It is easy to criticise and pick faults with our education system because we all have thoughts about how it should be run and how children should be taught. But praise must also be issued when the system improves. And that has happened. A quiet revolution has been taking place since the coalition Government took…
When the King recently appeared on the popular TV show The Repair Shop – recorded when he was still the Prince of Wales – he lamented the lack of vocational education in schools. And I agree with him and have been banging this drum for years. I hope because it is Charles III saying it,…
With girls again outperforming boys at GCSEs an academic has posed the question: “Why can’t we accept it is just that they are cleverer?” Professor Alan Smithers’ comment was not just a throw-away line; he had conducted research into this area and published a report on it. And for the most part, I would go…
After more than a year of children experiencing disrupted schooling, they now have a six-week holiday – a chance for them to get even further behind. Many parents of those going up to secondary school have asked me what they should be doing to ensure their children know as much as they ought to. This…
To Kill a Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men are two of the finest novels of the last century. Millions of youngsters over multiple generations have read, enjoyed and learned from them. Harper Lee’s masterpiece is one of the greatest anti-racist tomes ever written and Steinbeck deals with poverty during the Great Depression. So, it…