Category: News

Jan 28
Right to Education and the French Authoritarian Context

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 well as independent philosopher, Bertrand Stern, have come together to write a letter to the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights at the Council of Europe. They are concerned […]

Oct 24
What Are Your Training Needs?

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 Mindful Magic, along with some other inspiring individuals and organisations to bring you online sessions on:- How students learn. How to build on students’ natural learning ability and curiosity. How […]

Sep 06
Do Students Need to “Catch Up?”

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, teachers and students justified? Here’s a blog post by author and lecturer on education, parenting and human behaviour, Alfie Kohn on this subject: Is Learning “Lost” When Kids Are Out […]

Aug 19
‘Drill and kill’ for England’s state schools while private sector goes progressive

“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 in the educational approach of the private sector,” says Toby Seth, headteacher at the Pocklington school foundation in Yorkshire. “Why? Because schools have had to.” Employers, he says, want new […]

Jun 15
The Long, Insidious Shadows of Colonialism

“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 time. It is not known how susceptible children are to the virus, but it has been confirmed that they can carry it, even if they show no explicit signs of […]

Jun 15
The Black British History You May Not Know About

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, normally in October when we celebrate Black History Month. Melody Triumph, policy specialist at The Black Curriculum (an organisation which teaches black British history in schools) states: “lf you’re omitting […]

May 12
Coronavirus shows us it’s time to rethink everything. Let’s start with education.

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 and aims. This doesn’t mean we should forget Shakespeare, or the other wonders of art and culture, but that the matters crucial to our continued survival are given the weight […]

May 08
Headteachers Call for a Kinder School System

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, a founding member of the Headteachers Roundtable says: “Headship can be very lonely, and people are frightened of being sacked or exposed. Michael Gove’s mantra was about giving heads control, […]

Apr 07
School’s Really Out…

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, this is unprecedented. Never have so many children been educated at home. Whilst this isn’t the same situation as home education, because schools still hold the responsibility rather than parents, […]

Mar 11
School Refusal: Crime, Mental Disorder, or Human Right?

“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 Author: Dr Peter Gray, Psychologist and Research Professor

Mar 11
School’s Out… Arguments for Self-Directed Education

“I set out to find out more about education where children are active agents. Perhaps the most radical type of all is self-directed education, where the children are not made to follow any curriculum at all, unless they want to. I interviewed psychologists researching learning in home educated children, and others focusing on children in […]

Mar 11
Coronavirus Reminds Us What Education Without Schooling Can Look Like

“The coronavirus outbreak might help some parents discover better alternatives outside of traditional schooling.” Read the full article here: https://fee.org/articles/coronavirus-reminds-us-what-education-without-schooling-can-look-like/ Published by: Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) Date: March 10th 2020 Author: Kerry McDonald, Senior Education Fellow at FEE and author of Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom (Chicago Review Press, 2019).