Recent announcements regarding the abandonment of GCSEs in favour of an English Baccalaureate should have prompted once again the question of whether or not assessments at this stage of a young person’s career are in fact worthwhile, but these voices have been drowned out as commentators have rushed to deal with the details of the …
Category: Headteachers
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 …
Sep 08
Tulisa: a role model and inspiration for broken Britain?
I have been thinking a lot about female role models recently, and so was drawn to the Daily Mail online article this week which reported an interview in Look magazine with Tulisa Contostavlos, singer and X Factor judge. In the interview, she described herself as an “inspiration for broken Britain”; I was intrigued. I was …
Aug 18
Fantastic A Levels … but where are our future communicators?
This week has brought another excellent crop of A Level results, and I send a special congratulations to the leavers of St Mary’s Calne, who are now headed for leading universities across the UK and the world, including seven (of the year group of fifty) to Oxbridge, and three to North America. They are raring …
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 …
Aug 02
Education changes the world
‘A changing world’: how often do we hear these words?! More frequently than not, they are accompanied by a frisson of anxiety, of an age gone by and lost forever, of an attempt in vain to halt the progress of time, in search of a better, more stable past. Undeniably we live in – and, …
Jul 22
The eighth habit
Stephen Covey’s death last week has sparked – quite rightly – a flurry of accolades for a man who has been described as a pioneer in the genre of self-help literature which aims to enable people to lead their best lives. His 1989 bestseller, ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’, subtitled ‘Powerful Lessons in …
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 …
Jul 10
A lesson in Chinese culture and history – and a lesson in life
Well, my visit to China – to Shanghai and to Beijing as part of the annual symposium and conference of the World Leading Schools Association – was excellent. I met many outstanding educators and was able to share with them, and learn from them, in a way that only ever happens when people come together …
Jun 30
A visit to China: Taking Educational and Cultural Exchanges to the next level
Tomorrow I am headed for a week to China, first to Shanghai and then to Beijing, to participate in the annual conference of the World Leading Schools Association. I feel very privileged to be able to attend – partly because it is my first visit to China, and partly because it is always a privilege …