Archive for the ‘Opinion’ Category

I headed to BETT last Wednesday to soak up the atmosphere and see if I could learn something. And I did! Look!

Ordinarily, we don’t deal with politics on the blog – but then the teacher pension reforms are no ordinary issue. Much ink has and will be spilled on the rights and wrongs of the pension reforms, so I don’t intend to cover that directly. More I want to explore should teachers strike period? Gerard Kelly, Editor of the TES, wrote a typically strident assessment of the situation in the TES a few weeks back which understandably drew a few negative comments.

Thou Shalt Not Covet Thine Neighbour’s Mug Buy your own mug, hide it and use it solely! There is no look in the world more terrifying from the glare of the Deputy Head who realises you’re using his favourite Peppa Pig mug.   Thou Shalt Always Wash Up If you do be as foolish as to use someone else’s mug for heaven’s sake wash it up. That glare I was talking about before – imagine now the piercing laser stare from the aforementioned deputy head when they find the clotted remains of your chicken and mushroom Cupasoup in the bottom

I have to admit – and this is something of a mea culpa – that I did learn Latin in school. I remember the teacher in question getting very irate over the waggish schoolboys who dared to question whether there was any point learning a dead language. When you’re young of course it just seems a bit of a laugh, but now with the benefit of age and experience you see that time at school as an incredibly precious opportunity. Was it wasted by learning Latin?

Private schools are fighting for the right to remain charities and continue to claim £100m per year in tax relief. Do you think they should win?

Here in the UK almost every child is expected to wear a school uniform.  It’s just the way we do things.  But what’s the point of school uniform? Do uniforms create a good school ethos? Having students all wear the same uniform or a uniform colour may develop a ‘team’ feel reminding everyone from a particular school that they’re all part of the same community and are one big team .  However, some might argue that taken too far this school ethos can be a bad thing.  It’s fine whilst students are on their own school grounds but once they’re