#purposedu – my reason to go to work!

Posted on 08/05/2012 by jameswilding

I own and lead a full range all-ability school of 1000 pupils, sitting in that part of the eastern Thames Valley known as the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead. I believe the purpose of education is to provide for fully facilitated learning in all we can do. We plan and build confidence and happiness to a set of rules to guide boys and girls to share, forgive, listen, try, be honest, kind and helpful, and treat others as they would wish to be treated. The ‘Golden rules’ wash through everything we do. They form the foundation for each individual, so that they are caring, respectful, loyal, well-balanced, take responsibility and show integrity. Happiness and Self-worth are essential in the lives of both children and adults, and we try to manage that pupils, parents and staff have an exceptional experience of school, which should indeed be the happiest days of their lives.

But dig in further and you’ll find we ‘get’ learning’; it’s not just about knowledge and problem solving, essential though these are as skills. We build confident and resilient learners who also inquire, communicate, create, collaborate, reflect, think critically and take risks. And we can’t do this if all we know are subjects, so we play great sport and go outward bound (from a very young age) on both land and water, locally and in wild country. Classrooms can be anywhere, and we have hands-on in our local community, in the great museums of the country or abroad across the globe (in person or virtually). We compete, sing, act, paint, design, dance, make music, and perform at every age level, and such work does not play ‘second fiddle’ to the exam room.

Our children can graduate from our school at any age for other schools, primary, secondary and 6th Form, and we celebrate those successful departures as openly as we do those that leave having spent their entire lives in our learning establishment, secure in the knowledge that we have always held them as individuals at the core of the choices we helped them make so that they can become their best selves, and often achieving beyond their imaginations.

I have worked at Claires Court for 38 years; it embodies all that I feel it should, a no-blame culture in which children are able to make imaginative and often extraordinary choices. And our past pupils are in the main the most charming, engaging, generous and successful adults you could wish to meet, and few ever worried about whether they were in a league table or measured and deemed unworthy. Sure they learned to fail, but they got back up again, had another go, gained from their mistakes, became comfortable in their skin and stayed learners far longer than one dares to hope for! I engage in the debate of the purpose of education each day I come to work, I know that perhaps my greatest influence has been to articulate that pupose by modelling the best kind of education for children.
This Education is one fit for all, whatever their gender, ability, age or circumstance, and continues to give me ‘#purposedu’ each day, and at the age of 58, I know I am the luckiest man alive.

You can find out more about the Purpos/ed campaign here – http://purposed.org.uk/2012/04/500words-take-2/

 

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World Meningitis Day – Tuesday 24 April

Posted on 20/04/2012 by jameswilding

At our senior boys’ school, one of the four houses is known as Kelly House, named after Edward Kelly, who died aged 14 on 13th February 1996 of Meningitis. Edward’s health had been compromised at a much younger age by a digestive disorder, but he had learned to live through that into a robust and healthy adolescence.  He had gone to watch his beloved Wycombe Wanderers play earlier that evening, had felt ill and quickly succumbed to Meningitis, dying later the same night.  Edward’s family and friends grieved for his loss, but with great dignity, and shortly thereafter the country led a massive campaign to vaccinate against this disease.

Today I received an email from my good friend Joanne Harris, Headmistress of Hemdean House School, asking for support to raise awareness for World Meningitis day.  She attached a compelling letter from Alison Coneybeare, one of her governors, and I share its contents with you for that obvious reason of raising your awareness of this killer in our midst.  You can download a colour chart showing much on the identification of the illness here – http://goo.gl/PoYS3

On Tuesday 24 April 2012, the Confederation of Meningitis Organisations (CoMO) and its global members are encouraging individuals, families and communities to learn the signs and symptoms of meningitis, the importance of urgent treatment of the disease, and that prevention is available through vaccination against some forms of meningitis – as part of its fourth annual World Meningitis Day. Meningitis UK is the UK affiliate of the organisation.

To mark the day your school has kindly agreed to distribute this letter.

Our family has had first-hand experience of this devastating disease and by sharing the story of our daughter’s illness we hope to encourage you all to take 5 minutes today to learn the symptoms of meningitis: it could save the life of someone you love.

Our story

Our 8 month old daughter, Eleanor, contracted meningicoccal septicemia in April last year.  She had been unwell for a couple of days with cold-like symptoms – high peaking temperatures that paracetamol did not bring down, vomiting, being off her milk and food. I took her to the GPs’ surgery but unfortunately we could not see our usual doctor.  The doctor we saw diagnosed a viral throat infection.  I questioned him about the vomiting but he said it was just due to the temperatures. 

