CHARACTER, RESILIENCE AND GRIT... PASS IT ON!

We face financial problems, more cuts, local authority services increasingly under pressure, schools facing increasing challenge and academisation, OFSTED turning up the pressure and plenty of other challenges. Clearly to be successful, as demonstrated by Nicky Morgan who wants to send the army in and Tristram Hunt who realises we ned something different, we need to develop character, resilience and grit alongside knowledge and understanding.

China, Finland, South Korea, and Singapore are held up by the DfE as models we should look to as we reshape, rethink and re-imagine what we do. Interestingly, 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 alongside teaching and learning excellence. We need to understand 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 in sport and the arts, is to start early, work hard and never give up!