CHARACTER, RESILIENCE AND GRIT!

After a glorious Summer of Olympics, Paralympics and now Andy Murray winning his first Grand Slam event we face an Autumn landscape of public sector strikes, financial problems, more cuts, local authority services increasingly under pressure, schools facing increasing challenge and academisation, OFSTED turning up the pressure and plenty of personal challenges. Clearly, as demonstrated by our Olympians, Paralympians and Andy Murray, to be successful we need to develop character, resilience and grit.

China, Finland, South Korea, and Singapore are held up by Michael Gove and the DfE as models we should look to as we reshape, rethink and re-imagine what we do. Interestingly however, these countries appear to realise that character, resilience, grit, enterprise and creativity need to be at the heart of their learning provision and they are broadening their curriculum offer to create communicative, imaginative, tech-savvy, multilingual students who are prepared for jobs that do not yet exist. These high-performing countries realise that the global economic landscape has changed, and in response, are re-imagining their education systems by focusing on developing 21st-century skills. We need to persuade the powers that be here that the future is only going to be secured if we develop a 21st Century Learning Framework to drive our learning landscape. A framework built on 21st Century Skills as well as subjects. The key thing, as demonstrated by our Olympians, Paralympians and Andy Murray, is to start early, work hard and never give up!

Chris