Every Saturday I read, avidly, Melanie Reid’s column in The Times magazine. Melanie was already an award-winning journalist when, in April 2010, she suffered a dreadful fall from her horse and broke her neck and her back, an accident which left her paralysed and without the use of her limbs. Each week she catalogues her …
Category: Uncategorized
Nov 07
Why teaching is like being on a log flume: new teachers take note!
Earlier today I had the privilege of addressing a group of NQTs (Newly Qualified Teachers) at a post-qualification training day. All of them are in post and all of them are working towards their final accreditation as teachers; support and training days like this one are designed to invigorate their thinking, give them time to …
Nov 04
A moving morning, and a strong energy to make a difference: Positive Image Month continues
Last Thursday’s launch of Positive Image Month, the fantastic initiative driven by the determined Kate Hardcastle, was incredibly moving. One after another, people told their stories – stories of being made to feel inadequate because of what they wore or how they looked, and dreadful stories of bullying so commonplace that it has almost become …
Nov 02
The artists, the exhibition and their enriching legacy: what our former pupils bring to our schools
This has been an astonishingly creative week, as the St Mary’s Calne Art department moved to Cork Street, London, for a most beautiful Art exhibition. Pupils present and past exhibited, and the range of media and array of subjects was amazing. I could devote a blog a day from now on to each of the …
Oct 29
Positive Image Month launches on 1st November!
If you have a moment between now and Thursday, look at this website. Positive Image Month is the brainchild of Kate Hardcastle, the well-known entrepreneur and businesswoman, who just felt that collectively, we had to do something to try to rebalance the terrible weight on people in our society (especially young people, and especially women) …
Oct 23
Where Art becomes grotesque reality in the female form
If you have a spare 6 minutes, go to this YouTube link and watch a video of Ukrainian teenager Anastasiya Shpagina applying make-up to one of her eyes. She is doing so to give the impression that her eye is larger than reality, and almost fantastical, mimicking the female eyes that we are so used …
Oct 20
Why everyone should experience Shakespearean drama
This has been a very Shakespearean-themed week at St Mary’s Calne. On Monday evening, a group of Year 9 girls battled illness, stormy weather and the curse of the Scottish play to present a succinct and striking Macbeth to a full house at the Egg Theatre in Bath, as part of the Shakespeare Schools’ Festival. …
Oct 17
“We’re students, not slags”. Utterly shocking stories from our universities
I was shocked when I recently read this article by Laura Bates in the Independent. I had read the original article by the same journalist in the previous week’s paper, which looked at the sexist and misogynist antics reported by numbers of students as taking place in Freshers’ Weeks at universities across the country, and …
Oct 14
To assess or not to assess: the great GCSE debacle
Recent announcements regarding the abandonment of GCSEs in favour of an English Baccalaureate should have prompted once again the question of whether or not assessments at this stage of a young person’s career are in fact worthwhile, but these voices have been drowned out as commentators have rushed to deal with the details of the …
Oct 11
Today is the Day! International Day of the Girl
Today, Thursday 11th October 2012, is the very first International Day of the Girl, and it is most definitely worth celebrating. How this came about was in part because of extensive lobbying of the United Nations by Plan UK (part of Plan International), the charity which we have been supporting in school over the past …