Nov 20
This week I have been attending the annual Girls’ Schools Association Heads’ conference, which this year is in Liverpool, and – as ever – it has been a great opportunity to reflect on wider issues concerning the education and development of girls. The speakers have been stimulating, and none more so than Professor Carrie Paechter, …
Nov 17
A recent study by researchers at Brock University in Canada, reported in The Telegraph, found that teenagers who play violent video games over an extended period of years do in fact become more aggressive themselves. The longtitudinal study involved 1,492 adolescents from eight High Schools in Ontario, with the participants 14 or 15 at the …
Nov 14
This is the text of today’s Assembly at St Mary’s Calne – written, led and delivered passionately by the girls. It struck me that Positive Image Month is working – for these are the thought leaders of the future, and this is what they are thinking. I offer especial thanks to Ellys Airey for allowing …
Nov 13
The media last week was full of comment and reports that the National Association of Head Teachers had called for children to be taught about porn as part of the sex education lessons (see, for example, this report on the BBC News website). Inevitably this was misinterpreted in some quarters as something of tremendous danger …
Nov 10
Every Saturday I read, avidly, Melanie Reid’s column in The Times magazine. Melanie was already an award-winning journalist when, in April 2010, she suffered a dreadful fall from her horse and broke her neck and her back, an accident which left her paralysed and without the use of her limbs. Each week she catalogues her …
Nov 07
Earlier today I had the privilege of addressing a group of NQTs (Newly Qualified Teachers) at a post-qualification training day. All of them are in post and all of them are working towards their final accreditation as teachers; support and training days like this one are designed to invigorate their thinking, give them time to …
Nov 04
Last Thursday’s launch of Positive Image Month, the fantastic initiative driven by the determined Kate Hardcastle, was incredibly moving. One after another, people told their stories – stories of being made to feel inadequate because of what they wore or how they looked, and dreadful stories of bullying so commonplace that it has almost become …
Nov 02
This has been an astonishingly creative week, as the St Mary’s Calne Art department moved to Cork Street, London, for a most beautiful Art exhibition. Pupils present and past exhibited, and the range of media and array of subjects was amazing. I could devote a blog a day from now on to each of the …
Oct 29
If you have a moment between now and Thursday, look at this website. Positive Image Month is the brainchild of Kate Hardcastle, the well-known entrepreneur and businesswoman, who just felt that collectively, we had to do something to try to rebalance the terrible weight on people in our society (especially young people, and especially women) …
Oct 26
Last night in London I had the tremendous pleasure of being the Principal Speaker at the Selection Dinner of the Worshipful Company of Fan Makers. It was a super evening – convivial company, and an opportunity to talk about areas of mutual interest in education and the wider world, and I was very struck – …