There is hope!

As the believer said, "My eyes have seen."

In the past weeks and months I have have been searching to see if there are ways to break uniformity, break away from the fear based regimes our governments are forcing into schools and I am delighted to say, 'I have seen'.

I have recently had the pleasure of being present during an Ofsted visit to a place where the children really do come first.  A child centred place which goes beyond ticking boxes. A place where the children are not being forced to sit down with a pen in their hand, instead they are outdoors using sticks to draw in the sand.  They are learning through nature and not through lesson plans and worksheets. They are interacting with real life contexts thus developing life skills as well as academia. 

The staff at this place know the children so well they don't need coloured highlighters to move the children on. 
They don't need lesson plans with 12 different differentiation levels, they just know their stuff and know the children.

The inspector grading the place as outstanding (that magic word!) in all areas commented that this way of learning has left them with questions.

My question is this; when will our elected government convey respect, support and autonomy to our teaching profession?

My eyes have seen that with a combination of insightful leadership, team spirit, honesty and an ethos embedded in securing the best possible outcomes for all children, it can be done.