I was due to take Eleanor and her brothers to see her grandparents and following the doctor’s diagnosis we decided to go.  That night she vomited again but the next morning she seemed to be a little better and had a milk feed.  During the day she even had a little solid food. 

Then at about 8.00pm her breathing suddenly became laboured and rasping, her skin looked very pale and her eyes were just staring into the distance.  We called the on-call doctor and he told us to call the ambulance straight away.  As soon as they arrived they said she needed to go straight into hospital.  That journey to the hospital seemed to go on forever. On arrival Eleanor was immediately treated in A&E.  Looking back they started to prepare us for the worst even then.  They told me that  Eleanor had been overwhelmed by a bacterial infection.  They said that I should get her Dad there as soon as possible.

She had been in A&E for about five hours and was being transferred to Liverpool’s Alder Hey Children’s Hospital when the rash that many people associate with meningitis first started to appear.  We have no doubt that if we had waited for the rash to appear before calling the ambulance she would not be alive now.

Eleanor spent the next week in the Children’s Intensive Care Unit at Alder Hey.  She needed a huge amount of medical support just to stay alive. It was the longest week of our lives. She pulled through, but had to spend a further 6 weeks in hospital.  She has been left permanently disabled following the amputation of her right leg at the knee and varying amounts of her fingers on her left hand.  Just when we thought that we had got through everything we found out that she also has severe/profound hearing loss in one of her ears. The appointments seem endless – paediatrics, plastics, orthopaedics, physio, audiology, prosthetics.

What you should do

We are lucky that Eleanor is happy, beautiful and alive. Every year meningitis kills 300 people. While the disease can affect people of all ages, infants, children and adolescents are at an increased risk of infection. Please take the time to learn the symptoms and trust your instincts. I wish that I had pushed harder at that first doctor’s appointment.

A Meningitis UK-commissioned survey revealed that the UK public trusts GPs far more than other professions such as bankers, politicians, and journalists.

It showed 43 per cent of people trust GPs implicitly compared to just three per cent for bankers and one per cent for politicians, estate agents and journalists. However, findings also show that only 25 per cent of people will trust their instincts and take further action if they are still worried after receiving advice from a doctor. Meningitis UK wants people to have the confidence to trust their instincts if they suspect meningitis and to keep pushing at the doctor’s surgery if they still suspect the disease.

Should you wish to support the research of Meningitis UK or you can make a donation online at www.meningitisuk.org.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.  If you have any questions or concerns  please  go to the Meningitis UK  website where there is a wealth of support information.  You can find a pdf of the symptoms to download and keep to hand here – http://goo.gl/PoYS3 

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Missing April Fools Day

Posted on 18/04/2012 by jameswilding

I am sure I am not the only educator whose life is defined by School. Now that’s not to say that I don’t have another life, I do.  It’s not terribly exciting it must be said, but it suits me. My wife and I work together, but Jenny and I see very little of each other at work, so come the holidays and we get to know each other again, and engage in the kind of activities that consenting adults of a certain age do. 2 weeks of an Easter break and I can confirm that our garden is ‘fit to grow’, with the floral and veggie patches both breathing a sigh of relief that our attentions have been diverted back to school. Frankly, if we don’t have a groaning table of delights from early summer onwards, I’ll eat my gardening gloves!  Ok the 2 week break wasn’t actually that; Term ended on the Thursday, major staff workshops on the Friday and then 2 days of office time followed by 2 days at the Google Teacher Academy and my time off looks rather more like 10 days. But  the time spend with friends and family, recharging batteries and doing things not timed by ‘Bells’ was fabulous. We paid a great visit to the growing wealth of ‘Bletchley Park‘, the centre for WW2 code cracking and it is a real testament to human endeavour, past and present, and I’ll write about that more shortly.

However, I am defined by my professional life, and I go to work every day hoping to have a huge amount of fun.  Yes, I know it seems a bit unfashionable to say it, but Learning and Education ought to be the most fun thing that ever happens in one’s life.  School and University days really ought to be the happiest days, an extended period of ‘messy’ learning when we collaborate with all sorts of people, things, events and celebrations, bump and bruise our knees, shins and elbows a bit, make and lose friends, explore what we could possibly be sometime in the future and perhaps even dare to be someone or achieve something beyond our wildest imaginations.

