In Louise Tickle's powerful article in The Guardian this week here, she looks closely at the approach to using Restorative Justice in schools. The article reflects on the number of children who have been permanently excluded across Gloucestershire, and across the UK, but then considers the impact of the technique of Restorative Justice on shifting the behaviour culture in our schools. It is a … Continue reading The healing power of Restorative Justice
Author: ianfrostblog
Guardian report – Restorative Justice
Follow link to Louise Tickle's powerful article here in The Guardian this week which looks closely at our approach to using Restorative Justice at GA:
Christmas at the Gloucester Royal
It’s the start of her shift and she hands me a tea, With half a sugar. In the day room, like a regular. A too-familiar welcome for a place we want to leave. While somewhere three floors below A registrar, half my age, is cutting up my perfectly-shaped boy. As the theatre curtain falls Electric-yellow … Continue reading Christmas at the Gloucester Royal
‘Lord Hereford’s Knob’ – The Black Mountains
Sharp-angled sunshine catches up with us On Hay Bluff, racing over bracken bent By showers stacking up against the dark And brooding layers of the Black Mountains. My boy and I we laugh along the ridge, Gaze across the peak of Lord Hereford’s Knob, And giggle at the future insults we will trade. We slide … Continue reading ‘Lord Hereford’s Knob’ – The Black Mountains
The Slingshot – talent or practise?
Jack Morris is a good friend of my son and plays cricket in Gloucester Academy sports hall on a Thursday night with the County squad. He says it is the bounciest surface he’s ever played on. He is only 16, but has strong arms and shoulders, a steady eye and his timing of the ball is sensational. … Continue reading The Slingshot – talent or practise?
Kindness – Why phones don’t work, and why disruption-free classrooms do
“What’s the one thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?” (Gary Keller – The One Thing) Some of the reading I have been doing recently and some of the visits to schools over the past few months (Nova Hreod in Swindon; Magna in Poole and … Continue reading Kindness – Why phones don’t work, and why disruption-free classrooms do
The La La Land of good teaching
Having spent some half term time with the family toe-tapping at La La Land and weeping at Lion, here are my film-inspired thoughts on some of the elements of good teaching: 1. Command the classroom: really own it. Understand your physicality, presence and how you manage them room. No excuses: high expectations, coats, wires, posture, noise. If … Continue reading The La La Land of good teaching
Winter Solstice
Winter Solstice December 21. Shortest day. All walled in, I watch the windows And the leaking sky, waiting for the last light Of the waning year. Deep, all-day dark. Racing clouds and bedroom weather A dark and hopeless time. Finally the dog and I brave the cold And hopscotch the spaces Between farm-track puddles. Nut-brown and … Continue reading Winter Solstice
Lessons from Zimbabwe
After a geography degree with some development economics thrown in, I flew to Zimbabwe and lived for two years working in a remote school on the border of Mozambique up in the Eastern Highlands. It helped me to grow up, find something that I believed in and that I thought I could eventually be good at. Since then I've … Continue reading Lessons from Zimbabwe
Done your homework yet?!
Homework at GA is now set as significant written or practical projects two times in each assessment cycle (each cycle one is 8 weeks long) for most subjects. These are intended to present extra challenge, really get our students to think in depth and to produce work of real excellence. Maths and Languages homework is … Continue reading Done your homework yet?!
