C.E. Jottings

"Pushy Parents" more important than schools - in CE too?

According to reports yesterday on BBC News and elsewhere, "Parents who push their children to work hard at school have a bigger impact on their child's academic success than their teachers, research suggests." I've not read the original research. But mindful of the important distinction in Hungarian between conductive pedagogy and conductive upbringing (both of which we translate into English as 'conductive education' and institutionalise CE into our education systems), I'm wondering whether the same might be said of we... Read more →

Spoon Theory #CondEd

This could be the shortest post I've ever written! I'll leave you to read "The Spoon Theory" for yourself. Just click on the link. It applies quite well to parents of children of all ages with cerebral palsy too. ------------------- #CondEd is a Twitter hashtag Read more →

Eyes on the skies: Gabriel Nderitu is building his own plane

Gabriel Nderitu is building his own plane … in his tiny back yard in Nairobi, Kenya. The engine is from a Toyota Corolla, the wheels from a Mini, instructions from Wikipedia. The aluminium wings, too long for his yard, lie in the street outside his house. The 42-year old IT engineer developed a passion for flying at school. He studied physics at university and two years ago decided it was time for his dream to take flight. So far it... Read more →

What loss of benefits means for the family of one adult disabled son

Susan and John Kirkman of Sheffield are parents of a 24 year old autistic son. Today, they had a letter published in The Independent on the changes to housing benefit and how it affects their son and themselves. Their letter ends: "To be a parent of our son means unending anxiety and a constant battle against the ignorance and thoughtlessness of the state." I do not quote this letter to make some negative party political or anti-government point. Rather, I... Read more →

10 lessons we maybe ought to learn

My main focus at Paces is not so much in the practice of conductive education as in the institutions and settings in which it is practised and how conductive education might be brought into the mainstream. Often I look outside for inspiration. I've been impressed by the creativity of discussions in the general area of community regeneration and neighbourhood renewal. (Goes under several titles.) I've more than once quoted Mike Chitty for instance whose website I recommend dropping into from... Read more →

Transition/Hardship Fund announced

Andrew Sutton's latest blog post points to potential opportunities for CE in England from the announcement of a £100m Transition/Hardship Fund. I have just posted the following as a Comment to Andrew's post. I hope to return to this brief post later, to revise and amplify it. For the moment .... "Andrew, as I assume others will, I have requested further information about the Transition Fund. However, in following the link to the Third Sector website, I read: "Money likely... Read more →

Are we failing 1 in 4 boys said to have 'special educational needs'?

"Back in July, I queried the valueof the term 'special educational needs' when it was being applied to so many children". That was how I began a posting here on 14th September, following the publication of an Ofsted report that among other things suggested that the term 'special educational needs' was being too widely applied. In July I had asked whether it was time to junk the term special educational need, after reading in the parliamentary debate on the Academies... Read more →

Free School update from Paces

While we wait for a response from DfE to our Proposal to establish a Free School, I can report an excellent Governors' meeting yesterday that reviewed all the pros and cons, from various points of view. For everyone, the pros, for a special school like Paces School, outweighed the cons. Indeed, the cons were largely confined to issues of uncertainty to do with the future of Government SEN policy. One issue that we agreed we had not seen debated elsewhere,... Read more →

Chilean miners hours from rescue

From my very first post on this blog, I have been clear about just one posting rule: I will not post on general news items. I will make an exception. My grandfather, my Mum's Dad, was just turned 60 when he died of pneuoconiosis, sometimes known as Miners' Black Lung. In a matter of hours the Chilean miners will, one only hopes, finally be rescued from their unimaginably unique horror. Their courage amazes me. My uncle Reg, my Mum's sister's... Read more →

The Wei Forward

Sorry for the awful pun. Lord Wei is an adviser to the Coalition Government on The Big Society. A couple of days ago I posted a note on his contribution to a House of Lords' debate "Baron Wei on Big Society in Lords". In that speech, he said (whether a better verb is "warned" or "predicted" is a matter for personal political taste) ".... .... a good number of voluntary organisations will find that they need to undergo a huge... Read more →