Statistics released in a UK Government National Audit Office today reveal that in 2014, the recorded rate of vacancies and temporarily filled vacancies in schools in England and Wales rose to 1.2% – that means over 5,000 unfilled posts in England alone. This is because the birth rate is rising – the school population is …
Category: children
Jan 19
The upsides of homeschooling
Today’s Daily Mail contains an upbeat and encouraging article about the TV presenter Nadia Sawalha and her decision to home-school her two daughters: “My two girls are home schooled and it’s brilliant, says TV’s Nadia”. In a refreshingly positive story about education – albeit with some editorial sniping at private schools – Ms Sawalha describes …
Jan 12
Tiger or Dolphin – the politics of parenting
Prime Minister David Cameron makes the front page of The Times in the UK today with a headline that throws down the gauntlet in the battle to conquer disadvantage and inequality, beginning with social mobility – specifically, children’s potential in life, as determined by the start they get. Setting out his ‘bucket list’ of what …
Aug 17
Telling the stories of our lives
I was very struck yesterday to hear how our visiting speaker at the senior school assembly described her job. Professor Mary Crock, Professor of Law at Sydney University, and a specialist in immigration law, described her work as the telling of stories about people’s lives, and said that she felt honoured to be working in …
Nov 02
The artists, the exhibition and their enriching legacy: what our former pupils bring to our schools
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 20
Why everyone should experience Shakespearean drama
This has been a very Shakespearean-themed week at St Mary’s Calne. On Monday evening, a group of Year 9 girls battled illness, stormy weather and the curse of the Scottish play to present a succinct and striking Macbeth to a full house at the Egg Theatre in Bath, as part of the Shakespeare Schools’ Festival. …
Sep 14
Children “too embarrassed” to read
A very worrying report was published last week by the National Literacy Trust and reported in the Daily Telegraph. The survey, of 21,000 children in primary and secondary education over the past few years, revealed a steady and concerning drop in the number of pupils reading in their spare time – from 38.1% in 2005 …
Aug 07
Shakespeare, bloody Shakespeare
A couple of months ago, I had a preview of elements of the St Mary’s Calne Venus Flytrap production of ‘Macbeth Unsexed’, which opened today at the Edinburgh Fringe and is showing at C Eca, Venue 50, at 3pm for the next week. The immensely talented actors, most aged 17, took their A Level Theatre …
Jul 28
The World’s Greatest Sport
Well, I thought the Opening Ceremony of London 2012 was just amazing! What a tour de force – a visual and musical retelling of British history from before the industrial revolution to today, reminding us all of Britain’s contribution to world history, while avoiding jingoism and one-up-manship. The staging was magnificent, the inclusion (of patients, …
Jul 19
Picnic at Hanging Rock: why it is important for educators to keep reading
I recently read Picnic at Hanging Rock for the first time; I did so because it was the subject of a fabulous production at my new school, Ascham, in Sydney Australia. Although I could only admire the production from afar, the pictures and reviews were fantastic, and I congratulate the girls on what was clearly …