A Balkan Journey: Walking through Europe's forgotten region

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These are the mantras that the class of 2020 - students who were due to take their GCSEs this May and June - have heard for the past few years in schools up and down the country. All is built up to prepare for a feeling of success in that defining moment in August when results are opened.

Exam cancellations during the pandemic sparked a fleeting renaissance of educational thinking. We asked whether a more capacious vision for our schools could be realised, but we have reverted to the norm.

It was only then, after days of denial, that I began to accept that their confidence was likely to soon become redundant. Staff started to know, too, smiling with students as they went to their final session of the day. A Year 11 student, who had been a particular challenge all year, observed: “They are only being nice to us because we are about to die.” Education is about enriching, enlightening, empowering individuals. It is about expanding horizons, widening perspectives, deepening mental acumen, cognition, and enhancing skills, capacities and abilities for functionality, adaptability, opportunity and mobility in life.

Among his television work, he has presented In Search of Tony Blair ( Channel 4, 2004) [59] and Trust Politics (BBC Two, 2010). [60] Family [ edit ]Character education can be a fantastic means to nurture appreciation of school and foster relationships. Earlier this academic year my school had Gratitude Week. Students expressed gratitude in assemblies to teachers, parents or friends. Every student received a thank you card to write to a staff member. The criteria by which nurseries, schools and colleges in England are assessed are about to undergo a huge overhaul, with new measures installed by Ofsted, the government’s education watchdog, aiming to shift the focus of its reports away from exam results, as of September. Seldon's first teaching appointment was at Whitgift School in Croydon in 1983. He became head of Politics and taught in the sixth form there. In 1989 he returned to his old school, Tonbridge, and became head of History and General Studies. In 1993 he was appointed deputy headmaster and, ultimately, acting headmaster of St. Dunstan's College in London. He then became headmaster of Brighton College from September 1997 until he joined Wellington College in January 2006 as its 13th master. He became executive principal at The Wellington Academy (a separate school) in 2013. [ citation needed] There are schools out there, who share in Aristotle’s capacious vision for education, that other schools could learn form. Visiting Givat Haviva in Israel, the school’s founder told me how they aspired to help heal a society that is riven by a permanent divide between Palestinians and Israelis. Touring the school’s campus that educates Israelis and Palestinians together, which at the time was the only school in Israel without a fence, the founder commented how “when students walk into this campus, they see something very different to what they see in Israel. They see many different people, approaches and beliefs…we hope it opens student’s minds to see what society could be like.” A unique context, but all schools can generate an animating purpose that drive the education of the school. XP School in Doncaster serves a working-class community still impacted by deindustrialisation. Social mobility might be the obvious goal to align with. But according to the school’s founder and principal, the idea of social mobility is “insulting”. Social mobility says “you can have an opportunity if you get it right in a particularly narrow way. And if you do, you can have the breadcrumbs of what’s left.” Alongside getting students very good results nationally, the school’s approach to education nurtures ‘habits of work and learning’, character traits being developed through expeditions in the school building and out in the Pennines and having a meaningful care in the work students produce. The principal, who had given such deep thought to the purpose of his school, commented how “Conformity is the enemy to creativity. We want our kids to develop as people not just as learners.” Adam says: “The York Union has had a very successful first year attracting some great speakers including Jonathan Powell, Downing Street Chief of Staff under Prime Minister Tony Blair, journalist Mark Lawson and Adam Boulton, Political Editor for Sky News.

Seldon, Anthony. "Why Schools, Why Universities?". Sir John Cass's Foundation . Retrieved 5 September 2013. Seldon, Anthony (1981). The Churchill Government of 1951–55: a study of personalities and policy making (PhD thesis). London School of Economics. Archived from the original on 19 April 2013.Further research unveils a video linked to the corpse. Dorwin explains how the Anacreons have taken him hostage. He found a jump ship called the Invictus, which is where he was then killed by the Anacreons.

Adam has also played a full part in Derwent College life, including twice organising a Derwent team to compete in the Tough Guy Competition – a 15km assault course and cross-country run. In addition, he was shortlisted for The Guardian student columnist of the year for his work with Nouse and is involved in Lauriston Lights, a charity which is raising children’s aspirations in Newham through a summer programme delivered by University volunteers. This focus on the ‘how’ and ‘what works’ is understandable. Schools are subject to high-stakes accountability systems based on exam results and Ofsted judgements. But we debase our value if we reinforce the idea that a school and student’s worth can be reduced to a metric or scored fairly in a game with constantly shifting goalposts. In my role as Chairman and an eye care specialist, quality eye care health and vision is the golden thread running through the webinars we are currently hosting. Being able to see enables us to read, learn, evolve and lead a better, more fulfilling life. There are synergies between investing in our health as well as investing in younger generations’ characters to benefit the societies we contribute to.” Keating’s core message is right. In an early scene, Keating shows his students old school photos of boys who were now “fertilising daffodils”. It was a striking way to convey that education is precious, something which many British schoolchildren appear to be unaware of. At 6.45am last Wednesday, I arrived in school to finish revision resources for students to take home and then created a plan to teach in a single lesson what is usually taught in one month. They’ll need to hear about the content from me first, then they can consolidate learning at home. The lesson was in full flow by 10am. “Sir, what was the IRA?” No time to go into that, sorry. The class, that I had taught since Year 9, had not seemingly contemplated that this could be our last lesson together. I was aware of the very real possibility it would prove to be but acted as if there would be at least a few more before exams. Will coronavirus lead to changes in our exam system?

At 2pm, as I was printing resources adjacent to a classroom, I saw news about schools shutting down in Scotland and Wales. I could see my colleague was going through an exam paper and heard the enthusiastic answers of students. They were ready. Though we champion these themed weeks, we believe kindness should be practiced throughout the whole year – not just a specific moment in time. Kindness and gratitude have such a powerful impact on a school’s culture. They facilitate members of the community - whether students, teachers or support staff - to feel valued, which in turn cements togetherness and commitment to the school, and the people within it. GCSEs have been in place every year since 1988. They are the key assessment point at the end of five years of secondary school. I once came across a paper that spoke to my disenchantment with politics academia. It argued that academics discuss a narrow range of topics among themselves without much external input. Now I find myself feeling a similar disenchantment with the narrow and insular debates of my profession. Educators are often protective of their patch and reports or commissions are frequently dismissed by the sector’s thought leaders and influencers. Daisy Christodoulou recently lambasted Labour’s learning and skills report as referring to “an education system that doesn’t exist”.