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Cambridge Primary Review puts DCSF on the defensive

It’s a shame that the DCSF response to (RSA Fellow) Robin Alexander’s thoughtful Cambridge Primary Review was so – well – unthoughtful.
The report includes a core emphasis on dispelling the “policy-led belief that breadth and standards are incompatible, when the evidence consistently shows the opposite – that one requires the other and the best schools [...]

Richard Layard – What Makes a Good Childhood event at RSA

Just a quick post to point out that Professor Lord Richard Layard will be at the RSA this Thursday at 1pm for an hour to debate the Children Society’s A Good Childhood Report.
And it is a key debate, because the report is both important and problematic.
It is important because it amplifies a voice often unheard – [...]

Extend schools even further

It was great to see Sir Cyril Taylor arguing last week for the extended schools programme to go beyond longer hours and services provided in schools. His comments are welcome, because it is all too easy to see extended schools as a glorified child care operation, and it could be so much more.
Schools are uniquely [...]

The value of schools in a new austerity

On Monday, the Liberal Democrats published their plans to invest more in education, and yesterday I argued they missed the chance to set out a vision which was more responsive to the long lasting economic downturn we face.
So, how could they have responded?
Well, there are three responses.
One is essentially ‘more of the same’ [...]

Liberal Democrats education spending plans miss the point

The Liberal Democrats published their spending priorities for education on Monday, but by ignoring the debate about the content and purpose of schooling they missed the chance to make any contribution to the real debate in education.
In pledging to scrap tuition fees, increasing spending on poor kids at school, and grow child care provision, Nick [...]

Sir Ken on why we should leave common sense out of education

Just got back upstairs from Sir Ken Robinson’s lunchtime talk at the RSA based on his new book, The Element. In his talk – among other things – he sought to explain why the educational debate is so cyclical.
Now I’ve heard this argument before, but as usual, Ken Robinson says it very well. People, he [...]

75% of the adult working population can’t add up, and guess whose fault it is?

Last week saw another example of an attempt to mire education in an unhelpful debate about ideology (see Ian’s previous post for another).
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) last week released a report on adult literacy and numeracy which claims that three quarters (that’s 75% for the seven and a half out of ten of you that [...]

RSA Academy recognised in Design Week’s Hot 50

A quick post to mention that we were delighted to hear the RSA Academy and Opening Minds being named in Design Week’s Hot 50. Sadly the story’s not on their site yet, so I’ll give you a quote instead of a link:
‘The Royal Society of Arts has strongly supported design since it emerged as a [...]

Lunatics, caning, dumbing down and Shakespeare by rote – can they really think that?

Straw men are rife in the debate on education. Anyone who has tried to stand up for student voice and been accused of ‘letting the lunatics run the asylum’ (as we have), or has defended the importance of knowledge and been told that they oppose skills, will recognise this fact.
We are proposing a series on [...]