A short piece in Schools Week on planning for an educational recovery, with reference to Bilbo Baggins: Recovery can’t be achieved with sparsely spread resources If we want more from our schools, we need to give them more. And we need to weight those resources to the schools facing the biggest challenge. It also would […]
Category: Crisis
Crisis 12: Matthew’s on the computer
The reality of digital intervention in education has often fallen short of the claims. Yet I’ve been impressed with some brilliant uses of technology during the lockdown. Oak National Academy, for example, and the generosity of trusts like Greenshaw and schools like Parklands. Our own experience of delivering a fully virtual Summer Institute to 1699 […]
Crisis 11: five losses and a recovery curriculum
Barry and Matthew Carpenter argue that, as well as the possibility of bereavement, the lockdown will have inflicted five specific losses in young people…
Crisis 10: the surprise of the daily call
Since lockdown began, our senior team starts the day with a half-hour call at 9 am. We do this every day except Monday (on Mondays we have an extended staff meeting later on). Most days, each member of the executive starts a second call with their own managers immediately after. If someone can’t make it […]
Crisis 9: Eldorado remains remote
If you’d asked me three weeks ago about the prospect of reducing office space and increasing homeworking, I would probably have been quite enthusiastic. This week, the monotony and isolation are kicking in. The physical toll of screens and long periods of sitting, the temptation to schedule back to back calls, the lack of a […]
Crisis 8: let science decide
Science cannot tell you what to do. It can tell you what will happen if you do it; whether that justifies the action needs something else…
Crisis 7: how NOT to think about the crisis and its aftermath
The crisis has created a moment of liberation in our thinking, where necessity frees us from the bonds of routine, scrutiny, measurement, caution and perfection to consider things we would never have dared before…
Crisis 6: the revolution may be revised
Past crises have changed some things while others have returned to normal. Don’t plan for an inevitable revolution next year…
Crisis 5: resilience
In the name of efficiency, we eliminate excess capacity. It is seen as a virtue to use every last resource, person and moment to the full. This works when times are good but reduces our resilience in the face of the unexpected…
Crisis 4: solidarity unnoticed
It seems like crises bring out the best while making us notice the worst…
Note to self 