Sep 11
I learned of The Queen’s death in a Board meeting on Thursday 8 September, as the news flashed up on my phone, and I confess to having spent the best part of the past few days in a mournful mode, as the impact has hit of the loss which we have collectively experienced. Her Majesty …
May 31
Sitting in the warm sun outside a café in North Parade in Oxford on Friday afternoon last week, sipping tea with a friend and colleague in education, and reflecting on how we had both come to be where we were, we ruminated upon the imperative that exists to ensure that leaders in education have their …
Feb 03
One of the joys of living at a latitude of 55.953251 is that the change in seasons every year is really quite dramatic. It is a marvellous source of conversational material – almost every interaction I have had this past week has been punctuated by references to the current change in the season. ‘It’s definitely …
Jun 22
I have been reflecting a lot recently on what it means to leave school – that moment of transition from being a school student to not being a school student, leaving behind 13+ years of formal schooling mandated by the state, and facing up to a future of possibilities, choices and responsibilities. These reflections have …
Apr 26
I spent half an hour the other day learning about aphids. Did you know that there are 500 species of aphid in the UK alone? And that colonies of aphids often consist of females only, who give birth to live young who develop from eggs which are simply clones of the mother? And that they …
Mar 29
I spent a glorious hour last week tuning into a live talk with the author Alexander McCall Smith, hosted by the Caledonian Club in London, but of course all on Zoom (which made it much more accessible, if less social). Anyway, he was, as ever, a delightful speaker – entertaining, modest, self-deprecating, intelligent, with a …
May 30
I am speaking to two different audiences this week in Sydney, on two of my different specialisms; a seminar on Powerful Schools at Macquarie University School of Education on Wednesday, and a public lecture and discussion at the renowned St Mark’s Darling Point on ‘Bringing Up Girls’ on Thursday evening. As an introvert who has …
Oct 23
Visiting the world-leading Science Museum in London last week, I was lucky to be able to attend a showing of a relatively recent (2013) addition to their collection of IMAX films, ‘The Mysteries of the Unseen World’. If you haven’t seen it, do try to see it at some point; at the very least, look …
Sep 14
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 …
Dec 20
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 …