The Cambridge Primary Review

Do your colleagues know about the findings of the Cambridge Primary Review?

Professor Robin Alexander (pictured) and his team have at last completed their work.

The final report is out now on this web site: http://www.primaryreview.org.uk/

What about a staff meeting on the report? How about a day with other schools around with some speakers and group discussions about what the findings of this report means for your school and its future?

A piece of research of this size MUST be central to professional discussions in Primary schools up and down the country.

Endgame

Booked to see Endgame by Samuel Beckett in London in November..on my birthday

Charles Spencer writes in the daily Telegraph:

Endgame is the masterpiece that sorts out the men from the boys when it comes to admirers of the bleak dramatic world of Samuel Beckett.

In Endgame (1957), however, Beckett mercilessly excludes every possibility of the positive. The world outside is described as a zero, and while Beckett was doubtless considering the possibility of nuclear annihilation, his evocation of an arid planet now also reminds us of the possibility of a world laid waste by global warming. Inside the grim penumbral room where the play takes place, cruelty prevails.

I like to take in a cheerful show on such an occasion as my birthday. I'm a hard core Beckett fan so I can take it and the actor Mark Rylance who plays Hamm (pictured in the dark glasses) is in my view our greatest living actor.

'Two Posts in One Day'

The main political parties continue to boast about the cuts in public spending they want to make. These cuts will of course impact on the poor.

The raising of the pension age is one that will affect everyone. The argument is that "we are all living longer" and the 'economy' just can't afford it.

It is worth questioning the notion that we are 'all' living longer. In this country alone, thousands of people every year die of heart disease, cancer and strokes. Despite wonderful advances in medicine, the tragedy of an early death in the family is still not at all uncommon. I myself have lost a number of friends and colleagues over the last ten years.

Perhaps news of a medical breakthrough that can prevent and/or cure some of these fatal illnesses would justify discussion of raising the pension age.

If the economy 'can't afford' to provide people with a long retirement, then life may only consist of toil for many. It may be the 'economy' that needs to change to ensure that hard working people have a long and comfortable retirement.

Boys into Reading

We have been working on a new project with the wonderful teachers at Stockwell Park High School in South London. We are exploring the relationship that boys have with reading in the school. In doing so, we are discussing with the teachers essentialist and anti-essentialist positions around the issue of boys and girls and reading. Essentialists view boys and girls as being 'naturally' different in their dispositions and characters - 'boys will be boys' and 'girls will be girls'. Anti-essentialists believe that, if boys and girls are different in these ways, than they are 'made' this way by society. We think it is important to study the ways that those with these conflicting views on boys and girls approach literacy interventions in schools.

We are presently awaiting the views of the students in the school on some of these issues and how they perceive reading both inside and outside of school.

Write Away

Another great web site that provides information about the best children's literature available and the authors who create it is the 'Write Away' web site. Perfect, if you are a language coordinator. You can find it here: http://www.writeaway.org.uk/

United Kingdom Literacy Association

Those who are new to this blog and to education studies may well find the United Kingdom Literacy Association (UKLA) website a useful site to visit. You can find it here: http://www.ukla.org/ I am the Kent and Surrey representative.

UKLA have their international conference every year. This year it is in Winchester. They always have interesting speakers, workshops and a wonderful bookshop. The weekend of the conference is particularly for teachers. More information on the web site.

The Safe-Guarding Inspectors

The new school inspection regime is worthy of comment. In a primary school there will be two inspectors - one to inspect the school's teaching and learning and one to inspect the school's capacity to 'safe-guard' the children.

Should the school be perceived as neglecting the safe-guarding of the children in any way then they can not receive a good inspection report.

The notion of safe-guarding children that ofsted is using is the following

"The Government has defined the term ‘safeguarding children’ as:
‘The process of protecting children from abuse or neglect, preventing impairment of their health and development, and ensuring they are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care that enables children to have optimum life chances and enter adulthood successfully.’"

Ofsted offer a whistle-blower hotline for public service employees to inform them of any 'mis-conduct' they see.