Twitter

Making Music Exams Work for You

on Dec 8, 2019

As far back as I can remember, I have always sung. As a child, I sang because I simply couldn’t help it. It nourished me, elated me and grounded me. I sang as others speak, dance, run or write. As a teenager and then an adult, I kept on singing, eventually becoming a professional opera singer. Today I am also a mother and a singing teacher. The combination of these roles has led to my appointment as resident dinner party expert on all things music. Parents who approach me have all have the same burning question: when should their child start his/her formal music education? My answer often startles them: much later than you think. Most professional musician friends of mine who also teach children share the same view. Many argue that before the age of 4-5 is too young. While many of us may harbour the hope that they’re raising the next Mozart, the reality is that music geniuses are...

Talking Heads: Mr. Faber of Summer Fields

on May 4, 2017

Summer Fields is a full-boarding and day boys’ preparatory school in the heart of Oxford. David Faber, Headmaster since 2010, discusses his transition from the world of politics to teaching, and shares his insights into educating boys. In this interview he reveals how, having celebrated the school’s 150th anniversary, he is making plans for Summer Fields’ future. Could you tell me about your own career? What led you to transition to a career in education? After leaving Oxford I was elected as an MP in 1992, but at the 2001 election I decided that I was young enough to try my hand at something else. After writing two books on 20th century history, I was invited to lecture in a number of public schools. In many ways, I wished that this is what I had started out doing twenty years ago. You have a strong personal connection to Summer Fields, both as a former pupil and a parent. How does...

Schools – Where to Start?

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...

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...