Back in Blighty I have had some time to digest a number of the stories and posts in education that have been getting my interest going.
I begin with a post about music in schools picked up by The Independent. As a singer and lover of music myself I am closely watching development on this.
For those who know me, most of my work is in schools and colleges, working in partnership with them on personal development of students. I am an avid student of what works, not just from a theoretical point of view, or indeed from the lessons I have learnt from students, but more and more from the view points of teachers on the ground.
One of my favourite educational blogs is Mr Read “How Not to Teach” and his post Cycle of Failure, picks up on the issues of Ofsted School Inspections. I have been in conversation with a number of teachers and trainers who are quite alarmed at the increase in schools being failed by Ofsted so this article came at the right time.
Mr Read’s examples of the sad approach to failing schools is summed up in his last paragraph
“Ofsted inspections are a blunt club that in many cases don’t assist schools to improve but merely precipitate closure or a cycle of failure. One school was in special measures for ten years. There must be a better way…”
Mike Baker picks up on another bug bear I have. Can you teach entrepeneurship?
I am actually involved in a number of youth enterprise initiatives, but I believe that you can teach students to be enterprising but not neccesarily to be an entrepreneur. The big issue I think with this initiative heralded by Gordon Brown is that we compare ourselves to the USA too much rather than working with what we have.
And finally there is Ewan McIntosh’s take on Citizens of the Future, where he explores how social media can influence learning and understanding. Very thought provoking and I think I need to digest this a bit more.
I am looking forward to working with a few more key schools for next term, including a couple who have been put on special measures (hopefully they won’t be cursed with academey status) while learning from my learned friends across the blogosphere.
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