Monday, 13 June 2011

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire."

If you read the new McKinsey Report, analyse the new PISA data and listen to people like Ken Robinson it is increasingly obvious that, while we have achieved great things over the last ten years, we are not doing enough to ignite and inspire our children to become brilliant little learners. The challenge is  how we create passionate and compassionate learning places.
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. No one can doubt that we can transform the learning landscape through the powerful use of collaborative school improvement approaches and through using brilliant programmes like Every Child a Reader, Every Child Counts and the Intensifying Support Programme. But most importantly we must create a culture of excellence built on passion, persistence, self-belief and determined, focused and deliberate practice and hard work. Throughout my life people have told me that things are impossible and more recently told me that we can't get every child to read by the time they are seven or eight; that we can't get every child can’t be a brilliant little learner by the time they leave primary school; that we can't get every young person the equivalent of 5 good GCSEs including English and maths by the time they are sixteen. I simply don't accept any of this and believe that every school can be a great school and that we can create great teams doing the extraordinary with the current people. Success doesn't come in can'ts it comes in cans. We simply need to change the culture and get people to believe; to believe in themselves and to believe in our children and young people and our colleagues. The next person who tells you it's impossible with these children, these young people, these families or these colleagues, tell them that if you believe anything is possible and that achieving the impossible is nothing!
Chris

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