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Talking Heads: King Alfred’s Robert Lobatto

on Dec 6, 2016

Robert Lobatto has been the Headmaster of King Alfred School, a progressive, child-centred, co-ed school in Golders Green, since Sept. 2015. He spent a large chunk of his career turning around struggling schools in the state sector. Tell us more about your background. I spent 25 years in the state system as a history teacher, head of humanities, deputy head and then executive head. I really enjoyed my career in the tough end of London schools: I always did well with Ofsted and managed to turn several schools around. In the last few years, however, I got very disillusioned with the state system and its disproportionate focus with progress data. The pressure meant decisions were starting to be driven by what was best for the school as opposed to what was best for the individual child. It wasn’t education as I understood it. I was mulling what to do outside of education when the King...

Is it time to ditch homework?

on Nov 17, 2016

Last  week Inverlochy, a primary school in Scotland, made headlines as it became the latest U.K. establishment to abolish homework. The school argued that neither parents nor pupils wanted it, that it encroached upon precious family time and that it prevented pupils from participating in more enriching after-school activities. The fact that the somewhat innocuous decision made front-pages news reflects the zeitgeist: setting or not setting homework is a question that increasingly haunts headteachers. On the one hand giving “challenging” homework that aims to consolidate classroom learning is a condition of obtaining an “outstanding” or “good” rating from much-feared Ofsted inspectors.  Scrapping it entirely is thus a dangerous proposition that could result in a very public –and costly– slap on the wrist for the school. On the other hand, multiple studies (including a recent...

Show, not tell

on Nov 10, 2016

The political outcomes witnessed on both sides of the Atlantic this year show two of the world’s most influential countries turning inward. The winning rhetoric on both occasions has been one of individualism and protectionism, of us before them, or worse,  against them. One article in the Huffington Post Tuesday asked: What Do We Tell the Children? We believe the answer to be in the showing rather than the telling. Before all else we must show profound respect for democratic outcomes, whether we agree with them or not. Next we need to embed in our children the civic values we have inherited, and sadly often take for granted: the rule of law,  protection of minorities and vulnerable members of our society, tolerance for diversity and rejection of bigotry. Last we need to teach our children the unglamorous facts about how our democratic institutions work and to clarify for them...

Parental Expectations: Lessons Learnt from Beyoncé

on Nov 2, 2016

We all know that, despite having as many hours in a day as Beyoncé, the majority of us will never be able to rival her capacity to revolutionise the music industry whilst  slaying it in a rhinestone leotard. But when it comes to parenting, Beyoncé has more in common with us lesser-mortals. She tells her daughter, Blue Ivy, on a daily basis that she can achieve anything she wants: she can become President. Isn’t that what we all want for our children? Not necessarily to become President, especially when we consider the bloodbath that is the current US elections; but we do want our offspring to grow up knowing that the world is very much their oyster. ‘Dream big’ is a daily mantra for this generation. Children achieve highly if you set high expectations for them When we talk about ‘privilege’ and ‘entitlement’ being entrenched in the education system, we are talking not about the fact...

Demystifying the Oxford Interview Process

on Oct 24, 2016

To shake hands or not to shake hands, that is the question. Along with the conundrum of whether you turn up wearing a suit, or go all out Oxford in brogues and cords, clutching a teddy bear named Aloysius under your arm in homage to Sebastian Flyte. Or perhaps all you need is a conspicuously well-thumbed copy of Das Kapital just to show that you’ve been there, done that, and not yet turned eighteen… Oxford had a milestone moment when it recently published a press release detailing sample questions. Good move given that it’s easy for prospective students to feel fazed by the grandeur of a university, whose reputation precedes it by nine solid gold centuries. Libby Purves wrote elegantly in the Times this week about the need for the state sector to encourage more children to have a bash: to understand that they are as entitled to try for a place as anyone else. That said, even students...