CHARACTER, RESILIENCE AND GRIT NEEDED!

What happened to the weather? And as we struggle with 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 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 higher level skills. We need to persuade the powers that be here that the future is only going to be secured if we develop a world of work curriculum to drive our learning landscape. A framework built on the skills as well as subjects young people need to be successful. The key thing is to start early, work hard and never give up!

Chris