Category: Headteachers

What education (probably) needs: an Office for Educational Improvement

It was interesting to read Stephen Twigg’s comment piece in The Times last Tuesday, ‘We need facts about education, not opinions’. Writing in his capacity as Shadow Education Secretary, he argued that education policy in the UK needs to be based not on prevailing dogmas, but on evidence, and that a Labour Government would set …

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International travel and movies: reflections on humanity and the world

I haven’t counted up the miles I flew over the past almost 2 weeks, but I know that I have paid enough carbon tax to help plant a small forest, which is some guide. To be in London, Washington and Sydney, three of the greatest cities in the world, within the space of a few …

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Filling in the history: famous Australian women (part 1)

Another week, another city – another continent. From Washington DC to Sydney involves travelling more than half way around the world, which is an exercise in physical resilience, but an opportunity to think and reflect, and I have enjoyed using the time to start preparing for our new life in Australia (for which this trip …

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Parent power at work: ensuring excellence in independent schools

A great article on independent schools appeared in last week’s Times newspaper. Written by the thoughtful and insightful Greg Hurst, Education Editor of the Times, it posed the question ‘Just how good are independent schools?’ and proceeded to look at the evidence. The article quite rightly acknowledged that independent schools come in many shapes and …

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New Year’s resolutions for a new term

Yesterday, according to the Daily Mail, was the day when most people gave up on their New Year’s resolutions and slipped back into old habits. Apparently, on average, people make the same New Year’s resolution four times in total – and, presumably, break it the same number of times. Opinion is divided on whether the …

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How universities can better prepare for the workplace

Given the increasingly bleak outlook for graduates of our universities, what can universities be doing to ensure that students who come to the end of their time at university are placed as well as possible to be able to embark on a fulfilling and satisfying career? Here, in no particular order, are my suggestions: Make …

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Why our young people should look at universities abroad

Earlier today I spoke on BBC Radio Wiltshire about comments I had made last week, reported in the Huffington Post, about the growing interest we have noted at school in universities abroad. There has been a resurgence of interest amongst our students in US universities, particularly on the East Coast of the United States, and …

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Essex girls, Essex women … new research on single-sex classes at university

Today’s edition of The Independent reports some very interesting small scale research at Essex University, where a group of students was split, randomly, into three teaching groups by gender – a male only group, a female only group, and a mixed gender group. At the end of the year, the marks of the female only …

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Curbing the sexualisation of children – new UK Government rules to start the New Year

News came in yesterday that Michael Gove has confirmed that changes to the National Curriculum in the UK will not now take effect until September 2014 rather than the planned September 2013, and this qualifies as a good thing in my book. We do of course have to change the national curriculum – it is …

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Delaying curriculum change – the right thing to do … but only the start

School examinations have been plastered all over the front pages this week, in the wake of the Daily Telegraph expos’ of some of the comments made by examiners – and chief examiners – on courses for teachers of their subject. Course leaders have been filmed giving strong hints about the content of next summer’s papers, …

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