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Does it matter where James Bond went to school?
It would appear that Daniel Craig has drunk his last shaken Martini and the role of James Bond is up for grabs. This transition to the next Bond has given opportunity to speculate, suggest and lobby for the actor who should next take up the mantle of 007. Over the past 54 years 10 actors […]
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Quantity over Quality
Over the past two decades there has been an unprecedented focus on Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). The 1998 National Childcare Strategy set out the then Labour government’s intention to increase ECEC provision across the sector through a number of initiatives. This continued during the Coalition term of government. However, during this time, policy […]
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Academic writing is more than proofreading
A student came to a Language Advisory session (LAS) last week with a three-page single-spaced assignment and asked me to proofread it. I pointed out that our job is not to proofread, but to help with academic writing. The student was surprised, but we ended up having a useful session looking at the way he […]
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Are we getting left behind with 21st century literacies?
I was recently at the European COST network meeting in Cyprus on ‘The digital literacy and multimodal literacy practices of young children’. The event was attended by delegates from over thirty countries and the network promises to provide a valuable and much-needed forum for synthesising and sharing research related to young children’s digital lives. The […]
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Gazing into the teacher supply crystal ball: a response to Educational Excellence Everywhere
Last month’s White Paper provides much for teacher educators to think about. Chapter Two lays out how the class of 2020 might train to teach. The pen portrait of Chris on page 34 has been painted to show a perhaps predictable picture involving school based training at a SCITT as part of a multi-academy trust. The […]
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Teaching observations
“Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams.” (Keats) Teaching, by definition, is an activity that is observed, (McMahon, Barrett and O’Neill,2007), and during my career as an initial teacher educator and CELTA trainer I have probably observed literally thousands of hours of teaching practice. Teaching is inherently a very personal activity, since classroom decisions […]
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Step away from the data
I am a governor of a secondary school which is in the process of becoming “good”. To be clear, I mean here the “good” that is measured and measurable by Ofsted. I actually think the school is already good: the staff are hard-working and committed, the pupils are motivated and well-behaved, and everyone who is […]
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Greater than the sum of its parts?
Reflecting on multidisciplinary working Last month, a group of staff from across the University began working on a public engagement project involving Virtual Reality, Psychology, Biomedical Science and prosthetics. The Wellcome Trust Society Award which funds this work describes the project as follows: Virtual Reality Prosthetics- Body and Mind will engage the public in cutting-edge […]
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Three horses and a mule: Developing effective team communication skills
Within education we are commonly advising our students’ to reflect on their experiences, to learn from those experiences to support their learning. It is easier to give rather than heed this advice, and perhaps we need to make sure we practice what we preach. All this came to mind when considering the change and developments […]
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Autism Awareness – How Donald’s story shows attitudes are changing
In the 1930s a young boy called Donald Grey Triplett was the first person to be diagnosed with autism. Now in his 80s, he is regarded in a celebratory fashion, and not as a curiosity or a statistic. He drives a car, a Cadillac no less, and is well-liked by those who know him. His […]
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