Happy New Year! We face the future of schooling with more optimism than with pessimism. As I go into schools I see change and innovative practice. Sure, its too often one-off but they are beacons of learning to all of us. In particular, I see more staff passionate about their work and a willingness to … More What lies beyond (the) bluyonder?
The Greater Sydney Commission unveiled plans this week to make Parramatta the economic centre of Sydney. Under the proposal, a staggering $30 billion is needed to transform the region and create new infrastructure, schools, hospitals, green space and housing. Transformation is no longer a fringe concept. It is the norm for many nation states and … More When West Meets East
I’ve been looking at some data recently on suspension rates and there’s no prize for guessing which year group often has the highest (the answer is at the bottom of this blog post). What is alarming is there are students being suspended across all year cohorts. This raises a critical question for policy makers, which … More Lowering the white flag when it comes to suspensions
I spent the first week of the NSW school holidays at the ACEL national conference in Sydney. I was amazed that many teachers had travelled from as far away as Western Australia to attend. It was great to see such strong commitment to professional learning and networking but the irony is that most return to … More Ask the insiders
When ‘Teacher Professional Learning and Development: Best Evidence Synthesis Iteration (BES)‘ was published in 2007, we invited one of the lead authors, Professor Helen Timperley to speak about the teacher inquiry cycle and its effect on improved learning outcomes. More than a decade on, we are still referring to the ‘inquiry cycle’ in our conversations … More Who is my class?
The whole notion of the school curriculum has, in recent times, been subjected to insistent pressures and numerous reviews. In fact, we are awaiting the recommendations of a review into the NSW curriculum to ensure it is ‘preparing students to meet the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century.’ The realisation that the Industrial Age … More Curriculum unlimited
The OECD says that in Australia, “disparities in student performance related to socio-economic status take root at an early age and widen throughout students’ lives”: even the youngest learners in our school communities are not getting a go. Decades of research and examining best practice in classrooms have already shown us how to make our … More Why investment in early education for all is fair play
It’s been interesting to catch snippets of the conversation with Sir David Attenborough at the World Economic Forum in Davos recently. Sir David was discussing the ‘urgency of now’ needed to address the global environmental challenges we face. If you mute the sound and read the captions or insert education instead of environment, you may … More Time for adult decisions
It may feel as if New South Wales has become the education review state of late. We have a review of the NSW curriculum and the one into the use of smart phones in schools. These reviews, while important, skirt around the core issues. What would happen if the time and energy invested into these … More What’s missing when it comes to educational policy?
I’ve had a long career in education and over that time I’ve been exposed to the ideas, opinions and theories of teachers, academics, colleagues and parents. But when I stop to think about those people who’ve had the greatest impact on my professional life, it would have to be what I refer to as the … More The educational elders
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