Future Schools

I am working on a post about numbers; that excessive numbers cause problems. I know what I am trying to say but it’s not coming easily to the page.

Meanwhile I came across Don Ledingham’s post about Schooling for the Future and the OECD’s scenarios of possible future learning arrangements. Don highlighted the bureaucratic model which I am sure is what Scotland’s education system looks like. He left it there, but I have to say that the later models still involving schools are perhaps more achievable than Don seems to imply.

There are many teachers in Scotland who would be willing to change if given the opportunity. That change does require a huge rethink of our assessment and quality control procedures to emphasise what students can do and can achieve rather than the present system which makes failures of all but the most academic. And we do need to really radically alter the transition out of secondary school and not in the way that England has just proposed. I read recently of a very forward looking school that was linking with its tertiary sector so that timetables meshed and students could be partly at school and partly at college. I taught a course ten years ago which did just that. It only lasted a couple of years because the SQA shifted the goal posts, but while it lasted it really did point to the way ahead for the vast and I mean vast majority of of young people.

We also of course need to re-design how we use our existing resources, classrooms, ICT systems, teaching force, etc.  I don’t think this actually needs much extra money, just more imagination and a willingness to let our learners free.