Articles

Broadening the Scope of a School, by Mary-Ann Ridgway

August 6, 2024

What if a school were a vibrant hub for change? Change that starts with the inner blossoming of oneself, inspiring further shifts to happen within […]

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Parenting Unscripted – The Art of Raising a Self-Directed Kid, by Jeneen Gacek

July 1, 2024

Life fills us with questions. Each new stage of growing and development changes our thinking from one level to another. Like a character in a […]

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Shrinking Children, by Sophie B Lovett

March 27, 2024

One of the main things that often strikes me about the young people who learn and play with us at Maverick Learning Community is how much space […]

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Shiver-Me-Timbers, Time to Cast Off Centralised Curriculum Models. By Julian Barrell.

February 15, 2024

A Meaningful Learning Revolution Is On The Horizon… In the UK, the National Curriculum has driven the evolution of learning towards something that can best […]

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Irons in the Fire, by Tom Brown

December 22, 2023

Part 2: Progressive Education I [previously] wrote about the Montessori Landscape in the UK and what I’ve learned so far about the scene [since relocating […]

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Irons in the Fire, by Tom Brown

December 22, 2023

Part 1: Montessori in the UK I have so much to talk about. Over the last month [October], I have been involved in so many […]

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How Would a Martian View our Schools?

December 18, 2023

This transcript was taken from a presentation entitled ‘School is Very Strange!” by Guy Claxton at the 2023 Rethinking Education conference in London. Guy Claxton […]

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Flexischooling: A Case for Enabling More Children to Go to School Less Often, by Sarah Sudea

November 7, 2023

In the 2022/23 academic year, 28.3% of secondary school pupils were persistently absent. Huge numbers of children are unable to access full time mainstream school […]

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Guide to Education, by Michael Rosen

September 16, 2023

About the Poet Michael Rosen is one of the best-known figures in the children’s book world, he is renowned for his work as a poet, […]

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The 20% Project for Schools – A Modest Proposal, by Derry Hannam

August 13, 2023

What young people need It seems to me that the crucial commodity that young people need in order to find and deepen their interests and identity, […]

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Research

Democratic Empowerment: How do Students Feel About Their Student Council? By Hope Wilder

March 12, 2023

What Students Say Matters Most schools do not look like a democratic society at all. Imagine a school where democracy is lived on a daily […]

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Real World Learning: School 21 and XP

May 3, 2022

Here is a report by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), commissioned by the Edge Foundation (published June 2019), which presents the findings of […]

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Journal of Pedagogy: Home-Based Education

October 26, 2021

Volume 12 (2021): Issue 1 (June 2021), Special Issue: Home-Based Education Volume 12 of the Journal of Pedagogy ran a special on home education. It […]

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Evidence Base for Self-Directed Education

October 24, 2021

By Rose Arnold, Suitable-Education.uk, first published October 2021 “Self-directed education is a pedagogy grounded in biology, anthropology, cognitive science, psychology and child development. It is not claimed […]

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The Student Experience of Self Managed Learning (SML): Evidence From Research

January 13, 2021

By Nicola Sankey, March 2008 (with Introduction by Dr. Graham Dawes) [At the time what is now Self Managed Learning College was Called ‘South Downs […]

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Home Education Trends, Preliminary Report

January 8, 2021

By Wendy Charles-Warner, EducationOtherwise.org December 2020 This report examines trends in numbers of home educating families in England. The data was obtained by sending freedom […]

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Home-Education: Aims, Practices and Outcomes

January 7, 2021

By Paula Rothermel, University of Durham, 2002 Abstract This research explores the aims and practices of home-educating families from diverse socio-economic backgrounds. The methodology involves […]

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Preventing school exclusion: a case study of a primary aged autistic child with ADHD and a PDA profile

January 6, 2021

By Catrina Lyle and Heather Leatherland Catrina Lyle is an advisory teacher within the Communication and Interaction team and Heather Leatherland is a mainstream primary […]

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A Summary of Research on Self Managed Learning

January 6, 2021

The material in this document is just a small snapshot of the extensive evaluations carried out on Self Managed Learning with young people. It includes […]

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Learning from the COVID-19 home-schooling experience: Listening to pupils, parents/carers and teachers

October 21, 2020

A report by Mari-Ana Jones (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) and Sara Bubb (University College London Institute of Education): “In Spring 2020, schools in […]

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News

Right to Education and the French Authoritarian Context

January 28, 2021

Three European organisations advocating human rights and freedom in education – ALLI asbl (Luxemboug), Les Enfants d’Abord (France), and Full Human Rights-Experience Education – as […]

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What Are Your Training Needs?

October 24, 2020

Courses/workshops on progressive education coming soon: Please feed back as to what content and format you require. Progressive Education is collaborating with Holistic Learning and […]

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Do Students Need to “Catch Up?”

September 6, 2020

There is much talk in the news at the moment about students needing to “catch up” post Covid-19, but is this extra pressure on parents, […]

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‘Drill and kill’ for England’s state schools while private sector goes progressive

August 19, 2020

“As ministers persist with traditional teaching, including children sitting in rows, independent schools have switched to team and project-based learning. There’s been a huge change […]

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The Long, Insidious Shadows of Colonialism

June 15, 2020

“There’s a virus going around. You may have heard of it. It’s highly infectious and can infect whole swathes of the population at any given […]

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The Black British History You May Not Know About

June 15, 2020

This article points out that the transatlantic slave trade and the US civil rights movement are largely the only black history taught in UK schools, […]

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Coronavirus shows us it’s time to rethink everything. Let’s start with education.

May 12, 2020

Guardian columnist, George Monbiot says that now is the time for a Great Reset. “I believe that education should work outwards from our principal challenges […]

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Headteachers Call for a Kinder School System

May 8, 2020

Ten years since Michael Gove’s reforms began, coronavirus shows up their failings, says the Headteachers’ Roundtable – and offers a chance for change. Ros McMullen, […]

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School’s Really Out…

April 7, 2020

Clinical psychologist, Dr Naomi Fisher with an update to her recent article, as children learn at home during the coronavirus pandemic. “On a global scale, […]

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School Refusal: Crime, Mental Disorder, or Human Right?

March 11, 2020

“Views on school refusal depend on beliefs about children and human rights.” Read the full article here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedom-learn/202002/school-refusal-crime-mental-disorder-or-human-right Published by: Psychology Today Date: February 2020 […]

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