Blogs - New School Thinking (NeST)

South Downs Learning Centre has a new home

The South Downs Learning Centre operated for a number of years in a house in Brighton, as part of the Self Managed Learning College. However the number of students had to be limited due to the space and now the work has been transferred to a new building in the centre of the city so that we can expand. Making the move has allowed us to drop the name 'South Downs Learning Centre' and we are just using Self Managed Learning College as our title.

Our programme for 7-16 year olds…

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Added by Alison Mcdonagh on August 12, 2011 at 9:54 — No Comments

A half-hour cartoon-graphic video summary of learning to read and spell to watch at home

Many learners fail in reading at the very start. Special help can come too late. Others stumble further on.

All learners do not benefit from classroom teaching alone.

This innovation is an aid to help prevent gaps and confusions, as well as to help clear them up. It summarises what it helps to know, for learners to watch any time they like, free online, or downloadable as a DVD. A DVD could be borrowed from libraries and at school. Teachers can find it handy too.

Anyone can… Continue

Added by valerie Yule on November 24, 2009 at 22:35 — No Comments

Why Educate?

There's a free download of a series of lectures "addressing fundamental questions about education".

Thought it would be of interest :)

(I haven't read it yet)…

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Added by Rosie Sherry on November 2, 2009 at 16:44 — No Comments

Do you want SATs in the final year of Primary school replaced? Register your view here.

The Cambridge Primary Review proposed that SATs should be replaced by teacher assessments. These would be for the purpose of informing them and parents of a child's progress. But these assessments would not be used to gauge the school's success in league tables or to measure the effectiveness of government policies. The Review did NOT propose scrapping a Year 6 assessment altogether, merely changing it.…

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Added by Charlie D on November 2, 2009 at 12:28 — 1 Comment

Dahlan's report on the NeST Conference

Last Friday, the Cambridge Primary Review was grabbing the headlines with claims that formal education should wait until the child is 6 and SATs should be stopped. Meanwhile, a small school in East Sussex, which already practices these recommendations, was hosting a conference on innovative practice in primary school education.

The inaugural New School Thinking conference was held at Lewes New School to bring lecturers & researchers together with parents, teachers and heads in… Continue

Added by Dahlan Lassalle on October 23, 2009 at 12:44 — No Comments

Cambridge Review on You and Yours 20 Oct 09

Click on this link for a radio discussion of the Cambridge Review of Primary Education, including its author Professor Robin Alexander.

Added by adrienne campbell on October 21, 2009 at 8:54 — 1 Comment

Balls to the Primary Review: "Kids can start school at four".

Is it just me or are some people willfully misinterpreting the Cambridge Primary Review's proposal that kids should not start formal schooling till six?

Note the word 'formal'.

Prof Alexander makes it clear he is talking about the style of education remaining play-based till six, rather than becoming too 'formal' in terms of the teaching approach. He is not saying for one moment that children ought literally to stay at home as per Barbara Ellen's mischievous article… Continue

Added by Charlie D on October 19, 2009 at 14:09 — No Comments

The Government's Response to the Cambridge Review

So, the Review has been dismissed by the Government as 'out of date' and 'going backwards'. It makes me wonder where they get their views and beliefs from... can someone tell me who the chief advisors to the Government are?

Added by Dahlan on October 16, 2009 at 7:52 — No Comments

transcending school

Join in the conversation . . . . . . http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=73948379515&ref=ts

what is the purpose of education?

Kieran

Added by kieran on October 13, 2009 at 23:00 — 10 Comments

Today's Evening Standard "Tesco attacks 'woeful' schools"

The boss of Tesco has a point about Government's excessive meddling in schools, leaving teachers 'distracted' form their main job. However, the article describes their main job as 'passing on knowledge to children'. Unfortunately, with in the existing era of tests and league tables it is necessary for pupils to receive 'knowledge' from their teacher so that they can get high marks. It is just a crying shame that education is seen as 'passing on knowledge' and not empowering children to discover… Continue

Added by Dahlan on October 13, 2009 at 23:00 — 2 Comments

A very unscientific approach to education

In most respects, I am no fan of the National Curriculum. It has grown too fat and unwieldy and is too prescriptive in terms of the content it requires my children to learn.

However, it is still useful when it talks about the skills involved in different subject areas. Take, for example, Science, a subject area that Michael Gove, Education Minister-in-waiting, sees as core to any curriculum.

