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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...

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...