In almost a decade of answering questions from parents about boarding schools, I have never been asked about a school’s curriculum. And yet it is hard to think of a feature that has more of a bearing on a child’s education. This short essay makes a case for why the curriculum is quite so important, …
Author Archives: willorrewing
Emotional Resilience
This sort of thing is increasingly prevalent in the independent sector: Yesterday, it was announced that head teachers from 200 of the country’s leading independent schools will attend a conference next month to learn how to equip their pupils with emotional resilience, so that they can deal better with stress and failure. (Full article in …
Stillness – what’s wrong with chapel?
One of the mini-essays I’m planning is a profile on Anthony Seldon. Is he our generation’s Thomas Arnold? One thing is for certain: there is no man in independent education today who is better at dominating the headlines. Yesterday, he was promoting his Conference on Mindfulness by commenting on stillness in schools: He said that …
The Independent Curriculum
I have been following the Independent Curriculum (or, to give it its full title, the “IC Programmes for Learning”) for a number of years now. Its parent company, Galore Park, have done prep schools a good service by publishing traditional, knowledge-rich text books (including the 1905 Classic Our Island Story) written by excellent independent school …
Mini-Essay: The Abolition of Man
It is a frequent lament of liberal education enthusiasts in this country that they must so often turn to the United States for inspiration. So it was that, via the US education think-tank the ISI, I first came across C S Lewis’ slim, digestible book on education, The Abolition of Man. Few books have had …
Mindfulness – gathering momentum
I have been meaning to research Mindfulness in more detail this year. Like “Neuro-linguistic Programming” (NLP), the word has a rather synthetic quality – but I shall endeavour to read more before commenting. All I can say for now is that it is gathering momentum in many UK boarding schools. See this letter published in The …
Mini-Essay: What is Liberal Education?
One cannot be a modern “educationalist” without a pithy defence of what education is and what (or who) it is for.
Homeschooling
This is a piece I wrote for the Axis Educational Trust: A few weeks ago, I had the terrifying experience of appearing on Newsnight to talk about the government’s proposed changes to the A level system. In the “green room” (which is orange, and contains posters of previous Newsnight guests such as Simon Cowell), I …
2012: Some Press
2012 has seen two substantial – and completely unanticipated – bits of press. 1) An article I wrote for the Evening Standard made the front page! 2) I went up against (or, as it turned out, with) Paxman on Newsnight. Video below… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5TD6D84KQ4&context=C42e5466ADvjVQa1PpcFOrth9nRVyusBdAsVW-J_0WWMaAzXGj0NA=
Michael Gove in 5 minutes
I was asked by a friend to give him a quick summary of Michael Gove’s policies. Here it is: Free Schools – most important – and other systemic changes Gove has made it possible for any primary or secondary school to become an academy. There has been HUGE take up, despite what the unions were …
Will Orr-Ewing 