Lord of the Flies was Wrong: Creating Authentic Student Agency
One of the more thought-provoking ideas I have encountered recently is the concept of student-led classrooms and belonging, explored through models developed by NYC Outward Bound Schools. While in San Diego on the Futures Tour, I had the privilege of attending one of their workshops exploring these ideas in practice. What stayed with me afterwards, […]
F is for Forward
Recently I had the privilege of visiting Stanford University’s d.school, one of the world’s great centres of design thinking. On their wall: a striking installation of letter F’s in every font and form imaginable, clustered around two words — Fail Forward. The plaque reads: “Early failures are an essential aspect of the innovation process and […]
Keeping the main thing the main thing
Recently, I was fortunate to be part of the group of staff who travelled to the Deeper Learning Conference and Stanford University as part of the BMGS Futures Tour. At the end of my first term as Head of Junior School and all the complexities it involved, I felt ready to sleep for two weeks. […]
Beyond test scores: why future-ready learning is a moral imperative
The question we owe our children In one of the most compelling education TED talks I have heard, Jim McKenzie describes schooling as a “burning platform” moment: a time when the comfortable option of staying put is also the most dangerous. His forcing question is not, “How do we make school slightly better?”It is, “Are […]
Education, formation, and the question we cannot avoid
In recent weeks, across a range of school gatherings, one idea has continued to return: the importance of distinguishing between education and formation. These two ideas are closely connected — and they should be. But they are not the same. And when we fail to distinguish between them, we risk misunderstanding what a school is […]