Here it is, the new academic term has begun and for teachers, parents and students with enquiring minds, the question that should always be rattling around is, 'where is this going?' That is to say, whilst learning for its own sake is an invaluable, worthy and hoped for goal, learning to boxtick arbitrary governmental measures … Continue reading Pay attention, stop what you’re doing and look at me! New term, same challenges, common sense advice. Careers stuff.
Author: edducan
GCSE results day 2018.Take a breath, it’s all going to be okay.
With Ofqual taking the unprecedented move of shifting the boundaries of science papers to stop a landslide of Us being issued, students - for whom the pressure has been increasingly ratcheted upwards over the last year - are likely to be somewhat on edge. Waiting, endlessly waiting to discover what other horrible surprises tomorrow may … Continue reading GCSE results day 2018.Take a breath, it’s all going to be okay.
For what we are about to receive – what happens if your A level results aren’t what you hoped for…
As the imperial death march intones in their sub-conscious, the school leavers of 2018 are a Schrödinger's cat of sorts, where by they have both passed and failed their A levels and the truth is only a short hop away from revealing itself. It's like breaking something valuable that belongs to an irascible parent and … Continue reading For what we are about to receive – what happens if your A level results aren’t what you hoped for…
Summer holiday thought experiment.
Thanks to a handy little doohickey on my site I know who's been reading my articles, where they've been doing that and their snack of choice as they enjoy my sagacity. That's not wholly true but I do know which articles have been accessed and from which country and over the last few weeks I've … Continue reading Summer holiday thought experiment.
Don’t look now but I’m looking dangerously close to credible… (how students should be using their summer)
First the TES and now a second article in the I - Newspaper, print and t'internet. Lovely stuff and all about the top 5 education hacks that students of any stripe can and should be doing with their summer... https://inews.co.uk/news/education/how-teenagers-can-use-summer-holidays-to-get-ahead-in-career-ambitions/
End of term talent shows aren’t a drag after all…
As a kid I was quite arty, I used to have long hair and wear clothes from charity shops and oddments stolen from the school's costume department. I did plays and read poetry. Now in an exclusive single sex public school that's pretty much all the evidence needed to tar and feather a chap and … Continue reading End of term talent shows aren’t a drag after all…
Oooh check out my bona fides…
After years of bleating from the side-lines with no one listening or caring what I, a rank outsider, thought about any of this education lark I now have a cast iron defence against claims of woolly headedness. No more shall I be cowed by others within the careers establishment, particularly he who actively sought me … Continue reading Oooh check out my bona fides…
Don’t look over there, degrees are where it’s at, all the cool kids are doing them…
What do you get when you cross free training, almost guaranteed job and some pocket money? Something that is more compelling than a third rate degree from a failing institution. I've issued caution and sagacious words to a small but disinterested audience on this matter for some years now but it does seem that the … Continue reading Don’t look over there, degrees are where it’s at, all the cool kids are doing them…
It’s good to talk. Texting less so.
Whilst it is easy for people of my generation to soften the edges of our own schooling, misremembering them as a halcyon time when Dvorak's New World symphony was the soundtrack to innocent skylarking, things have inalterably changed. I'm no luddite but the ubiquity of technology has had a profound and I believe ultimately damaging … Continue reading It’s good to talk. Texting less so.
The great grade garage sale is back in the news again! 1st class degrees easier to get than a 3rd.
There's something tremendously reassuring about going to a beach, the predictable ebb and flow of the waves crashing on the shoreline, the rise and fall of the sun. Everything is orderly and happens just as it ought, with almost metronomic precision. Where that calculable cosiness starts to become problematic is in education where year after … Continue reading The great grade garage sale is back in the news again! 1st class degrees easier to get than a 3rd.