Blog

So now another World Cup has come and gone. Well done to Germany, who were clearly the best side. Arguably it was one of the best World Cups of all time, with record numbers of goals and end-to- end action. Germany beat Brazil 7-1, sending a whole nation into despair. Australia’s Tim Cahill’s volley against the Dutch and Colombian James Rodriguez’s masterpiece of a strike against Uruguay in the Maracana were other moments of individual brilliance that illuminated the tournament. […]

In 1993 (although it feels more like 1893!), I had been teaching Biology for about 8 years, when I decided to take a Diploma in Management at Portsmouth University. It was a real eye-opener as I was the only person on the course who worked in Education. There were all sorts of people on the course; people who worked for multi-national companies, people who were coming out of the Navy or people who worked for local Government or solicitors etc, […]

  Striking Problems More than a fifth of England’s schools were closed on Thursday 10th July 2014 during a strike by the National Union of Teachers, according to government figures. The NUT said most schools had been completely or partially closed. Schools were closed across England and Wales. Many parents had to find emergency childcare or take the day off work. The strike was over changes to teachers’ pay, pensions and conditions. The Education Secretary Michael Gove wants to introduce […]

The whole nation is once again looking forward to that time of the year in which we see Images of smiling teenagers in the newspaper, with TV pictures) showing delighted young people screaming and expressing how unbelievably well they’ve done in the summer examinations. As we are now in the spring, what lies in between now and that time at the end of August does not always make good TV pictures. Parental worries and active involvement, teachers’ hard work, perseverance […]

Are students in grammar schools better behaved or are private schools the solution?  I have had the privilege of having taught in all the three main types of school – Comprehensive, Grammar School and Independent (fee paying) schools and in my opinion grammar schools are really good. I found them inspiring to teach in as it is such pleasure to be making a small contribution to the development of these bright young people. However are they perfect? No. What really puzzles […]

Is the standard of behaviour better in some schools? Considering that there are around 4,000 secondary schools in the state sector in Britain – ranging from comprehensives to academies and grammar schools – not to talk of special schools, it would be foolish to think that the standard of behaviour is the same in all of them. However, there is a common pattern in all of them in terms of behaviour and academic performance: low expectations and complacency. As a […]

Teaching can be such pleasure and extremely rewarding In my years of teaching at a grammar school and largely the top set and the sixth form in good comprehensive schools, teaching was a joy as the boys and girls were on the whole, very bright and it is such a delight to interact and lead the very best of young people. They are willing to learn and explore and you get drawn to them more when you know that most […]

The link between students’ behaviour and academic achievement is well established. A proof can be seen in the case of two prominent people in education in recent history. Sir William Atkinson took over Phoenix School in Hammersmith and Sir Michael Wilshaw’s record at Mossbourne Academy in east London. Both leaders were able to achieve seismic improvement in examination results after they had transformed students’ behaviour and sent a very clear signal to teachers, parents and students that low expectation is […]