Welcome to the Learning Renaissance: Exploring Effective Learning in the 21st century
Welcome to the Learning Renaissance Blog! My name is David Hughes and I am an educator and writer from the United Kingdom. I always said I wouldn’t write a blog … Continue reading
Thought For The Day: The Perfect Metaphor for the ‘Stuck Schools’ Conundrum from Bishop Desmond Tutu
Bett 2020… Learning Paradise Deferred?
The siren call of the BETT Conference, the world’s largest educational technology exhibition is sounding again at the ExCel Centre in the heart of London Docklands. It will showcase the … Continue reading
Stuck Schools: Diagnosis, Treatment and Sustainable Improvement
Ross Morrison McGill’s article on the unintended consequences of labelling ‘stuck’ schools resonated with me. As always, Ross Morrison McGill is on the money in his analysis of why schools … Continue reading
The Place of the Arts in the Curriculum
In all the clamour for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) in the curriculum, Arts subjects are increasingly marginalised. Sometimes it feels like they are regarded as ‘the icing’ on … Continue reading
The Unequal Playing Field of Education
In my new book, Re-Examining Success, out in March 2020, I outline ways in which the current examination system disproportionately favours those from relatively settled and well off homes. To … Continue reading
Change Management: The Paucity of Project Planning Skills and Cultural Change in Schools
I’m always fascinated when principals tell me how busy they are. It seems that since some of them have become the CEO’s of a number of schools, their perceived workload … Continue reading
A week in the life of the Learning Renaissance blog…
When the redoubtable Sue Cowley helped me to post what I thought was my own research into educational initiatives, I thought it would have a small and parochial level of … Continue reading
A Danish Lesson For the UK: How to Sort Out the Apprenticeship Mess!
In the last ten years the apprenticeship system in the UK, always brittle, has been thrown into turmoil. For the most part the blame lies with the Tory government for … Continue reading
Thought For The Day: The Beauty of Failure
This certainly rings true for me. The limited successes I’ve enjoyed in my career have been a cause for some celebration, but little learning. By contrast, my failures have had … Continue reading
Battling Decision Fatigue | Edutopia
When you’re teaching reading, focusing on these three questions can help you conserve your mental energy. A good way to triumph over decision fatigue is to focus on the decisions … Continue reading
A damning view of Ofsted… and a potential way forward: Re-examining what we mean by success in schools
Two things that have happened in the last week have revealed the systemic failure of the Ofsted model of inspection. Firstly Mary Bousted published a damning article on the coming … Continue reading
Thought For The Day: Integrity
You only find integrity when beliefs align with words and actions. This should find space on the wall of every senior leader…
A short term industrial production model of how you turn around schools is always destined for costly human failure!
I’ve often decried managerialism in education – the simple belief that you can apply industrial production models to learning in schools. Forget about the individual children, and simply see them … Continue reading
14 points that matter to literacy | Saskatoon StarPhoenix
As work changes and jobs demand higher level skills, people without good reading skills are most at risk of being left behind. Reading is the learning-to-learn skill. It’s the cornerstone … Continue reading
A damning view of a redundant inspection model: Mary Bousted on OFSTED
A damning condemnation of the role of Ofsted in creating the climate in which stuck schools proliferate. Whilst we have an inspection process which is quality control rather than quality … Continue reading
Teacher Wellbeing Index 2019 | Education Support
Work-related stress in the teaching profession has increased for the third consecutive year, with sharp rises in tearfulness, difficulty sleeping and irritability amongst education professionals across the UK according to … Continue reading
Supporting Teacher Well-Being and Mental Health | Teach Well Alliance
Steve Waters of the Teach Well Alliance gives you an accessible and workable document with which to address the issue of teacher well-being and mental health. This is all the … Continue reading
Growing Power For Young, and Not So Young, Minds!
I’ve worked with schools which have built growing food into the curriculum and then used it as the basis of practical maths exercises and to supply the school kitchen as … Continue reading
Student Engagement: Research and Implications – A Model
The idea of student engagement is central to improving learning engagement and outcomes. However, the term is used loosely and requires further discussion and definition. This reference by Ana Cristina … Continue reading
More Worrying Feedback on the Reform to the ITT (Initial Teacher Training) Framework in England
Amy Gibbons of the TES comes to an alarming conclusion about the vision and ambition of those who have put together the revision to the ITT Framework in England. She … Continue reading
Some Alarming Developments in England’s Initial Teacher Training
Just as a curriculum is only as good as the vision of its creators, so the quality of teaching is largely determined by the quality and vision of the training … Continue reading
Re-examining Success: Resetting School Culture for Continuous, Quality-Assured Improvement in Learning
Just over a month to go before Re-examining Success is published. It follows on from last year’s book entitled Future Proof Your School, and continues the theme of change management … Continue reading
Own It – A place to help you boss your life online | BBC
The BBC have launched a specific area of their website featuring questions, answers and tools to help young people make the most of their time online. The Own It app … Continue reading
