Our team sorts through all blog submissions to place them in the categories they fit the most - meaning it's never been simpler to gain advice and new knowledge for topics most important for you. This is why we have created this straight-forward guide to help you navigate our system.
And there you have it! Now your collection of blogs are catered to your chosen topics and are ready for you to explore. Plus, if you frequently return to the same categories you can bookmark your current URL and we will save your choices on return. Happy Reading!
This summer saw a big life event for me! I became engaged to be married! It is not, however, this sort of engagement that I want to discuss.
It feels somewhat that the words “fun”, “engagement” and “exciting” have become terms to be sneered at by some in education.
This saddens me. My classroom was many things: chaotic, musical, productive, often loud but ALWAYS… FUN! Not because we always did fun things or because the subject was always fun. Often the topics were dry, heavy and arduous. It was my job to bring the joy. For the most part, I really believe I did this. I still meet ex-students 20 years on who remember me and my lessons. They talk about them whilst smiling. Many continued with my subjects long after they thought they would because of the enthusiasm they found.
It would be a lie to say that everything we have to learn in life is 100% engaging and enjoyable and young people do need to learn that life is not a huge slumber party full of giggles and sweeteners. We can, however, take a tip from Mary Poppins here. A spoonful of sugar really does help most medicines go down.
I suppose my other question would be this… what purpose does “DISengaging” learners have? If we create learning that is so dry and unpalatable that young people retch and feel unwell at the thought of it is it really going to “stay down”?!
My childhood was crammed solid with learning moments. Walking through the woods with my father learning the names of trees, birds, flowers and fungi. Listening to my mum talk with animation about French history, architecture and culture. Reading with my older brothers and grandparents with open mouthed wonder as worlds and creatures took to life in my imagination. There were never the constraints of four walls a seating plan or a timetable. Learning happened as easily as breathing. And I learned to adore it.
This is why it was such a painful discovery to learn that I HATED school. Where we were rigidly NOT allowed to read when I desperately wanted to know what happened next. Where I was not permitted to speak my mind or ask the millions of questions that filled my thoughts. Where I was told to sit still. Be quiet. Sit straight. Look neat. Don’t speak. Listen. Learn….
Except, I didn’t like this learning. It felt forced. And the older I got the more I felt stifled by schooling and the more learning became a thing I avoided. It became synonymous with boredom, frustration, irritation and rage. Learning became a chore.
The girl who memorised Latin plant names, who wrote stories about magic and who spoke fluent languages became withdrawn, sullen, often sickly (especially in maths lessons!!). I was never badly behaved. My parents’ learning stayed with me enough to remind me of my manners.
I was disengaged though. From age 5 through to 18. I have very few moments of genuine joyful recollection. Mostly these were provided by extra curricular activities where we had more freedom and room for independence.
I sometimes wonder what I would have become had someone nurtured the natural learner that resides within me. The potential I had was enormous. I was alight with imagination, curiosity, tenacity and bravery, as most young people initially are.
Instead, I was “normalised”. Assimilated into the system to become yet another grey, two dimensional child who got grades, failed and passed but rarely flourished.
I have spent decades of adulthood trying to find my inner learner and free her again.
I PROMISED myself I would give the opportunity to other sparkly, effervescent learners to shine.
After two decades of placing myself between these fragile creatures and the brutal wheels of the system, I was broken and exhausted. I had failed. Ahead of me, I saw my poor, drained students being pummelled into convention and compliance.
So I suppose this is a plea to anyone who still genuinely LOVES learning. Anyone who remembers the ease with which real, joyful engagement happens.
Don’t let learning be a succubus to joy. The two should go hand in hand. If there is no laughter or sparkle in your class ask yourself why. If the children look or feel “packaged” and stifled then ask yourself if that is what learning really SHOULD be.
I have no clever acronyms and I’m sure there are thousands of pages of research to disagree with me. This is just my experience and gut senses guiding me.
But we need to re-engage learners. Help them find the joy. Remember the joy ourselves.
And if we cannot see any joy at all…. Step AWAY from the impressionable young people whom could we influence.
The author
Read more
Read more
Read more
Read more
Read more
Read more
Read more
Read more
Are you looking for solutions? Let us help fund them! Nexus Education is a community of over 11,000 schools that come together to share best practise, ideas and CPD via online channels and free to attend events. Nexus also offers funding to all school groups in the UK via nexus-education.com
Established in 2011, One Education is a company at the heart of the education world, supporting over 600 schools and academies. Our unique appeal as a provider is in the breadth and synergy of the services we offer, supporting school leaders, teachers and support staff to achieve the best possible outcomes for their pupils and staff.
School Space is a social enterprise that has empowered schools for over 12 years through their profitable and hassle-free lettings services. So far, they’ve generated over £5 million in revenue for education, helping to connect over 200 schools with their local communities.
Operoo is a school operations and productivity platform. We help thousands of schools and trusts to eliminate slow, expensive and repetitive tasks. Operoo helps schools streamline and digitise processes, drastically reducing the associated costs: From student pre-admissions, permission forms, payments, and school trips; to medical information and emergency contacts, incident reporting, staff agreements, and more in over 100 languages.
Unify is an online sales and marketing tool that allows users to create tailored personalised documents in moments.
There’s nothing special about the energy we sell. In fact, it’s exactly the same energy as all our competitors provide. But there is something special about the way we do it. Where others complicate the process, we simplify it. Where others confuse customers with hidden terms, we’re an open book. And where others do all they can to make as much money from their customers as possible, we do all we can to make as little. Everything we do, we do it differently. Our customers are a privilege. One we’ll never take advantage of.
Securus provide market-leading monitoring solutions to safeguard students on ALL devices both online and offline. We also offer a full monitoring service, where we carry out the monitoring on behalf of the school, freeing up valuable staff resources. From the smallest school to large MAT groups, Securus offers safeguarding protection for all!
Bodet Time offers dedicated solutions to education through lockdown alerts, class change systems, PA and synchronised clock systems. Improving time efficiency of the working and school day; ensuring safety through lockdown alerts; increasing communication with customised broadcast alerts.