HAPPY SUNNY SUNDAY!

A WHOLE NEW MIND!

"The last few decades have belonged to a certain kind of person with a certain kind of mind... computer programmers who could crank code, lawyers who could craft contracts, MBAs who could crunch numbers. But the keys to the kingdom are changing hands....

IT'S A CONCEPTUAL AGE!

I have been able to get a break and spent some time reading and reflecting on the challenges we face in building truly world class provision consistently for all young people.  I know colleagues think that is asking the impossible but my visits to some amazing schools in Singapore, Stockholm, Helsinki, York, Leeds, Lincoln, Sheffield, Nottingham and Guernsey have shown me what is possible; what we can achieve if we create the right culture, if we create passionate and compassionate learning places built on skills, character and deep knowledge of what works and what doesn't!

'SCHOOLS LEARNING TOGETHER' AGAIN!

'Schools Learning Together' was a programme in York funded by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation when the new authority started in the mid nineties. It flipped the approach to school improvement and curriculum and professional development and laid the foundations for the cooperative and collaborative learning that is still a characteristic of this small and successful local authority.

IMPORTANT STUFF: What should students learn in the 21st century?

The Center for Curriculum Redesign (CCR) is trying to answer this critical question, and then share its recommendations and frameworks on a worldwide basis. The CCR brings together non-governmental organisations, jurisdictions, academic institutions, corporations, and non-profit organisations including foundations.

INTERESTING TIMES!

We certainly live in interesting times! I know that is actually a Chinese curse, so we need to be careful as all around us we see the consequences of a deeply toxic OFSTED, a climate of fear, command and control everywhere and organisations struggling to make sense of what the middle tier looks like in this crazy fragmented educational landscape.

LEADERSHIP MATTERS!

I have been thinking about what makes a great leader, a great manager, a great headteacher and the difference leadership can make to outcomes!

IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING!

"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing."

John Maxwell

School systems all over the world are studying the research, trying to understand the PISA reports and wrestling with how we can educate for the new order; the new globalised economies, the creative and intellectual demands of new institutions and cultures, complex multilingual and multi-ethnic cultures and religions, and more critical, informed and cosmopolitan populations.

HAVE A HAPPY AND HEALTHY SUNDAY!

I am sitting here watching the torrential rain; wondering what season it is and whether we will ever see the sun for a prolonged period called Summer. I was reading in The Sunday Times that Dr Mark Porter thinks that happy is more important than healthy; but only just.  So wherever you are I suggest that you aim to be happy and healthy!

GUERNSEY 14-19 CURRICULUM REVIEW GROUP!

I've just got back from two great days in Guernsey working with some wonderful colleagues who are thinking about how to build world class learning and improve educational provision and outcomes for children and young people on the island.

EDUCATION ON GUERNSEY!

I was in Guernsey again today working with some great colleagues.

FACT It’s your choice and there are no excuses!

"If educators invested a fraction of the energy they now spend on trying to transmit information in trying to stimulate the students' enjoyment of learning, we could achieve much better results."

Csikszentmihalyi

REMEMBER: EVERYBODY IS A GENIUS!

PROJECT-BASED LEARNING MATTERS!

It is increasingly clear that we need to re-engineer the curriculum to connect with young people's interests and passions in a way that is authentic, academic, rigorous, applied and active. Project-based or enquiry-based learning provides us with a way of doing this.

'ENQUIRY-BASED LEARNING' AT YEWLANDS TECHNOLOGY COLLEGE!

I was at Yewlands Technology College this afternoon meeting some wonderful colleagues who are reshaping the Year 7 curriculum.

WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM FINLAND?

As England struggles with its education and learning framework, it is worth studying what is happening in Finland. According to Pasi Sahlberg, when he spoke at the NCTL Seizing Success Conference, the high-performing Finnish school system has the following features:

• collaboration 
• no competition within the school system 
• no grading of pupils until fifth grade
• no standardised tests 
• creativity
• individualisation
• personalisation of learning

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!

It's Fathers Day here in the UK, so thanks to all those dads out there. Have a great one!

RELEASING THE MAGIC!

I was speaking at the Entrust Breakfast Seminar at the NCTL Seizing Success Conference at the ICC in Birmingham yesterday and I met some great colleagues. I was talking about what it takes to build brilliant...

Wherever you are in the world I expect, like me, you are searching for the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that makes up a great classroom, a great school, a great organisation, a great local authority or a great chain!

REMEMBER

"The darkest places in hell are reserved for those 

who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis." 

Dante Alighieri

STANDARDS, CURRICULUM, ASSESSMENT AND ACCOUNTABILITY!

I don't know about you but I am struggling at the moment to understand the obsession with GCSEs, new grading systems and the constant running down of the achievements of our young people and their teachers. To achieve world-class outcomes, we need a new approach driving cultural and system change and if we really want to be successful we need to achieve deeper levels of engagement by all headteachers, teachers and other stakeholders and we need to work together to create a more collaborative and cooperative approach. 

WE ARE WHAT WE EAT!

I finally got back to the gym yesterday after struggling for weeks with a bad back and it's true everytime that exercise makes me feel better but I am not convinced by those people who constantly tell me that exercise is the best way to lose weight.

SIMPLY BELIEVE!

If you read the McKinsey Reports, analyse the PISA data, review the research evidence about 'what works' and listen to people like Ken Robinson, Dan Pink and Tony Wagner it is increasingly obvious that we need to develop skills, character and knowledge in our little learners and our bigger learners.

GRIT, PERSEVERANCE AND PASSION!

Grit is a positive trait that involves perseverance and passion to accomplish a long term goal no matter what challenges lie in the way.

HAPPY SUNDAY: FOLLOW YOUR HEART!

SKILLS, CHARACTER AND KNOWLEDGE!

The national and international research very clearly identifies that we need to re-engineer and re-imagine the curriculum in schools to develop skills, character and knowledge, to meet the needs of the world of work and to equip our children and young people for life in a rapidly changing world.

INVENTING THE FUTURE: THE NOTTINGHAM LEARNING TRUST!

I spoke to a great group of colleagues in Nottingham yesterday about what it takes to build brilliant...

I was at an event organised by the Nottingham Learning Trust talking about  the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that makes up a great school?

BRILLIANT STUFF: Cutlers' Education Committee

I was in Sheffield again yesterday morning meeting with the Cutlers' Education Committee to look at how we continue to develop the work we have been doing this year with Bradfield School, Firth Park Community Arts College, Stocksbriodge High School and Yewlands Technology College.

WELCOME AND THANK YOU!

It is great to know that the blog attracts such a diverse audience from around the world and that it has now attracted over 100000 visitors since it was set up two years ago...

TEACHING THE ELEPHANT TO DANCE!

A colleague asked me recently how we started with the challenges we faced at Education Leeds and I told him he should read a great book by James Belasco...

REMEMBER!