Oak National Academy 12

 

Rebuild schools or go virtual?

The current controversy over schools closed due to buildings using RAAC (Reinforced Autoclave Aerated Concrete) is an interesting one. Of the UK’s 22,000 schools, around 5% have so far been identified as using RAAC but the overwhelming majority of buildings with RAAC are in the other parts of the government sector, particularly hospitals, and the […]

18 days ago Education More
 

The lack of innovation in edtech

A week ago Oak National Academy announced the world’s first totally open source curriculum, as well as promising to open up their underlying source code. I could bore you with the minutiae of Open Government Licensing and how it’s the UK equivalent to Creative Commons By Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) as well as about the MIT […]

3 months ago Education More
 

Is BESA stuck in a Jam?

BESA (British Educational Suppliers Association) are likely to seek a Judicial Review of the government’s decision to fund Oak National Academy (Oak), but only if their members fund it. This may play well with their edtech and publisher members, but is a non-issue for the many companies who supply things like furniture, pens and paper, […]

10 months ago Education More
 

researchED 2022

For the second time, I shelled out some of my own hard-earned cash to attend researchED 2022. Instead of last year’s schlep to Stratford, this year was an 88 bus from Westminster straight to Parliament Hills Schools in Hampstead. Arriving early allowed me the luxury of breakfast and coffee at a local independent deli, something […]

1 year ago Education More
 

Make edtech love not war

The British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA), founded almost 50 years ago, is the UK’s main education business membership association. Today BESA plays a significant role in education and increasingly edu politics, but is it overreaching its remit? Aside from promoting members’ direct commercial interests, BESA’s Articles of Association (updated 2018) note that it will, “promulgate […]

1 year ago Education More
 

Tall Poppy Syndrome and Oak National Academy

I grew up in Australia where the ‘Tall Poppy Syndrome’ is part of the national DNA. You criticise a person or organisation’s success in order to cut them down, deflating arrogance and pomposity. Unfortunately, it’s also about levelling down anyone who has the temerity to succeed. In the UK I have seen it in the […]

2 years ago Education More
 

What Doesn’t Work in Education

The varied ability of teachers in schools is a well-known challenge in improving educational outcomes. The evidence is broad and pervasive and the best advocate of how to address the issue is the internationally renowned educationalist John Hattie (Professor and Director of the Melbourne Education Research Institute at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and Deputy […]

2 years ago Education More
 

BBC blindness

Now that we are in England’s third Covid lockdown, you’d hope that we have a handle on things in K12 education in relation to content, exams and assessment, school attendance, and so on. Sadly, for most issues, the political and policy response has been chaotic, inconsistent or where big ticket (spending) programs have been devised, […]

2 years ago Education More
 

The Endowment Effect: relying too much on the initial piece of information offered when making decisions

In my 20 years in the business of UK education, tutoring was almost always seen by governments as ‘the love that dare not speak its name’.  That political and ideological taboo has been shattered as a result of Covid-19, and in England we now have a state-funded, 3rd party-managed and 4th party-delivered National Tutoring Programme […]

2 years ago Education More
 

The importance of assessing Technical Debt & high-performance in early stage investments

I have read over a thousand pitch decks from start-up edtech companies. Less than 1% met my personal tests for investability. Not one covered two specific issues that should be important to investors from every sector, namely: What is the estimated Technical Debt in the business? Do you have a high-performing tech team?   Technical […]

3 years ago Education More