Exams, grades, league tables, Ofsted reports. All of them miss the point of school and together they are undermining our whole approach to education.
What is school for? In theory, it equips young people to become independent and productive, to get jobs and forge lives, perhaps to be 'good citizens'. In reality, it means one thing: exams.
By focussing on the grades pupils get in neatly siloed, academic subjects, we end up ranking them and our schools into winners and losers. Some pupils are set on a trajectory to university - the rest are left ill-equipped for the world they actually face. Meanwhile, the 'good' schools become middle-class enclaves and the most disadvantaged lose out.
Drawing on his twenty years as a teacher, hundreds of interviews and his experience on the UK Government's Social Mobility Commission, Sammy Wright shows that schools are - and should be - so much more than this. Filled with funny, tender encounters and an unflinching focus on the profound challenges of daily life for both teachers and pupils, his book argues that we need urgently to think of school differently: as something more like a home than a factory, a community hub rather than a boot-camp or testing ground. Exams and grades are necessary, but they are not what equip children for adulthood, and at the moment they are having the very opposite effect.
Written with a novelist's flair, a polemicist's urgency and ending with a series of practical recommendations for change, this entertaining and hugely important state-of-the-nation book interrogates one of our most beloved and misunderstood institutions and shows us a better way.
Informacja dotycząca wprowadzenia produktu do obrotu:
Ten produkt został wprowadzony na rynek przed 13 grudnia 2024 r. zgodnie z obowiązującymi wówczas przepisami (Dyrektywą o ogólnym bezpieczeństwie produktów). W związku z tym może on być nadal sprzedawany bez konieczności dostosowania do nowych wymogów wynikających z Rozporządzenia o Ogólnym Bezpieczeństwie Produktów (GPSR). Produkt zachowuje pełną legalność w obrocie, a jego jakość i bezpieczeństwo pozostają zgodne z obowiązującymi wcześniej standardami.
Information regarding product placement on the market:
This product was placed on the market before December 13, 2024, in accordance with the applicable regulations at the time (the General Product Safety Directive). As a result, it can continue to be sold without needing to meet the new requirements introduced by the General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR). The product remains fully compliant with all previously valid legal standards, ensuring its continued quality and safety.