So that’s how April Fools day fits in, the approved day of the year when we can really stretch the imaginations beyond breaking point, tease those whose eyes are not on this main prize (having some fun) and lift even the darkest mood for a few hours.  2012 so some great pranks, my favourites being (in no particular order)

Actually Google had a bit more fun than just this, introducing Google self-drive to Nascar racing, Google Fiber Bar to improve digestive efficiency and Google Tap to smart phones so users could use Morse Code.

OK, none of these 5 were quite as brilliant as the 1957 BBC spoof on Spaghetti farms, but such is the detail given in all 6 spoofs that they seem really quite likely, and a good many people took the bait, hook, line and stinker!  Growing up is all about learning how to differentiate between what’s important and what’s not, and increasingly in this world where information beyond our ken is just a finger tip away, it seems to me that that message is often best put over with a good deal of humour.

So not being in school for April 1 in 2012 means that we missed the opportunity for some serious fun; yep we can invent some April 1 activities (and I am during each of my Assemblies at the start of term) on other days, but it really isn’t quite the same is it. Like unpacking presents before Christmas.  But if you are an adolescent or teachers within Claires Court Schools, watch out for the advent of ‘Assembly Cricket‘ to rival the forthcoming test series against the West Indies, our ‘Commemoration‘ service rival to BBC’s ‘The Voice’ and ‘Strawberry Crumble‘, Claires Court’s version of the innovative ‘Rasberry Pi‘.

And in case you think I am slightly off the mark, consider this as I close; as 2012 moves towards Summer, have those in Public life that ought to know better really shown that they do?  One of this country’s greatest features, what makes its democracy so long lasting, is that we know how to poke fun and bring the mighty down. Satirical writing, be that in print, on the air or on screen does a huge amount to right wrongs and to put people in their place.  OK, not necessarily something that needs to inform every lesson, but certainly one that our children should have the opportunity to experience, and as part of that national psyche that is English!

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End of Term Lent Newsletter 2012

Posted on 02/04/2012 by jameswilding

http://goo.gl/ddWbJ takes you to the PDF of this term’s closing Newsletter.  You can see all sorts of interesting features I am trying to develop – QR codes taking you to a Google.doc version which can expand as the News grow within each section of the Newsletter.

OK, OK, I might be trying a bit hard, but as I am off with Mr Robson to the Google Teacher Academy in Wednesday, please be proud for our school to have 2 of us recognised for the contribution Google feel we are making to the world of digital learning.  This is what we are allowed to say about those 50 they have chosen from umpteen countries for this year’s event:

“How are GTA participants selected?
We look for these critical components:

  • Demonstrated experience leading professional development
  • Ability to reach large numbers of educators
  • Demonstrated experience in using technology in the classroom
  • A desire to collaborate with like-minded educators
  • A passion for teaching and students
  • The ability to overcome obstacles and solve problems; “Do-ers”
  • A personal spark and a passion for innovation

In addition, we try to select participants from a wide geographical area, from different schools/districts, and different roles/specialties.

Well the good news we are only 36 hours away from finding out, and I am really excited.  There is a wall of work after the event to ensure certification follows, but I feel sure we can accomplish those demands to ensure 2 of CCS educators qualify as Google Certified Teachers!

Wish us luck!

 

 

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Politics is the oldest profession of them all…

Posted on 02/04/2012 by jameswilding

Regular readers of my various blogs here and elsewhere, know that I have no idea who can fathom Mr Gove’s next actions. Some seem entirely straightforward – GCSEs to return to a linear format as of Autumn 2012, which is probably fine by me, though I have yet to see how the Exam boards are to translate this imperative into course specifications for teachers to develop into manageable schemes of work over the next few months.

But the breaking news today that A levels are to be owned by Russell Group Universities signals a change of such breath-taking audacity that it’s going to take some thinking through to understand the ramifications of it all. New A levels are to be introduced from September 2014, and it is the Russell Group Universities that are going to dictate the content and mode of assessment of these future replacement qualifications.

Now the really difficult thing is that Universities such as Cambridge have already declared that Mr Gove is wrong about A level reform; 2 years ago Cambridge admissions manager Geoff Parks suggested that interim results from AS levels were really useful for Universities as invaluable indicators of progress! Last December, Baroness Blackstone, writing in the Times Higher Education supplement had this to say about the growing stratification of elite University places into the hands of those who gain AAB at A level – “It is not, however, a diminution in fair access that concerns me most. What really worries me is a socially segregated system of higher education that is being reinforced and made more extreme.”

