RELEASING THE MAGIC!

Piaget had it right and there seems to me to be a huge contradiction between the freedom and empowerment for headteachers and schools and the command and control mentality which the DfE and OFSTED have imposed on schools. Dan Pink, in his fantastic book 'A Whole New Mind', argues much more powerfully that we are entering not a knowledge age but a conceptual age where Asia, abundance and automation are radically changing the learning landscape. In this new world the key skills will be team work, design, storytelling, empathy, play and meaning. Ken Robinson argues, in his work and in his amazing talks, that we must get away from a content driven learning world narrowly focused on English and maths and instead nurture talent, creativity and imagination. Everywhere across the world educationalists are powerfully arguing that we must share and network the things that work and stop doing the things that don't! 

The DfE argue that an academic education is the best preparation for the opportunities created by the knowledge based industries of the future and that we must say what we would teach our children and young people. If you read the new McKinsey Report, analyse the new PISA data and listen, it is increasingly obvious that, while schools have achieved great things, we are not doing enough to ignite and inspire our children to become brilliant learners. The challenge we face isn't what we put in the curriculum but how we create passionate and compassionate learning places which inspire young people to learn. Those of us who have seen it happen and know how to do it need to work together to share ideas and strategies and to continue to think team and to build co-operative, collaborative approaches that inspire young people to really understand what they are capable of, to dispel the nonsense about genius and to help them reach their extraordinary potential.