education | Magus Education

on Jan 9, 2017

This article was commissioned to Magus Education by ParentVille. We republish it with their permission. This is how it goes. You pee on a stick. Small hurrah. You bite your nails for the next 12 weeks before sharing the news. Toast. Sorry, mocktail for you. Flash- forward a few weeks — you have yet to hit check out on that flattering maternity dress in your Seraphine basket — when it starts. A whisper from a colleague here, a flash of panic across a well-meaning friend’s face there, a schools’ special in Parents magazine. The chorus of voices becomes deafeningly loud, the same question repeats again and again: have you put your unborn child’s name down for nurseries? Schools? Universities? You laugh it off at first; they can’t be serious. But they are. And soon you laugh no more, because the whisper has built to a terrifying roar of third-hand horror stories along tales of creepy...

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...

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...