And Blackstone should know, having led two Universities through the expansion of University access over the last 20 years. She went on to say “The new conventional wisdom is that students with high A-level grades should all be corralled into so-called “top” universities, ie, those that are research intensive. These universities are deemed to be successful by being not just selective, but super-selective in their student recruitment. Now, every newspaper league table of universities heavily weights the input measure of students’ entry qualifications, encouraging universities to be ever more focused on candidates with three As or better.”

Now institutions such as Claires Court are well placed to take advantage of such strategic changes, because our Sixth Form diet is built upon a core of A levels subjects, blended together with an additional mix of vocational end extra-mural commitments. But one third of University places are achieved by other means, such as BTEC and Diploma courses, Now the latter are now dead, but the vocational courses are not, and for the past decade or more, these have provided University entrance for those whose abilities are not conducive to A level studies.

So thank you, Secretary of State for Education, for continuing to bring radical change to the education scene. Your latest positioning seems at odds with even the greatest Universities in the land in terms of A level structures, and just when employers are crying out for the education system to produce graduates with 21st Century skills, it seems very odd that you seem determined to place A levels into the hands of Universities who will have a vested interest in grooming students for their own needs.

We’ll have to wait and see, won’t we! What must be said, is that if University students for the most demanding under-graduate courses are increasingly found to be wanting in terms of study skills for their degree,, it will serve them ill if their first year of studies is just bringing them to scratch. A broad swathe of Universities feel that undergraduates know less and can do less than ever – read more of that in this article from the Daily Telegraph that is 10 years old – http://goo.gl/bYKSv! So let’s be clear, the problems listed have been worrying University entrance tutors for some years now.

This whole scenario reminds me of a very old joke: involving three passengers arguing about which of their professions was the oldest, on their train journey into work. The Builder made it quite clear that his was the first job, creating something from nothing. The Architect went one better, making it clear that it was his plans that preceded the builder, giving the latter plans on how to proceed from the chaos the Architect had found. The Politician trumped them both, declaring triumphantly that it was his that was the oldest profession of them all, creating as he had the Chaos in the first place!

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Our schools are run by the world’s best headteachers…(it says here)

Posted on 19/03/2012 by jameswilding

Across the country, Claires Court Schools have been participating in all sorts of ISA collaborative events, most notably drama and sports competitions as well as the Area meetings.  This time of year seems to be so full of activity, it’s difficult to know how to fit it all in, but pleasingly, as the OECD reports this week, since our schools are run by the world’s best headteachers, it’s actually a breeze for them.  Hem hem.

Suffice it to say that our Under 16 boys and girls won their respective national titles in sporting competition last week in Rugby 7s and Netball, now that’s an amazing turn-out!  You can find our contributions to BBC school report on the main school website and here – http://www.clairescourt.com/news-and-media/bbc-school-report/2012.  The amazing work of Felipe Foy and Anna Hitchin and their committee on the Ridgeway PTA not only delivered an amazing Easter Egg hunt at school on Saturday, but also permitted the rapid development and installation of Castle Watkins – http://goo.gl/CsPRf

Anyone who has heard me speak in recent months knows I am totally fed up with the obsession that now exists in the Press for highlighting that it’s the top secondary schools that make the difference in education.  Now this is such arrant nonsense, it makes my blood boil, so it’s just as well I am not reading the weekend Telegraph with its list of the top 120 secondary schools etc or indeed even reporting it.

And the arrival of Super-Sats papers for 11+ candidates is just more of the same isn’t it.  My school really does have some really able children of this age, but if they are to enjoy the childhood I expect them to have, then their curriculum needs to show breadth as much as it does depth, though we are now being warned that younger teaching entrants to the profession might not have the skills to develop curricular materials.  I dread reading next year that state primary schools are now cranking up the pressure further so that their most able get to solve quadratics etc., yet haven’t actually read widely, used maths in creative ways such as programming or waved a wet paintbrush in creative endeavour or spent more than 1 hour that week on athletic activity.  Oh, and the template for effective primary education so obviously visible in our schools is simply thrown away as state primary schools are allowed to grow to absurd super-sizes.

Anyway, rant over.  The blogosphere has been far more interesting this week, with the 300+ tweeters I follow reminding me (and therefore you) of some lovely pupil centred ideas (in the main).

