As the country prepares for the Fourth of July, social media has become hyperactive, especially Twitter users. With all the digging, taking a black and white perspective and not refusing to see any of the gray in between, it gets scarier and scarier.
![Conv1Insightpc400px | Schools Week](https://schoolsweek.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Conv-1-Insight-pc-400px.jpg)
In this context, I came across a field podcast in which former Army officer Neil Jurd discusses leadership. Jurd reminds us of the dangerous territory we are in if we need to ‘manage’ and engage our employees. He says trust people and, even better, be friends with the people you lead.
I laughed when I heard that. How many times do we hear, “But one day you might have to tell them, and if they are friends, it might be a problem.” According to Jurd, herein lies the problem. We are adults leading adults. Infantilizing your staff is not conducive to putting children first and giving them an ‘unfair advantage’.
There is a lot to think about here about school leadership and elections.
There is a lot of political howling about how the pupil premium helps achieve an ‘unfair advantage’ and taxing private school fees does not help. But what Melissa Lynch explains about her own research in this podcast tells a depressing story that should make us all angry.
Additionally, we are looking to participate in a netball tournament held at a local private school. The school's facilities alone make it clear that we are not playing on a flat court. (Of course, the courts themselves are perfectly equal)
![Conv2letstalk400px | Schools Week](https://schoolsweek.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Conv-2-lets-talk-400px.jpg)
But that's the tip of the iceberg. Lynch's research involved speaking with 15-year-old children from low socioeconomic backgrounds. What she discovered is that money in the form of grants and loans can get a student into college, but it's no guarantee they will stay, stay healthy, or succeed.
In reality, as a policy of widening participation, it does not begin to bridge the gaps in cultural capital such as language, accent, clothing, and experience. All contribute to unequal access and access that almost automatically leads to positions of power.
When every student Lynch interviewed said they didn't feel well enough to secure a place, it's clear that the price tag of that unfair advantage is much higher than the maintenance grant.
And that financial support itself comes with its own price tag, a price tag that many people can't really address. Of course, we're talking about student loan interest.
The primary sector is now taking a break of a few weeks, with no focus on SATS. Elsewhere, GCSEs, A levels and resits will dominate everyone's thoughts. I wonder how many parents would echo the sentiments of one person I spoke to during SAT week, questioning the value of all this abstract learning when all young people need to know is how to manage finances and budget.
Considering the current economic situation and the uncertainty of the future, I have a lot of sympathy for this argument.
In the meantime, this blog by Harriet Young is a great resource to prepare and educate yourself about the intricacies of student loans and repayment.
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We haven't yet heard any promises of student loan forgiveness as part of this election campaign, but even in the United States, where President Biden has canceled billions of dollars in student debt with the stroke of a pen, the two are having a very similar discussion about student loan debt. . Mathematics curriculum.
In this blog, Sarah Riggs Johnson and Nate Wolkenhaue don't talk about “anti-math attitudes”, as our current Prime Minister likes to do, but they do approach improving confidence and anxiety about maths in their own world of high-stakes testing.
Their points really resonated with me as I have just watched my 6 and 7 year olds taking their exams and of course my 10 and 11 year olds taking their exams over the past half term.
Here are some helpful tips to help you change the cycle of test-induced math disengagement, giving you some great inspiration for post-exam recovery.