Blog posts for ‘Education’ 
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Stating the obvious...
Monday 14 May 2012
Categories: Education, Family Relationships, Health, Media Influence, Parenting
Yes I know that a great deal of research is extremely useful but sometimes when I read newspaper headlines I just want to scream “Well obviously!” And at other times I seriously doubt the intelligence of the headline writers.
Two recent examples illustrate the cause of my frustration. The most recent concerned people who stay on in education longer. This, the newspapers report, “makes people smarter” and “results in superior memory skills later in life”. Isn’t it more likely...
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Dealing even-handedly with controversial subjects...
‘The Independent’ last week reported that Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, was under pressure to publish guidance on how to approach the subject of abortion in schools, following the claim that groups campaigning against abortion are giving children false information. Such misinformation is, according to groups including the British Humanist Association, the National Union of Teachers and some Christian churches, spreading alarm amongst children.
Teaching sensitive subjects is...
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Why should girls' schools have to make their case? A riposte to Lord Lucas
Sunday 29 April 2012
Categories: Careers, Education, Media Influence
If you read today’s Times or Daily Telegraph, you will see headlines that suggest that girls’ schools are a dying breed: “Pull your socks up or you’ll die out, peer tells girls’ schools”; “Girls’ schools ‘going out of fashion’, expert warns” – although the print edition of The Times has the alternative title “Girls’ schools give chauvinist peer a lesson in single-sex education”. Read the articles themselves and you will realise that they contain the opinions – and...
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The Martini Generation and mobile learning
Monday 16 April 2012
Categories: Education, Growing up, Technology & the Internet
Increasingly we are used to being “connected” every minute of the day. Smart phones are changing the way in which we live. We use them not only to communicate by voice, text and email, but also to keep our calendars, to tell the time, to access the Internet, to navigate, and so on. Mobile Applications (Apps) allow us to do almost anything. For those of us who are educators this is very exciting – smart phones are unbelievably cool – but for those whom we teach, this is normal – they...
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The secret to boosting children's reading & writing abilities?
Sunday 25 March 2012
Categories: Education, Family Relationships, Parenting, Role Models
Once again the reading and writing abilities of our children are being questioned. According to Ofsted’s new chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw one in five children are still leaving primary school with inadequate literacy standards and will “have difficulty accessing the secondary curriculum”. In other words they will start senior school at a significant disadvantage. Sir Michael proposes to tackle the situation by raising the targets for schools. Does this make sense? Does raising...
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Heavy schoolbags risk 'deforming' our children
Wednesday 21 March 2012
The Daily Mail reported last week on a survey run by the organisation BackCare which warns that some children are carrying as much as a quarter of their body weight in their huge schoolbags. This is causing a significantly increased risk of spinal problems. Bags carried on one shoulder or the crook of the arm cause particular health risks. Schools are criticised for not allocating sufficient storage space for their pupils and parents are urged to keep an eye on the situation. Sean...
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Girls, maths and the "Cinderella attitude"
Monday 12 March 2012
Categories: Education, Media Influence, Role Models
I disagree entirely with Lady Conran‘s assertion that girls deliberately choose to limit their capabilities in Mathematics, believing their ‘prince charming’ will deal with that sort of thing. (The Times 8/3/12)) The standards achieved by girls at GCSE are very similar to those achieved by boys and there is no evidence that girls are more likely to dismiss the importance of mathematics than boys.
Parents and society do not help the image of the subject; the readiness of a large...
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Term-time holidays -right or wrong?
Tuesday 6 March 2012
Categories: Education, Family Relationships, Parenting
InThe Independent last week it was reported that Education Secretary Michael Gove is cracking down on parents taking their children on holiday in term time. Headteachers will no longer be able to sanction up to two weeks a year for family holidays during those periods when the school is in session and count it as ‘authorised absence’, as has been the case in the past. The article suggests that 4.5 million days of schooling are lost each year by children whose parents take them on...
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What price success?
Monday 20 February 2012
Categories: Careers, Education, Higher Education
In a recent issue of The Times Educational Supplement, maths teacher Jonny Griffiths recounted a conversation he had had with a highly achieving but anxious A level student who had approached him (again) for advice about his studies. Seeing how anxious the student was, and knowing how counter-productive that can be, Jonny encouraged the student to try not to worry so much about his grades, finally saying, ‘what is better: to go to Cambridge with three As and hate it or to go to Bangor...
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Get real... as if!
Friday 17 February 2012
The debate about whether a school is right to ban pupils’ use of slang (Daily Telegraph 14/2/2012 ) seems to me to be missing the point. I’ll get back to why the attempt to ban slang in school is not only futile but also misguided. Let’s start with what this school is trying to achieve.
Like all schools Sheffield Springs Academy wants to improve students’ job prospects – highly laudable, particularly in the current difficult economic situation. It believes students can improve...
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