Blog posts for ‘Education’ 
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Surviving the exam season!
Tuesday 28 May 2013
Categories: Education, Girls' schools, Parenting, Teenagers
The recent Daily Telegraph article, At exam time, a mother’s place is in the wrong made me smile. Allison Pearson describes with her characteristic wry wit what ‘Day Nine in the Revision House of Hell’ is like as her daughter, clearly overwrought with the pressure of exams looming, takes out her frustrations and her anxiety on the ones who love her best.
Many parents at this time of year will be supporting sons and daughters through their revision and examination period, whether...
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Changes to GCSEs 'will disadvantage girls'
Friday 26 April 2013
Categories: Education, Girls' schools, Politics, School curriculum
It is well-meaning, but ultimately unhelpful in my opinion to suggest that a return to a single terminal exam at GCSE will disadvantage girls because they allegedly lack the confidence to perform well when the stakes are high. To lump together all girls as timid creatures is to do all children a disservice as it perpetuates unhelpful stereotypes about girls and boys. It is time for us to see all our pupils as individuals who have different strengths and weaknesses and likes and dislikes...
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The key to a successful education? Family...
Tuesday 9 April 2013
Categories: Education, Girls' schools, Parenting
The Daily Mail recently printed an article with the headline Family, not area, is key to a child’s education . They reported on a study of attainment carried out by the London School of Economics, which concluded that a family’s attitude to a child’s education is the key to success, and is far more important than where the child lives, or how much money the family has.
I have long believed that one of the reasons independent schools are so successful is that parental buy-in is...
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Failure...a key educational experience
Wednesday 3 April 2013
Categories: Education, Letting go, Parenting, Role Models
As a teenager one of my favourite reads was Stephen Pile’s The Book of Heroic Failures, which distilled failure into humour and thus made it fit for human consumption. Failure may be funny when served with a side order of schadenfreude, but in the real world, it really isn’t all that popular at all.
Perhaps it has always been this way, perhaps I’m just noticing it more, or perhaps it’s a product of the easy A-grade culture, but I am increasingly conscious that parents don’t like their...
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Why I'm a pushy parent too
Tuesday 19 February 2013
Categories: Education, Family Relationships, Parenting
It’s been a tough month to be a parent if recent articles in the press are to be believed. And it’s even harder being a headteacher, I am told. First of all we had Peter Stanford’s report in the Telegraph which declared that ‘pushy parents are the bane of private schools’. Then we began the examination and vilification of the Clegg family for looking at independent education.
Personally, I think it’s time we took a bit of a reality check here. First of all, we are all pushy parents at...
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Perhaps it is society not schools which fails boys
Wednesday 9 January 2013
Categories: Education, Higher Education, Media Influence, Politics
David Willetts, the universities minister, spoke earlier this week about how few white working-class boys go on to study at university. He called this “the culmination of a decades-old trend in our education system which seems to make it harder for boys and men to face down the obstacles in the way of learning … That is a challenge for all policymakers and all parties.“
Dr Wendy Piatt, director general of the Russell Group, which represents 24 of the country’s most selective...
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Tidings of great joy!
Monday 24 December 2012
Categories: Education, Extra curricular, Family Relationships, Parenting
Fear not, you don’t have to exhaust yourself trying to become the Tiger Mom of legend. In fact if you are – stop it at once! Desist from enrolling your daughter up to all those “improving” extra-curricular activity. And resist scheduling her every moment, for comfort comes with the news that pushy parents risk damaging rather than enhancing their children’s prospects (The Telegraph, Why pushy parents fail to make the grade) Of course your daughter needs your encouragement and...
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Not everyone can be Mary...
Monday 3 December 2012
Categories: Education, Letting go, Parenting
At primary schools throughout the country the nativity play is one of the major events of the school year. Despite the traditions which surround it, things have moved on considerably from the old dressing gown and frayed tea towel, charming though they were. These days you are more likely to see custom made, designer costumes, a light and sound desk and a script that bears little resemblance to the traditional story we all know and love.
Finding parts for a hundred or more children takes...
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Preparing young women for their future lives...
Monday 26 November 2012
Categories: Careers, Education, Letting go, Parenting, Personal Safety, Teenagers
Professor Carrie Paechter from Goldsmiths, University of London addressed the heads of the Girls’ Schools Association at their recent Conference on the subject of ‘Our Girls, Our Future: preparing young women for their future lives’. She talked of the pressures on today’s girls, the (often unhelpful) images of girls we see daily in the media, (including the joyful groups of girls celebrating examination success – more pressure to achieve at the highest levels), and strategies for...
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What is the point of school?
Friday 23 November 2012
Phil Redmond’s opinion piece in The Independent earlier this month entitled the ‘The curriculum isn’t working’ made me think about two books that I have read in the last six months: Why do I need a teacher when I’ve got Google? by Ian Gilbert and What’s the point of school? by Guy Claxton. As their titles suggest, both move far beyond the diametrically opposed and ultimately unhelpful views of education often espoused by government and business namely that schooling should...