Tuesday, 9 October 2012

The Way Forward

Even when holiday begins I cannot help but preach about mixed ability teaching....

Compliments of my fabulous sister:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/mother-tongue/9590249/A-10-hour-school-day-and-music-lessons-one-free-schools-recipe-for-success

For instance, Hackney New School will be a mixed-ability school. There will be no setting, streaming or some other mechanism through which some students are told they can’t grasp more complex maths than 2+2=4, while others are taught differential equations. It has always been a mystery to me how anyone can expect 13-year-olds, who are being told they don’t quite cut it (and in a very public way), to respond in any other way than by performing badly in maths, or whatever subject it is that they are being “set” in.

What should happen instead – and what we will do at HNS – is to teach everyone how to solve differential equations; those who find it harder will just receive more lessons (eight instead of five in year 7, for instance). As far as I know, mixed ability teaching is completely normal in most European countries other than Britain. It is so obviously sensible – but it is also much more work for teachers and students. Imagine a time when dinner party conversations by neurotic parents worried about how “clever” their children are become a thing of the past.


LOVE YOU
xxx

1 comment:

  1. The love you, was meant for me, but hey love all anyways...

    ReplyDelete