Manifesto for Excellence in Schools
- John Bolton
- Apr 4, 2021
- 2 min read
Wr. Rob Carpenter
Pub. Bloomsbury
Framed around the context of ever increasing expectations for pupils and the growing focus on learning mastery, A Manifesto for Excellence in Schools contains a balance of both practical advice and multiple examples, resources and ideas for teachers and leaders to plan and deliver high quality learning experiences. At its heart, this book is all about helping teachers and leaders to become architects for learning by helping them to design classrooms, curricula and whole-school practices that are inclusive, engaging and above all - excellent..
"I believe children learn best when they are allowed to explore"
Learning by trial and error is how I learned pretty much all of my IT skills, it’s how I’ve taught myself to play the piano, and it’s an approach I have steadfastly promoted in the classroom. Whether teaching Scratch, Kodu or Python, I believe children learn best when they are allowed to explore. Successful teaching, then, is a mix of instruction and of opportunities to play creatively, to practice, to make mistakes and, crucially, to learn from them. What makes Carpenter’s book so powerful is the way in which he blends pedagogy with personal accounts of his own experience in school leadership.
As such, you aren’t just reading a series of heady ideal-world strategies. You’re reading practicable, useable ideas which have truly changed and shaped the fortunes of real schools. What we’re looking at here is a total shift in paradigm. Carpenter talks about accountability and the “proving culture” in which learning is viewed in terms of levels rather than skills. Education has become a machine designed to align children with numbers: children are judged not on their learning or their individual development, but on whether they have made expected progress. They have or they haven’t. Yes or no.
Revolutions, Carpenter reminds us, begin in classrooms. Expertise in learning – and, by extension, in school leadership – comes from the confidence to experiment, to shape new ideas, to cultivate collaboration.
Contents
Introduction
Let's start with why
When Ofsted came to call
Making plans
The learning environment
Climate and culture
The domains of learning
Mastery for learning
Expansive assessment
Leadership and professional development
Conclusion
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