Rather than fear the return of the spectre of public benefit, the aim of the sector should be that when the subject is raised, it is laughed at by all but the most militant vandals – no one but a fool could see what a service they and their products are doing. These schools and […]
Author Archives: willorrewing
The National Tutoring Programme
Last week the government announced a new £1bn package for schools. £350 million will pay for the establishment of a National Tutoring Programme, which will give schools access to subsidised tutoring sessions. The rest will be spent whichever way headteachers best believe will catch their pupils up on education missed during the pandemic and might itself […]
We should celebrate, not mourn, the cancellation of exams
“Surely now is the golden opportunity for schools, untrammelled by all that gruesome nomenclature of ‘exam specification’, ‘assessment objective’, ‘rubrics’ and so on, to set their pupils’ ‘love of learning’ truly ablaze.” Full piece published on Medium here.
Private Education & Public Benefit
Institutions inextricably bound up with their localities. National treasures with long histories of public service. Sites of collective memory and ritual, loyalty and love. What’s a communitarian not to love about private schools? Regrettably all too much. Read the full piece at The Critic.
Scoop – COVID edition
Below is my termly newsletter, Online teaching and learning webinar We have been teaching online for 10+ years and stand ready to help any educators who are doing it for the first time. We shall be putting on a webinar, hosted by me and our Director of Education Ed Richardson, on Friday 24th April at 3pm to […]
Schools before the state
Love passing these local village schools, which show the important role the church played in educating the poor before the state got involved via the Forster Education Act of 1870.
21st Century Learning’s “thought-cliches”
Jacques Barzun’s portrait of John Comenius (1592 – 1670) shows that many of the educational nostrums of our day are in fact centuries old.
“The world felt big”
The autodidact is a rare creature these days. I really enjoyed listening to this Talking Politics interview with Tara Westover, who grew up in rural Idaho as one of seven children in a strict Mormon family. Her father did not allow her to go to public school, but she taught herself, ending up studying at […]
What sort of knowledge..?
From H W Household’s Reminiscences about Charlotte Mason, courtesy of Charlotte Mason Poetry: What sort of knowledge? Well, they want to hear of Odysseus and Nausicaa, to read the immortal stories of Herodotus, and Plutarch’s Lives; they want to listen to the tale of Thermopylae and Salamis and to learn how democracy raised Athens to her […]
Montaigne on Education
Jacques Barzun’s wonderful book, From Dawn to Decadence, has been a companion for more than a decade. Dog-eared, covered in indecipherable marks and notes, its front cover long since torn away, I dip in whenever I can and always emerge refreshed. I’ve just re-read this great passage on Montaigne’s views on education and thought I […]
