Once upon a time, I thought I was the bees’ knees in the classroom. I loved teaching and I flattered myself that the pupils I taught loved learning. Sadly – or perhaps luckily for my ego – mine was an era in which students were not canvassed for their opinion of lessons/teaching. Inspection-ready proof, therefore,… Read More »
I love Hong Kong. China, not so much, even after a couple of splendid trips to Hong Kong and China, on behalf of all the British boarding schools. If the younger me had had a bucket list of places I’d like to see before I popped my clogs, Hong Kong would have been pretty high… Read More »
There are a lot of them. You could say they measure out my life. Maybe that’s why they are still with me, even though on a daily basis I could trip over some of them. Others are under beds, which is a good place for them, long and flat as they are. Stacked at the… Read More »
Some conversations, for better or worse, you never forget. Maybe it was a shock at the time and the recall is vivid – true in this case. Maybe new and surprising developments raise the ghost. And yes, that is also true. I recall from a very distant past talking to two young women my own… Read More »
Scan the many virtues – selling points – of independent schools which parents believe to be important when choosing a school for their child, and class size will come high up on the list. Chinese schools do things differently – huge classes, excellent results – but in Britain, we cherish the belief that small classes… Read More »
I’m beginning to develop ‘a thing’ about speech days. I know, it’s now out of season – in most schools, speech day, prize-giving or founder’s day celebrations sit happily at the end of the school year, handily filling a niche between the end of exams and the official last day. They bask in the summer… Read More »
Is a sole leadership role is the perfect solution? Or is an extensive team is needed to lead a school to success? We have lived through changing times in education. No change there, then. In fact, living with and through a constantly changing world of education is often cited as a reason to call a… Read More »
There’s a rich history to one of Britain’s oldest girls’ schools Once upon a time, I was deputy head of the oldest girls’ school in the country, The Red Maids’ School in Bristol. On founder’s day every year – the school’s equivalent of speech day – the head girl read to the assembled parents, pupils,… Read More »
There’s been rampant growth in unconditional offers for university places I wonder if it’s too soon to write the eulogy for conditional offers of a place at university? An unconditional offer of a place at a university of your choice reminds me of Japanese knotweed – once a rare thing – now rampant in the land… Read More »
Independent schools play a vital role in supporting music in the curriculum Put the right child – boy soprano – in the right church, preferably ancient and candlelit, at the right time, as close to Christmas as possible, and even strong men may weep. There is something about a frosty December night, the silence and… Read More »