive Summary. Get used to seeing it. I suspect it will soon become a new classic reference in education debate. By matching every student in a Charter School with a similar student … Read More
New teachers quickly learn that demanding behaviour from students that you're not willing to demonstrate yourself is entirely pointless. Calmness, courage, patience, thoughtfulness - you want them? Model them. Over, and over, and over.* Gove is often a pro at behaving … Read More
So I've finished re-reading Jonathan Haidt's The Righteous Mind and I still cannot recommend it enough. He writes in a style similar to Malcolm Gladwell and masterfully curates easy-read summaries of psychological and political research. Thankfully Haidt also summarises the main principles of … Read More
Last week I presented a poster at the Comparative & International Education Conference 2013 of some tentative findings from a discourse analysis of education policy implementation in England and New Zealand. The purpose of the analysis is to see what … Read More
The Coalition's education ministers seem convinced that academy-chains are "the next big thing". Money is available for academy sponsors to take over failing(ish) schools, and chains are an increasing player in upcoming 'Free Schools'. Theoretically, 'successful' chains will deliver the … Read More
In his book "So Much Reform, So Little Change", Charles Payne introduces his chapter on implementation failures with a pledge that every school reformer should take. I wholeheartedly agree: I will not overpromise I will not disrespect teachers I will not do anything behind … Read More