  1.  LinkedIn – a place where professionals go looking to air their CV and get a better job have now 50 Great LinkedIn Groups for Academics http://t.co/5cbiyJvp
  2. Make your day and bring a smile to your face – they may be shutting Libraries in the UK, but here’s a charming lo-fi video – http://t.co/c0wn0kof – from the Public Library in Shutesbury, Massachusetts encouraging their community to gather around and help.  Fantabulous!
  3. In case you missed it first time around, here’s really what makes a Good Teacher – created by their pupils http://t.co/XYV3Vg9g
  4. This last week so the biggest viral hit ever make news – Kony12 plus some background can be found here – http://t.co/gRWufdDi
  5. Michael Rosen always brings a smile to my face when he writes.  He is now suggesting Headteachers write to parents to tell them about the benefits of books and reading – utterly brilliant idea – http://t.co/5HjMXBnt – Do it now!

A couple of ideas on the Techie-side

  1. Do you ever need to help someone down the phone and think “if only we could share screens”? – you can here – http://goo.gl/twPjM
  2. Five Awesome Virtual Field Trips for Students of All Ages – http://goo.gl/sPEfk

And finally, in a world that talks more about losers than unfortunates, here’s a small dose of Alain de Botton to guide you gently towards a kinder, gentler philosophy of success – http://goo.gl/DwbTc

Have a great last week or so of term!

Best wishes

James Wilding

jtw@clairescourt.com

james.wilding.wordpress.com

@james_wilding

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More than 5 years – trendsetting to extinction with the G-Wiz

Posted on 09/03/2012 by jameswilding

Over a year ago I posted about the joys of driving the (arguably) world’s worst car, the Reva G-Wiz.  For most of the 5 years or so that I have owned the wee beastie, I have been considered a trend setter; dear reader I want to assure you that after 61 months of ownership, I see no sign of others following in my footsteps and I can now declare myself up some kind of evolutionary blind alley.  I am so to speak, an endangered species!

The car still works brilliantly well for what it is; I am at the stage that every time I drive a mile in the car, I get money back in my pocket from the knowledge that the motoring is free and there is no car as economical.  Every now and then I spot a boy walking home from school; much to their dismay I stop and offer them a lift.  It’s like offering someone a lift with a leper, so rapidly do the boys scarper for the safety of the hedegerows! That’s the paradox of the car – ideal in practice, for everything I do in the locality, but the principle is just appalling.  Cars you see are so much more than a vehicle getting you from A to B,  they are required to be an extension of your personality, indeed perhaps even a mirror onto your soul.

But there in lies the rub; I have moved so far beyond that stereotype because they’re just so unhelpful.  Almost all my working life has been spent as a headteacher, with peers and strangers alike not just trying to work me out, but to pigeon hole me too.  And that’s what I don’t like.  I start each day seeking to refresh and renew, as well as to consolidate and affirm.  That’s important because each colleague or family I meet do indeed face new challenges and require support and guidance in equal measure.  There’s no point thinking that there is a formulaic answer for life’s problems; I have experience and professional knowledge to inform what I do, but like all good craftsmen, I know solutions need to be carefully tailored.

So when I bought my G-Wiz, I was looking for a unique solution to my daily work schedule that has me running around Maidenhead to be with my school community.  My friend Keith’s Harley did me proud in the 1990’s but as soon as I found out that the main cause of death for 50 year olds was big bike accidents, that ‘Sportster’ had to be returned to his garage for something safer.  To be honest, travelling at well below sub-sonic speeds my little car feels both safe and maneuverable, but as fans of Top Gear know,  the G-Wiz came out terribly in their crash-dummy test. That fount of all knowledge, Wikipedia informs us that “Experts at the Transport Research Laboratory were so concerned about the Indian-made G-Wiz that they refused to risk their more sophisticated £130,000 crash test dummies – full of electronic instruments – in the test for fear of them being wrecked“.

Sales figures of new G-Wizes are through the floor, the cost of transporting them to the UK and keeping them compliant is beyond any economic business model. But a little perhaps like all the other eccentric things the English are famous for, I am content with my current mode of travel, because it does just fit the bill and it is, after all, a collector’s item.  Who knows, one day I can show it off at the Antiques Roadshow; in the meantime, I’ll stay hugging the kerb except when avoiding the ‘sleeping policemen’, and cherish the last of the ‘Dodoes’ whilst it is with me!

