I recently came across this initiative from Oundle School, and was so heartened that I think Mr Gunson‘s words need quoting in full! What a wonderful example of a school actually enacting that well-worn phrase: “education for its own sake”. Will follow with interest… It is vital that pupils do not equate all learning with assessment. Trivium has …
Category Archives: Education
Kidzania and the growth of a child’s imagination
My office happens to be near Kidzania, the “Educational Entertainment Experience” that has recently opened in Westfield, so it has been the subject of some speculation amongst the Keystone team. I have spent the past few days reading more about it, and confess to some unease about its educational vision. Kidzania is built over a …
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Eton – after a socialist revolution
I’ve quite enjoyed racing through News from Nowhere, William Morris’ account of England a generation after a socialist revolution. I’m sure everyone was worrying… “but what would happen to Eton?” “Up yonder are some beautiful old buildings, which were built for a great college or teaching-place by one of the mediaeval kings – Edward the Sixth, …
Some Press on Soup-Eating
I should have posted these clippings sooner. I came out strongly in the press against the sorts of myths (inc soup-eating) being sold to parents about how to survive in a UK independent school. Here we are in The Telegraph; here in The Times; and here in The Voice of Russia!
Daisy Christodoulou on Educational Myths
I was delighted to see that the magnificent Daisy Christodoulou, who featured quite a lot in my recent mini-essay on the curriculum, contributed an article to last week’s Spectator. Her point that some of the trendiest education ideas are actually rather old hat was very well put: “…one popular buzzword at the moment is ‘21st-century …
Roger Scruton on knowledge, the curriculum and the state’s contribution to education
In a recent BBC Point of View broadcast, intellectual heavyweight Roger Scruton gave a fascinating history of education since the nineteenth century. It is well worth a read. Having just written a mini-essay on the curriculum, I was especially struck by this thought: The state inherited well-funded, long established and dedicated institutions and a tried …
Making independent schools affordable
If there is one concern that privately-educated friends of mine with new-born children all share it is that they will not be able to afford the education that they themselves were lucky to receive. I predict that this topic will come to dominate UK boarding schools over the next decades. Andrew Adonis commented on the inflation …
Mini-Essay: The Curriculum
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, …
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 …
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 …
Will Orr-Ewing 