Approaches to Learning
Relationships are the cornerstone of performance at school. They will look different in every instance, because, as we well know from daily experience, the ‘chemistry’ between individuals is always subject to many diverse factors, which can play out differently at any given moment and across time.… Read more
The good enough school and the good enough student
The ‘good enough’ school is a primary school and not a secondary school; while the good enough student is a secondary student and not a primary student.
Embedded in this only apparently gnomic statement is a vital lesson in how to promote the conditions under which children can hope to enjoy a successful apprenticeship in the art and craft of being human.… Read more
Ability, capacity and capability
Ability, capacity and capability – the difference between them and why, in respect of all three, (most) schools ask and answer the wrong questions.
Gathered in the school yard at the heart of the school campus are a class of students readying themselves to participate in a PE session.… Read more
“Yes, but what are they learning?”
Occupy a ‘leadership’ position long enough, particularly when working within a relatively high-powered team, and you’ll be asked to undergo some sort of psychometric testing. These come in many guises, so you might find it’s DiSC, Belbin, Myers-Briggs, Strengthfinder or any one of a dozen others, but in some shape or form you will be quizzed and assessed on how your personality and preferences equip you as part of the collaborative process that, in pretty much every job of work, provides for success.… Read more
Tree Bathing: a human technology
One of the advantages of ICHK’s Human Technologies approach is that it finds a proper place in school for many activities that the mainstream curriculum neglects or ignores.
HT suggests that we can support our growth and sense of satisfaction in our lives by attending to the ways in which we deploy technologies in five different categories of being: somatic (our bodies), cognitive (our thinking), material (our use of physical tools), social (our relationships with others) and spiritual (our understanding of ourselves).… Read more
Third Annual Science Fair – Head of School’s Address
Those of you with long and faultless memories may recall that last year I used the occasion of the Science Fair to reflect on the nature of tradition and to confirm what a privilege it was to be playing a part, if only a presiding one, in the establishment of an ICHK tradition, which, now in this its third year, the Science Fair is well on the way to becoming.… Read more
Complexity for school, and life
When I came to compose this speech, I found myself drawn back to the entry that I had recently written for this year’s Yearbook.
I realise that, at the moment, my thinking is being dominated by the significance of complexity for school and, indeed, for life in general.… Read more
Student Agency and Self-Empowerment
I must have blinked. Surely it was only a moment ago that we were gathered here, to wish last year’s graduates the best of luck and bon voyage. They say it’s a function of getting older that time speeds up and years flash by.… Read more
The project of ICHK, in a nutshell.
Cambridge Strategies, a research body associated with Cambridge University, recently included us in their Innovation 800 project, which celebrates 800 years of academic excellence at Cambridge and which identifies global leaders in the field of educational change, in schools, universities and business.… Read more
Wisdom and Schooling
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
From “The Rock” by TS Eliot
Reflect for a moment on this entry from Wikipedia: “Homo sapiens (Latin: “wise man”) is the binomial nomenclature (also known as the scientific name) for the only extant human species.… Read more