inspirational

The Gardener

Apr 022013

This was shot in the Autumn of 2012, a season of rain, thunder and floods. We asked the gardener to tell us about what he likes and dislikes and on some of his philosophical thoughts; he gave us plenty to think about. I too wish I had someone to do my weeding for me, although I only garden when i am dragged, screaming outside.

With experience and maturity, the need for meticulous planning disappears. Someone who knows what they are doing can tell just by walking around and looking what their plans for the day should be. In our world though, the planning is sometimes taken to be more important than the work itself.

Free schools, just not disruptive enough…

Ideas No Responses »

Nov 162012

It seems awfully early to be calling this one but it does seem like the free schools initiative has bombed. Sadly, I’m calling it. Free schools, just not disruptive enough.

Let me explain. In the business world, technology and the internet has allowed for businesses to disrupt the traditional. Companies like Amazon, ebay, Etsy and Ocado have challenged the way we do retail and thrown some marbles under the feet of the dinosaurs. Its painful stuff to watch but it has also brought benefits to consumers in the form of prices falling, quality of service, convenience and innovation. Having a disruptive force in your sector forces you to be creative and innovate and that should be good for everyone in the longterm.

Of course small independent bookshops will disagree with this view, as would lots of small and rural companies who may have had to close, restructure or be taken over by the largely foreign, non-tax-paying mega corps. Change is always painful. But if you don’t evolve you don’t survive and the many years of profit taking and sitting on laurels has made lots of industries ripe for a disruptive challenge.

Education has been largely unchanged since the 1950s. It is very cosy, very biased and desperately in need of a rethink. To my eyes some disruptive challenge would be an excellent thing. Why not have a school that has a school year that is sensibly designed, a curriculum that favours the learner, fosters creativity, employability, the vocational and the academic equally, allows specialism and excellence and doesn’t process learners by age alone? That sounds like a free school to me.

But that is not what we’ve got.

Free schools seem to have done the complete opposite. Stifling innovation, fixing the curriculum to the 1950s model, prioritising privilege or faith, damning difference and playing the traditional performance table games. Sadly it’s not innovative at all and has been done before throughout the 60 odd years since the post war reforms, and doesn’t work. The “free” in free schools just means “free from the council”, or “free from the local area so my precious son/daughter can have the education I had and it worked for me”.

Not one of the new free schools has been a valuable piece of disruptive technology in the education development of the country. So I’m calling it.

Free schools, a disruptive business model that wasn’t disruptive enough.

The Engineering Diploma lives…

Policy No Responses »

Nov 042012

Very interesting to see the engineers fighting back and arguing to keep their engineering diploma in face of the race to academia currently underway in English schools. If you missed the article it’s here.

Engineering was in the very first phase of diplomas that were introduced, at huge expense, by the last Government and sadly wherever I go I hear of schools and colleges dropping them and learners not wanting to take them. The diplomas were complex, weird, government designed, unusual, and new, not a single redeemable feature. Except, well, they were a breath of fresh air, they had great sector support, full employer buy-in, university progression, a modern approach and were a genuine alternative. It’s only natural, therefore for them to get squished.

Now, full disclosure, I was the director of a diploma development project and although ours never even had the opportunity of being launched, it had all the positives in place and was well on the way to being a great addition to the rather staid and bland A level curriculum. There was much talk of rescuing the bulk of each diploma and turning it into a separate stand alone qualification, we even had an offer from an awarding body, but the government now own the IP and it’s going to be stored in Warehouse 13 for evermore. Right next to the Ark of the Covenant and Edgar Allen Poe’s pen.

The diplomas were a wonderful first step, version 2, which was already being planned, would have been better still and version 4 or 5 could have made a real impact on education in England. So I salute the engineers and look forward to a similar response from the other 16 sectors.

No? Anyone? Dust….?

Saying “no”

Ideas, Information, Personal Productivity No Responses »

Oct 242012

I heard yet another tail of woe yesterday, a headteacher on the sick 2 weeks before an inspection, deputy and assistant heads in the dark, teaching staff demoralised. Rather sadly, it is a very common story which I hear far too regularly.

To follow the stereotype through I would expect the head to have had a leadership problem, not delegated sufficiently well and not managed the staff. If this was baseball that would be her error, a stolen base and potential RBIs (hey, its the world series on Wednesday, Detroit versus San Francisco…). But in an organisation like a school the error is often not that easily attributed and I would look at the governors and the deputies as having let the school down as well.

Somewhere along the line someone didn’t say “no” when they should have.

Saying no is one of the hardest things to do in any workplace and something which is accentuated when the management structure is fractured or wobbly. You should be able to say no without fear of retribution or ridicule. You should be able to say no with a clear conscience and mutual respect. You should be able to say no, but I bet you can’t.

We are almost hard wired to not be able to do it. It might be something we were trained out of in our youth, saying no to your parents, for example was not allowed and saying no to your own teacher was also something which would have led to a punishment of some sort. You can check if you can say no, by doing the “sending food back in a restaurant” test… If the food is slightly cold what do you do? Put up with it or send it back? If you can send it back then you have most of the ‘saying no’ tools in your briefcase, if you struggle and would probably choose not to “cause a scene” then we need to do a little more work and go and look at assertiveness, one of my favourite topics.

