4 September 2020

Post date: Sep 04, 2020 12:57:57 AM

This week: A Tribute to one of education's great gurus - Sir Ken Robinson, who passed away a couple of weeks ago.

Sir Ken was a teacher, author, a government adviser and a great orator. The video in which Sir Ken tells the story of a fidgety student who was “just a dancer” has been in full circulation since 2006. The Ted Talk Do schools kill creativity? has gathered at least 66 million views. If you are going to watch any of his - please watch this one.

He was passionate about the need for radical reform and school needing to provide an environment that cultivates creativity and divergent thinking rather than purely academic knowledge and 'exam success'. Whilst he was very familiar with the UK system and the New Zealand Curriculum is more 'whole person' ..... he inspired many of us on our island as well to improve, to do better...... and now...... to keep going with his mission.

On Monday we have one of the Ministry of Education allocated 'Teacher Only Days' so your children won't come to school. We call it 'Staff Only Days' though as it's our vital Support Staff who will also be here working with us on our mission. Monday focuses heavily on evaluation and programmes. There will be plenty of questions posed like, What's having the greatest impact on student achievement? How do we know? What isn't? Where is the time going? What are we going to do about it? Are we providing balance? Are we cultivating creativity and divergent thinking and academic success? So, basically, a lot of evidence-based navel gazing and critique as we take a reflective and objective deep dive into our business or is that busyness? Intense! (There will be lunch provided as a sweetener!)

So - a toast to Sir Ken - his wisdom will be very much missed on a global scale.