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It is the best of times, it is the worst of times…

Posted on 09/03/2012 by jameswilding

to quote the first dozen words of Charles Dickens’ great novel, A Tale of Two Cities, though moved to the present rather than the past. The actual paragraph reads:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

Whether your are in the early 1800s or 200 years later in the early 21st Century, his description of the paradox that is life is absolutely spot on.  Despite many of us feeling the pinch in 2012, we can smile because we are not in Athens, where the minimum wage has just been cut and the unemployment rate in UK equivalence terms has just spiked through 7 million!  And much the same is true in Education; yesterday saw the publication of interim grades in GCSE and A level modules; personally for most of our students here, the delights was plain to see on their faces – hard work being rewarded by good results.  At the same time, lots of other results of educational activities in schools and outside are being published, and the picture is totally different. I’ll return to Dickens shortly, but I must say I am enjoying the discomfort many modern pedagogues must be feeling at the moment, as their adjustment of what is taught in schools to bring examination advantage at the expense of actual education is shown up to be the folly it always was, by published research.  For example, OfSTED have just pointed out the main problem with national music lessons is that there just isn’t enough music in them! A recent survey by Opinion research highlights that secondary school pupils are so scared of looking stupid in maths lessons they will not tell their teachers if they do not understand. And it’s not just about progress in schools in Maths – the pressure group ‘National Numeracy’ quotes from research suggesting weak maths skills are linked with an array of poor life outcomes such as prison, unemployment, exclusion from school, poverty and long-term illness.  The National Trust has also reported that children are being denied the enjoyment of the outdoors and nature with obvious consequences for their health, yet few primary schools it seems genuinely give 2 hours over to sport.

I say enjoy because in my own school we really come to work each day to teach the whole child, academically, socially, spiritually, morally, athletically, culturally and then some. This last seven days or so have seen us involved in ‘world everything days’, from Maths, Books, Science, Blogging, Doodling and then some. Our sailors came third in the national two boat sailing championships, (and the second best school behind Magdalen College Oxford), our Under 16s won the national ISA Under 16 7s title up in Leamington Spa, our Year 7s have been romping in the fields with the Sheep and their Lambs and so it goes on.  Today (Friday) we are building our BBC school report activities for next Thursday by interviewing the Home Secretary, Theresa May at the senior boys school.  Apparently we are informal this year in our approach to TM; a ‘conversation with’ rather than ‘stilted questions’ of!

And to see the support of our parent teacher association at work this week has been the highlight – it is all about play with their outdoor castle installation at Ridgeway, both a physical construction that provides for new play space, but also with effective use of shape and colour, allowance for the child’s imagination to run riot. When schools get it right, the whole community is enhanced; children have their wildest dreams realised, teachers have their dedication rewarded by outstanding learning and parents have their own concerns for the present and future supported by the most amazing network of like-minded individuals – a Dickens story of success without the dark side!

So back to Dickens; what he was amazing at was creating an atmosphere that felt real in a story that gripped from beginning to end.  As one critic writes “Dickens’s novels combine brutality with fairy-tale fantasy; sharp, realistic, concrete detail with romance, farce, and melodrama.; the ordinary with the strange. They range through the comic, tender, dramatic, sentimental, grotesque, melodramatic, horrible, eccentric, mysterious, violent, romantic, and morally earnest”. Now Dickens was all about writing for money, he was the most famous author in the world of his time, and he benefited too from touring the States as well as the UK.  But he also write for moral purpose, to critique current policy and through his moral tales show his adoring public how the best could be achieved, even by the dissolute. The Tale of Two cities ends when the dubious Sydney Carton sacrifices himself for the honourable Charles Darnay, and ends his life on the guillotine with the words “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.“

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Berlin 2012 – building for the future.

Posted on 04/03/2012 by jameswilding

If things in Education work, they are likely to be repeated, and thus the CCS History department returned once again with a group of Year 11 students over the February half-term.  I have left a week or so before writing about our experiences this year, partly of course because you can read my thoughts already from 2011 – http://goo.gl/ZP3wF and – http://goo.gl/93sG9, and partly because a little bit of distance helps consolidate the lessons learned.  Firstly, you can see the video of the 2012 trip here – http://youtu.be/OU_o30IGwH0 and I’ll post as and when some extra voice-overs have been added.