Children, the National Curriculum says, in the first years of Primary school… Continue

Added by Charlie D on October 11, 2009 at 14:18 — No Comments

Upstairs, upstairs

Charlie is right to say that the Tory policy is deeply reactionary and a return to the Old Style. Presumably they think that's a point in its favour with the voters.

The problem is that the Labour policy of forcing everyone (well, they're aiming at 50% but that's an entirely arbitrary figure) to feel obliged to go to university is just as dismissive. Now, even those children not suited to academic studies are led to think that they need a degree and that they won't get a job without… Continue

Added by Philip Sparkes on October 5, 2009 at 23:21 — No Comments

Upstairs, Downstairs: The new Tory education policy

Today's Conservative announcement on education promises the advent of 'vocational' schools around the country. Apparently, these will be 14+ entry schools where Britain's future plumbers and electricians will be trained.

"Our new technical schools will provide credible, high quality vocational education in each major city," says Mr Gove.

Once again, the language betrays the internal beliefs of the policy's creators. A generation of 'academic' children (i.e. those with a… Continue

Added by Charlie D on October 5, 2009 at 20:36 — No Comments

Time past and time future …

Congratulations on some exciting and bold initiatives. As an ex Junior school headmaster in Harlow, Essex, and later as the Warden of SW Herts Teachers' Centre in Watford, I have retained a strong interest in progressive primary education, even into retirement. My second daughter is now teaching primary school in Victoria, Australia, and one grandson is training to be a Steiner teacher.

So I was really happy to be entertained by kids at the New School in Lewes when a friend here in… Continue

Added by Alan Wheatley on September 28, 2009 at 0:37 — 2 Comments

Inspirational

Completely inspired by the discovery of this movement, I want my youngest daughter to be involved, I will try my best to get her involved, too late for me, I just wish you had been around when I as little.

Added by adfgdfg on September 25, 2009 at 23:07 — No Comments

3 words I hate about Education

Clever.

Able.

Academic.

I hate those words.

Don't get me wrong, those labels have never done anything to harm me. Quite the opposite in fact. I was fortunate at school for two main reasons. One, I happened to have hit a certain developmental stage in certain subjects in time to pass the 11-plus, so I got sent to a school for 'bright' kids. Two, I realised early on that if I put in enough effort in those subjects that my secondary school valued (e.g. maths,… Continue

Added by Charlie D on September 21, 2009 at 17:00 — 3 Comments

I haven’t got a PHD (in self-motivation)

I haven’t got a PHD (in self-motivation)

By Dahlan Lassalle©2009

When my son Joshi expressed, with relish, that “they pulled out their brains through their eyes” I sat up and listened.

“Who did that!” I enquired in a tone that belied my alarm.

“The Egyptians” he replied with a sense of satisfaction. I think he was both pleased that he remembered this fact and that he knew something I didn’t!

As Joshi (5yrs) and Elias (8yrs) journey through their primary… Continue

Added by Dahlan on September 1, 2009 at 14:30 — No Comments

Custom Dissertation Help to get 2:1 standard or A+

Nowadays each student while writing dissertation or during their course work they will obviously need Dissertation Help which will not be offered in a right manner by all the custom dissertation writing service providers. If you are really in need of custom dissertation writing helpers especially the genuine expert writers then all you have to do is just visit to dissertationwriting-help.com then all your dissertation… Continue

Added by Kelly Black on August 26, 2009 at 10:24 — No Comments

Conclusion to my Dissertation for an MEd

Schools are inhibiting the process of developing children’s skills in digital technologies and new media literacy.

Of the 319,223 K12 students surveyed by the Speak Up project in America conducted in 2007, 43% of students expressed a frustration with the schools policy on Internet filtering and agreed that it inhibited their learning. Over 40% of students sited their teachers also as a major obstacle to using technology. (Speak Up 2007).

Children’s media experience in… Continue

Added by Nick Chater on December 20, 2008 at 14:41 — No Comments

Homework for the 21st Century

As a parent, concerned with my children’s education, I’m in favour of the idea of banning homework. While we’re at it, I want to ban myself from working in the evenings too! Who wants to spend the majority of their waking hours behind a desk anyway? As an adult I don’t want to, as a child I certainly didn’t want to.

On the other hand, I will joyfully toil late into the night when I work on my own assignments and I know my sons look forward to getting their teeth into a project of… Continue

Added by Dahlan on November 27, 2008 at 16:30 — No Comments

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