Interesting course today led by Trevor Hawes, he of all the Neuro-science stuff of which I am so sceptical.
He did a great synopsis of the challenges currently facing us in Primary education but also painted a fairly positive picture of how we can make the most of the situation. Whatever we think of the political situation, we can get along in the system and do the best as we see it.
As always there are many changes facing us and may of these are still in their embryonic phase and changing all the time. For example, the plans to get rid of Schools Sports Partnerships ended up being scrapped. I was made more aware than ever of the very difficult position we find ourselves in as educators, between government policy, educational research and our own aims based on the children in front of us. I am somewhat heartened by Gove's focus on the 'Importance of teaching', particularly as it seems to go hand-in-hand with a slackening of 'top-down' control. Of course I can see the link between good teaching and good outcomes for children. So, as always the focus is on improving teaching. We need to have a look at how we can tweak our CPD so that we are putting teachers more in control of their own learning. More emphasis on action research and coaching.
As far as the curriculum is concerned, I have no problem with the focus on Lit, maths and science and I can also see the importance of PE and music. History? Not entirely sure that I see that it should have status over Geography, DT, Arts? It looks like there will be enough freedom within whatever curriculum is devised for us to develop what we need.
One of the main things I took away is that I need to look beyond the news headlines about changes to education. In most of the cases outlined, the actual policy allows much more freedom and is much less scary than the news would have us believe.
Still not sure about the neuro-science though...
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