C.E. Jottings

Personalisation - must reads

The Social Business, Rob Greenland's blog is, it says, "The UK's most influential social business blog". Not a modest, nor an idle claim as Rob's regular readers will agree. Me? I just love the tagline in the Header: "Make it your business to change the world". Well, anyone with an involvement in delivering or advocating CE is surely doing that! Rob has recently been posting on Personalisation. In my view, his three posts on the subject are essential reading: Personalisaton,... Read more →

Why would someone write such things?

Last Sunday, Andrew Sutton posted on Facebook a small mystery concerning a Google alert: a mere fragment, which read: More Myths for Teachers « Scenes From The Battleground - 17:17 18 Jun 2011 ... Scenes From The Battleground. Teaching in British schools ..... "the Hungarian approach of conductive education" 1 week ago ... teachingbattleground.wordpress.com/.../more-myths-for-teachers/ - Andrew added “I cannot however find this posting, anywhere. Can anyone oblige?” A short exchange of comments took place but with no result. However, privately,... Read more →

Children do not have motor disorders only in school term-time

The other day, I was reflecting on the possibilities 'Flexi-schools' offer for year-round conductive education. Today, I have been reading of the possibilities open to Free Schools. ( The Daily Telegraph reports a speech by Education Secretary Michael Gove to the Policy Exchange.) The Free School Norwich for instance, plans to open six days a week for 51 weeks of the year, which will integrating high-quality education and child care all year-round. Freedom to set their own staff pay and... Read more →

20 applications to open Special Free Schools

The BBC is reporting that the Department for Education has received 20 bids to open special free schools in England in the second round of applications that closed on 15th June. Of the 281 bids in the whole second round, 227 were for mainstream schools, 20 for schools for children with special educational needs, and 34 for alternative provision schools, such as pupil referral units. Of the 227 mainstream applications, 56% were from local groups, with 18% from independent schools... Read more →

SEN Green paper doesn't go far enough: MP #sengp

This post is not quite 'finished'. I was wanting to add a bit more at the end but don't have time. Not all the links are in place. If I don't post it soon it won't get posted at all. So here it is, as it is. --------------------------------------- For followers of such things, there was an interesting moment in the House of Commons last week week (8 June) when Penny Mordaunt (Portsmouth North, Conservative) sought leave to bring in a... Read more →

Concocting a recipe for a new approach to conductive upbringing and schooling from four ingredients

The 4 Ingredients: Cyber-CE Flexischooling Family-centred education Free schools. I have long puzzled about how conductive upbringing, which is necessarily child-and-family centred 365 days a year, might creatively be integrated with conductive schooling with its institutional structures and limitations – whilst having some hope at least of a sustainable business model. Three fortuitous bits of reading and a current obsession - the 4 ingredients - can perhaps be shaken or stirred together to make something wholly new. Crazy? No problem.... Read more →

"Care" is not enough

"Let's not put those with learning disabilities on the scrap heap" urges John Buchingham at the "Labour List" blog. Prompted, I suspect, by the recent abuse revelations from BBC Panorama at the Winterbourne View care home and, perhaps specifically by a speaker on BBC Question Time, the central point John makes is, in my view, an absolutely correct one: "So let’s focus not on who owns care homes; but on changing them from just ‘care’ homes into extensions of schooling... Read more →

"Appreciating Assets"

"Contributors to this publication share a ‘people-centred’ approach that insists that everyone is unique, and has a unique contribution to make to their organisation or community: an appreciative approach that recognises the intrinsic worth in people and places." Appreciating Assets, Carnegie UK Trust Fascinating read if you are into working with communities. Stuff here underpinned foundation of Paces Campus in 1997. We are still on the journey, not having yet arrived! Read more →

SEN Green Paper - IPSEA Survey

You might like to take part in the IPSEA SEN Green Paper survey. You can also download IPSEA's views on the Green Paper from the same place. Haven't read it myself yet. Later. Later. I shall be looking for words like "pedagogy", "curriculum", "training". And "choice" not "preference" for parents. But, then, I'm an optimist always! One reflection I have on the Green Paper from a single reading admittedly is of a lack of explicitness and clarity of definition between... Read more →