education – T E Shepherd

On the fourth day of advent: getting political

Thomas — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 23:38:00 +0000

Michelle Harison, author of the 13 Treasures trilogy and the ever so scary Unrest shared the petition to save the arts in schools. I have done, and I’ve also written to my MP, and this is why we need a campaign to change the proposed new EBacc qualification.

I confess that I do sit in a slightly odd place when it comes to arts education because I did the creative subjects all the way through my degree, and then struggled to find work. Now part of it was *something else* that sat like an elephant in the corner of the room stopping me from doing well in interviews but I do think that probably too many people do go onto study the arts at a higher level. That said, I also think that children – at school – are forced to pass exams and specialise too early in an increasingly narrow set of academic disciplines and that is just not healthy. At school, children should carry on with the widest selection of subjects for as long as possible. Sorry, I’ve rambled, but as you might be able to tell, I’m a little bit passionate about this subject…

Never knowingly under-educated

Thomas — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 21:49:00 +0000

I really thought I had the slipped through some wormhole in time and ended up on April Fool’s Day when I read this article on how the conservative Policy Exchange thinktank thinks that teachers should run John Lewis-style schools for profit. Excuse me?

Have our government been spending so much time in John Lewis that they think everything should be run on that model? Don’t misunderstand me, I think the John Lewis is great … for shops. For schools, not so much…

Teachers should be encouraged to take a stake in John Lewis-style partnerships to run state schools as profit-making enterprises, according to proposals outlined by the conservative Policy Exchange thinktank.

What’s wrong with forgetting about league tables and selection and making all schools equally as good as each other. There would of course be some fluctuation from year to year, and place to place, some would be better, some would be not so good, and others would be on average, good. But that’s not going to happen is it!

Education Education Education

Thomas — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 10:43:00 +0000

So it’s GCSE results day. Following on the heals of A-Level results day and Scottish Highers, once again Thursdays in August follow a similar and predictable pattern. Quite apart from the fact that for the current crop of students it is their day and they should be allowed to celebrate/commiserate as they see fit (they have performed to the best of their ability under the system that they have been taught and examined under), there is a question over why we always have this debate.

Okay, so I know the reason; itâs the media, its their annual pop at the system. But why? If today’s students were taught and graded under the same system as 30, 20, 10, or even 5 years ago, then there would be a case for comparing the results. But its not the same system (and what’s more it shouldn’t be â things change) and so you can’t compare them.

There was a lady on BBC Breakfast this morning that seemed to be complaining about academic subjects being examined via coursework rather than exams. Huh? If I’d gone through a system of just exams I wouldn’t have done nearly half as well. Surely there should be a balance and those that do excel at both coursework and exams would rightly get the top marks with those who do well in one but not the other (doesn’t matter which) doing well, but not as well, etcâ¦