Assertiveness is the cornerstone of being able to say no and we’ll come back to it in other posts. You can find quite a lot of excellent material on line already. It is also one of the best one day training courses you can go on. Crack assertiveness and saying no will follow…

The Straight

Inspiration, Personal Productivity No Responses »

Oct 122012

This video was used to provoke debate in staff development sessions. It asks a very simple question about learning, school, examinations and life. Do you ever step off the straight? The film always provokes some good discussion, and a lot of comment, particularly about the cyclists breathing!

Please feel free to use the film in your own staff development sessions, here are some questions and prompts to get things going.

1) In this school, what is the straight? Just how much is set down and formally required? Just how flexible is the curriculum?

2) The cyclist clearly has a sense of adventure as a lot of risks are taken and there is a lot of potential danger. What are the risks in stepping off the straight in this school? Is there really, truly, any danger?

3) Who would you need to speak to about stepping off the straight? Is it right that you have autonomy in your classroom and the freedom to do what you want without clearing it with anyone? Head of year? Head of department? Headteacher? What would the headteacher say anyway?

4) Why do you think the film is called “The Straight” and not “The Straight and Narrow”?

5) How do you measure it? Everything is measured in school so how do you measure a journey where you are not sure where you are going? What would OFSTED say? How do you show the value of using your own initiative?

6) You may know of some alternative approaches to education that value ‘the journey’ more than ‘the destination’. Why do we not value these approaches more in this country?

Brain Pickings, Procrastination…

Personal Productivity No Responses »

Sep 272012

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/09/21/the-science-of-procrastination/

I wouldn’t go as far as call it a plague, as others have, but I do think many of us suffer from procrastination issues and don’t have any solutions for it. This excellent little video from ‘Brain Pickings’ is probably just what you need to start to put some measures in place to make your work time more productive.

One hour of focused work is better than 2 hours of fannying about.

‘Brain Pickings‘ are one of the inspirations for A* to G, do check out their excellent site and donate if you can.

Tripartite Skills Debate

Ideas, Policy No Responses »

Sep 242012

I’d like to welcome “No Full Stops in Education” to our team. You will immediately spot that she is far more intelligent than I because she’s keeping her identity secret. Very wise. So just to say she’s in a senior position in HE, with a deeply impressive and knowledgable history in education, policy and qualifications behind her. I look forward to her posts.

What a summer! I was lucky to be able to watch and attend the Olympics, what a privilege! I am still reflecting on the skills and talents of the athletes; what was it that made these people not only be good enough to get to the Olympics but for some of them to actually be the best on the day and get either a bronze, silver or gold medal and a few more than one? This was a celebration of people that had gained skills and became the best in the world.

So what has the DfE learnt from this summer of the excellent displays of vocational and knowledge-based skills in perfect balance? Oh yes, there was some awkwardness around school playing-field statistics and policy, and competitive sports was being debated again! For me this was an opportunity to say yes, children can benefit from a balance of academic and vocational study, both of which they will need in the work place along with personal skills.

Is the debate for this tripartite of essential skills over as we move into Autumn and the demand for academic rigour is met? Or will the placement of David Laws in the corridors of Sanctuary Building make a difference?

Briefing – Episode 57, The first 5 minutes…

Ideas, Inspiration No Responses »

Jul 202012

Lessons are often won or lost in the first five minutes of the class, so having some winning ideas, great plans, strategies and resources at your fingertips is important for successful teaching.

Nothing turns learners off more other than doing yet another word-search. They might be fine, but they should not be your only idea. Relate it to the learning, keep it fresh and simple and see where you end up.

Let us know what you use and what you think doesn’t, through the comments box below…

Laptops for every student…

Inspiration, Technology No Responses »

Jul 162012

It is a hard time to keep positive. You can easily get the feeling that no one likes the direction education is going in this country, no one thinks teaching is the profession it once was, no one thinks free schools are the future. But the holidays are here, the British Summer is just around the corner and the Jubilympics is just about to kick off. Yay!

I’ve spoken many times about how IT needs to revitalise the curriculum and the teachers themselves, and I thought I would share this link with you to let you see just what can happen when innovation and creativity are allowed to get on with it. I know it’s for a major US IT company who are not everyone’s cup of tea, but if you focus on the potential for learning it has lots of interesting stuff. I love the Greene County video (bottom left), congratulations to them for getting their progression turned around, and for the way they pronounce “niche”.

So in this country we are banning phones, locking down computers, slashing budgets, getting in a pickle about what “rigour” actually is and demotivating an entire workforce. Don’t let them get away with it.

Art fears business fears art… Seth Godin

Ideas No Responses »

Jul 092012

Here’s an interesting thing. I don’t know if you have heard of Seth Godin, he’s a marketeer/business guru based in the US who always has something interesting and challenging to say. In this piece from his blog he makes a good point about personal perspective from an art and business point of view. But is it stereotype or archetype?

In the UK at the moment we are seriously close to losing art and creativity from the school curriculum, but are we serving business? From what Seth is saying here creativity might be the key to business success. I think that’s what many people have been saying for a while. What do you think?

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