http://advisorymatters.naaceblogs.org/2008/12/03/boulders-and-pebbles/ In 1992, I was involved in an exciting ICT and learning conference with this title. I'm assuming that Steve Heppell, who was one of the main organisers for the conference, came up with this phrase to express the theme of the conference. Although a great deal has happened in education since, we've still got a long way to go to make this question irrelevant. Sat, 31 Jul 2010 03:27:01 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 http://advisorymatters.naaceblogs.org/2008/12/03/boulders-and-pebbles/comment-page-1/#comment-1116 Gareth Davies Thu, 04 Dec 2008 11:34:34 +0000 http://advisorymatters.naaceblogs.org/2008/12/03/boulders-and-pebbles/#comment-1116 On the school holiday, Leadbeater cites that long school holidays hurt disadvantaged kids more than middle income children. He quotes from a US study which found that while middle income children's reading improved over the school holiday while learners in low income families lost nearly two months of reading skills. This builds to a large attainment gap over time. I suppose the ideal would be to give low income learners what middle income learners gain in that period. Holiday clubs have been one solution in the past, but with technology we should be enabling flexibility provided the incentives are there and understood. Leadbeater also points out that the system causes market forces which make holidays in school time cheaper which again hits attainment and widens the gap. The key is flexibility of access to learning I feel. On the school holiday, Leadbeater cites that long school holidays hurt disadvantaged kids more than middle income children. He quotes from a US study which found that while middle income children’s reading improved over the school holiday while learners in low income families lost nearly two months of reading skills. This builds to a large attainment gap over time. I suppose the ideal would be to give low income learners what middle income learners gain in that period. Holiday clubs have been one solution in the past, but with technology we should be enabling flexibility provided the incentives are there and understood. Leadbeater also points out that the system causes market forces which make holidays in school time cheaper which again hits attainment and widens the gap. The key is flexibility of access to learning I feel.

]]> http://advisorymatters.naaceblogs.org/2008/12/03/boulders-and-pebbles/comment-page-1/#comment-1114 Miles Berry Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:44:01 +0000 http://advisorymatters.naaceblogs.org/2008/12/03/boulders-and-pebbles/#comment-1114 Thanks for the write-up Gareth; I've downloaded the report and will peruse. Generally been impressed by Leadbeater, especially on personalisation, and I see much sense in some of the ten ideas - particularly the one about school size. Not so sure about doing away with the summer hols, though - they provide the time and space for the informal learning, both for pupils and teachers - the time for children to be children, and for many teachers these are our 20% time (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google#Innovation_time_off) - OK, not quite the perks of working for Google, but these weeks in which we can engage in our own projects, whether work related or not, are what really enriches the curriculum we offer. Thanks for the write-up Gareth; I’ve downloaded the report and will peruse. Generally been impressed by Leadbeater, especially on personalisation, and I see much sense in some of the ten ideas - particularly the one about school size.
Not so sure about doing away with the summer hols, though - they provide the time and space for the informal learning, both for pupils and teachers - the time for children to be children, and for many teachers these are our 20% time (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google#Innovation_time_off) - OK, not quite the perks of working for Google, but these weeks in which we can engage in our own projects, whether work related or not, are what really enriches the curriculum we offer.

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