Articles
Debunking Educational Myths: Empowering Parents for Informed Choices
How about a fun twist on the 'Would I Lie to You' TV programme to uncover some common myths about education. Let's debunk them! Myth 1: "School is the preferred option for children's education, and parents can only home educate with permission." Truth: The law says that both school and 'otherwise' education options are equally valid: school is not mentioned in...
How can education prepare children to lead a good life - ABC Magazine
I would guess that no one ever said on their deathbed: “I wish I had got better grades at GCSE”. In fact, research on deathbed regrets suggests that people in different parts of the world show similar responses. A top regret, for instance, is around relationships - and people feeling that they may have neglected friends and loved ones...
This is the Best Thing in School - SML at Uckfield Community College
Written by Andrea Hazeldine, Deputy Principal and Head of College, Uckfield Community Technology College Introduction The title is taken from a comment made by a Year 8 student at the College. This article outlines the approach that prompted that comment – and others such as ‘I’ve learned more from these five sessions than in my whole school career’ from a Year...
The importance of well-being in education
Published in the May 2022 edition of ABC magazine. It may surprise some parents that research on adults has shown that the best predictor of life satisfaction is wellbeing in childhood and not factors such as academic achievement and exam grades. In fact test results in general, and whether a person is successful in them or not, does not predict...
Marcus Rashford as a model for learning
Published in RSA COMMENT May 2021. Marcus Rashford has made an enormous impact for a young footballer. Ian Cunningham FRSA argues that Rashford is an exemplar of an effective learner and that there are lessons for the educational world from this. In a tweet posted on 12 May 2021, by Marcus Rashford MBE, he wrote: “I stood on the seat in...
How school pupils are indoctrinated in thinking about education.
(Published in LibEd journal, Summer 2014, online journal) In the summer of 2014 there was a national conference on ‘Student Voice’ held in London to which schools (teachers and students) were invited. The idea was to explore ways for young people to have more of a voice in decisions in school. There has been a longstanding interest in this with...
Learning for the Future
Article published in Sussex Newspaper, 2020 The Guardian newspaper reported a conference speaker who challenged his audience with the comment: “Any job that can be exhaustively defined – for instance in a job description or a manual of procedures – will eventually be subject to automation.” He asked his audience for examples of jobs that would not be affected by...
STRUCTURES FOR AUTONOMY – THE EXPERIENCE OF SELF MANAGED LEARNING COLLEGE
(Published in Education Revolution in the USA; 2010) Too often there is confusion about the difference between structure and control when talking about freedom or autonomy for learners. I want to say something about these ideas and to give examples from our practice in using Self Managed Learning. My case is that we (adults) should support young people to grow...