Assembly: Naming a House

This post contains the text of an assembly which I delivered in 2018. I am using it to try to illustrate some of the positive features of assemblies which I set out in my post about what assemblies are for. Good morning. As you are aware, the school is getting bigger. In September we will …

What is the point of assemblies?

I have a confession to make: I love taking assemblies. It's probably because it's the closest I can get these days to fulfilling my frustrated youthful dreams of being a preacher, clad in black and uttering deep pronouncements of unquestioned spiritual authority from the pulpit. I suspect my enthusiasm for the task would diminish rapidly …

A Caution about Context

We are doing what's right for our context. That wouldn't work in our context. I often see comments like this on Edu-Twitter. They sound reasonable, important and wise, don't they? And to a point, I think they are. Context is crucial. When we consider whether any idea is a good idea for the classroom or …

Busting the Myths of TAGs

GCSE, A Level and other results are issued this week. Of course, because public exams were cancelled, the grades were awarded by teacher assessment. This is likely to lead to higher results than usual and a lot of questions being asked in the media, along with the implication that schools have not done a professional …

Selflessness in Leadership

Jesus Washes his Disciples' Feet by Jan Luyken The principle of selflessness Selflessness is the first of the Nolan Principles, designed to uphold standards in public life. They apply to a wide range of office-holders, including those who work in education. The principle of selflessness is defined as acting ‘solely in terms of the public …

The Mirror: A Reflection

Drowning of Anabaptists in the River Limmat I recently enjoyed reading a blog post by Steve Adcock, which considered curriculum intent using the analogy of the mirror and the window. The mirror suggests a curriculum which represents the students, allowing them to recognise themselves in what they learn, while the window is about giving them …

A Loss to Know

The ever-increasing costs of the COVID-19 pandemic have been highly visible over the last year. We are used to seeing daily updates to positive cases, hospital admissions and, most shockingly of all, the relentlessly mounting death toll. There have also been attempts to quantify the impact of coronavirus on the economy, as well as on …

Reading about Curriculum

I have spent a lot of time reading about curriculum over the last few years and it has radically changed the way I think about my job. I have kept a list of the books, articles and blogs which have most influenced me as I have done so, and it seems silly not to share …

Carrots

There was once a farmer who was famed for his carrots. Every year he sowed carrot seeds all over his farm, tended the plants lovingly and always harvested a bumper crop. Once all the carrots were harvested, he would weigh them carefully on his scales. The heavier ones were taken to market, the less heavy …

Things which can’t be got

In 1948 two philosophers sat down in a BBC studio to debate the existence of God. The Jesuit priest F.C. Copleston and the mathematician Bertrand Russell locked horns over one of life’s ultimate questions in the most gentlemanly way imaginable. Copleston advanced an argument based on Leibniz’s principle of sufficient reason, which he defined as …