More importantly, a trip such as this offers so much, apart from the History enrichment that is so obviously the point of the visit.   I ask you the reader to watch the video and make your own mind up.  Clearly the life skills of working so hard, travelling from one side of Berlin to the other, time-travelling across the decades and dictatorships, and staying balanced on the roller-coaster of emotions generated by stories of the holocaust, cold war and 2 major European conflicts too are worthy of note.  My ‘best bit’ without doubt are the unexpected developments improving the experience, for example the upgrading of the ‘Topography of Terror‘ site from a line of wall boards in central Berlin against the foundations of a ruined building to a full blown research space and Museum gallery indoors.  The way the underground (like ours in the UK) actually does regenerate over the years; no longer the graffiti filled old crates of yesteryear (which looking  at the rest of Berlin is not a habit yet kicked by the populace) but modern, utility trains that do the job in sensible manner.

And that’s the point of visiting Berlin; built to be a world metropolis in the 19th century, with sewers and blown-air messaging systems to beat the world at their own game, it then suffered more than any other city from the ravages of 2 world wars and a hostile occupation by the Russian military (OK, the allies were there too), and it took the fall of the wall 23 years ago to build the confidence of Western Germany in the city’s population to provoke the changes and developments now visible.  Visiting Berlin is one of the important ways we can show young students that hope can spring eternal; whatever the desperate position the fragility of  world economy now places us all in, for jobs, for prosperity and for hope in the future, there’s no doubt that the physical renewal in Berlin can inspire us all.

That’s the point too of making films that capture the moments, however amateurishly that might be.  Younger boys and girls in the school do look to the future, are optimistic about their life chances and the way ahead, and express that clearly to us, their teachers in no small measure.  “I can’t wait until I get to go to Berlin” was the chorus that met us during last week, after they had caught up with the ‘broadcast’ on the ‘hub‘.  It is a key difference between our educational experience here for our pupils and elsewhere – over the next two weeks, our Art, History and Geography departments are back out on tour, at the great museums in London and elsewhere too, at farms seeing some happy outcomes of the lambing season as well as further afield on a residential weekend looking at environmental issues at Margham Park.

My lasting impressions from Berlin 2012 are of the optimism of the Berliners, despite the cold and ice winds from Siberia, there is a great sense of optimism amongst its residents and its ambassadors working with us.  As our guide through the Bunkers said, speaking of the current Euro crisis; “We’ve been though so much over the last 60 years, to have created one currency is part of the great project to feel ‘European’ rather than’German’, and we are not going to let a little local difficulty with the Greek economy get in the way.” Well, I do admire their optimism, which is probably helped by the evening pilgrimage we pay to the Blue Man group, in their purpose built theatre in Potsdammer Platz, and we usually coincide with the Berlin Film festival, so the area feels even more glamorous than usual.  Anyway, if you don’t know what the Blue Man group do, then sit back and enjoy this little sample from their act – I can feel the anticipation already, and that’s certainly a way to build for the future, by putting a smile on your face.

 

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“This is the time to show them everything – make sure they remember you!”

Posted on 02/03/2012 by jameswilding

These words spoken by Haymitch Abernathy, the mentor of Peeta Mellark and Katniss Everdeen, and is the tribute winner of the 50th Hunger Games in the land of Panem, as written in the Hunger by american writer, Suzanne Collins.

Ok, not one of the major works of fiction it must be said, nor indeed the quote perhaps.  But when Mike Hudson introduced World Book day to the Claires Court Boys yesterday (2 March 2012) you could have fooled them. Couple an excerpt of the new film based on the book with the words of Will Smith (see those here), plus a strong dose of what the teachers like to read, and some very strong images of the Welsh Rugby team (well it was Saint David’s Day) and you have pupil engagement.  Watching boys of all ilks just ‘pop’ into the library and take out a book, and get their head into some real excitement was simply gratifying all round.  You can see Mr Hudson’s assembly presentation here – http://goo.gl/nLzZw.

And sadly, I wasn’t at the assembly, working the junior girls in similar manner 2 miles up the road. And that’s what is so fantastic now with the resources available through the ‘web’ and the ‘hub‘.  Yep, anyone can go surf the internet, but what our closed walled garden is allowing us to do is collaborate together, share ideas and mix world class work with our own brew to suit the needs of the audience we have.  As one of the 6th Formers said to me as he was waiting for his bus at the end of the day “The thing about the Hub sir is that it is amazing!”  Well good on you all, I say, now you have the tools and the imaginations to run riot, do so “This is the time to show them everything – make sure they remember you!”

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