Curios of the week #79

Clippings, endnotes and other ephemera

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We are close to completing some building work at Clarendon. In Term 4, new science labs and some new senior school lecture theatres are going to come online. This is good news in more ways than one. A piece of wasteland that is currently the builders’ car park will eventually be converted into an all-weather playing area, expanding our students options for ball games at recess and lunch. Prior to the completion of that, we also have a playground designed with our Year 5 and 6 students being constructed on the edge of the oval, giving them more options, too.

The weather has been quite erratic this week. On Thursday, I went to the gym with clear skies. While I was there, a thunderstorm erupted, smashing on the tin roof and then, when I left, it was to a clear sunrise. As they say around these parts, a bit of rain is good for the dams.

This week is times tables week on Curios.

Education minister of the week

University free speech issues aside, Bridget Phillipson, the UK’s new education minister, seems to be going pretty well. I particularly enjoy it when she makes statements that disappoint the usual Twitter suspects who had hoped, as a Labour minister, she would back their romanticism more than the previous Conservative regime. Instead, she is showing little sympathy for the cause and is instead making the kinds of arguments that a Conservative minister would have been monstered for.

For example, she has written a piece for The Times, arguing that the best place for kids is in school and parents should not pander to their every whim and fancy:

“…reasons for not being in school do not include cheaper holidays, birthday treats or even a runny nose. Nor do they include unpopular subjects or just not fancying it today. Too many parents think they do.

Every day of learning lost does serious harm. Children who attend school regularly are twice as likely to achieve good GCSEs in English and maths compared with those who are persistently absent.”

Phillipson is, of course, dead right. One of the biggest factors in educational success is academic learning time. We should not reduce it lightly.

I like to think her no-nonsense attitude is influenced by the fact she went to a government school in the North of England. It is easy to dismiss the power of schooling if you hail from a privileged background where no matter what way you fall, you will end up on your feet with a wad of trust fund- or bank-of-mum-and-dad-cash in your back pocket. The friction of hard reality tends to scrape romantic notions away.

Hot on the heels of Phillipson’s piece comes other UK news that will dishearten all the right people. The body that inspects England’s schools, Ofsted, has announced the creation of seven reference groups. Some may have been hoping for a return to the bad old days of the 2000s when such bodies were dominated by educational progressivists. However, these groups are notable for their members and the organisations they represent being relatively sound. Tom Bennett features. So do Clare Sealy and Sam Freedman.

Silly union of the week

There’s a lot of times tables in the news this week and our first encounter is the result of some union silliness.