3 HRS AGO - Registers at a Victorian school recorded ‘inclement weather’ as a reason for missing school. Not surprising when children were without coat or shoes In the 1860s schoolteachers were obliged to complete a daily log to record any unusual event. Schooling was not free and many poor children only got an education through the altruism of Quakers, Wesleyans and other non-conformists who were prepared to sponsor them.One of the regular entries for a junior school in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, was the total number of children who had taken any lessons that week, and the average attendance. Sometimes a measles or smallpox epidemic was the reason given for low numbers, but most frequently it was the weather. Continue reading... Collapse

6 HRS AGO - Imagination should infuse teaching of science as well as the arts. Children are not pitchers to be filled with factsYou can’t see it, smell it, hear it. People disagree on how, precisely, to define it, or where, exactly, it comes from. It isn’t a school subject or an academic discipline, but it can be learned. It is a quality that is required by artists. But it is also present in the lives of scientists and entrepreneurs. All of us benefit from it: we thrive mentally and spiritually when we are able to harness it. It is a delicate thing, easily stamped out; in fact, it flourishes most fully when people are playful and childlike. At the same time, it works best in tandem with deep knowledge and expertise.This mysterious – but teachable – quality is creativity, the subject of a report published this week by Durham Commission on Creativity and Education, a body chaired by Sir Nicholas Serota, the chair of Arts Council England, with input from figures including film director Beeban Collapse

7 HRS AGO - Tes profiles Ark Academy's principal Delia Smith, who has an OBE, four 'outstanding' Ofsteds – and has survived 25 years as a headteacher Collapse

8 HRS AGO - Free schools don't do well just because they're free schools. We must remember the context they're working in Collapse

9 HRS AGO - ‘Pre-loading’ students are causing sleepless nights in the handsome Victorian villas of RedlandDerrick Collier was feeling a little weary. “It’s party central around here. The students are taking over,” he said. “Last night two girls were hammering on the front door of the house opposite me at 3am for half an hour. It’s hard to get back to sleep after something like that.”Collier won’t bother contacting the authorities about his ruined night. “I could spend my whole life reporting incidents,” he said. Continue reading... Collapse

11 HRS AGO - Further education is the key to navigating our way out of the mess the country finds itself in, writes MP David Lammy Collapse

13 HRS AGO - Do you understand how exam questions work? Test development specialist Zeek Sweiry explains the machinations of multiple-choice Collapse

14 HRS AGO - Florida is introducing Big Brother in its classrooms with a database that will collect and analyze data about students to share with law enforcement This year, students in Florida headed back to school for reading, writing and a new Big Brother. The Florida Schools Safety Portal, a statewide database, will collect, sort and analyze sensitive data about students to share with law enforcement. Created in response to the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, the portal is described as an early warning system to identify and assess potential threats. But responding to legitimate concerns about school shootings with a system that invades student privacy and labels children as threats will not make schools safer. Related: Instead of school supplies, this year I’m shopping for a bulletproof backpack | Judi Zirin Continue reading... Collapse

15 HRS AGO - Swapping old edtech for new helps schools to maintain a fit-for-purpose IT suite and also keep budgets in check Collapse