9 minute read
A springboard to learning Kathleen Kay, Dukes Club platform manager
passion within them. These are the teachers we want in our schools. Teachers who have the confidence and scope to teach the actual children in front of them, rather than a ‘onesize-fits-all’ approach.
Whilst not disputing the importance of Maths and English learning for our children, or the need for science and computing in this digital age, the increased timetable provision for these subjects in the last 15 years has inevitably been to the detriment of other subjects. If we really want our children to love learning, to grow in their understanding of the world in which they live, to place current political and economic events in context, we need to teach them History, we need to teach them Geography, and we need to teach them Religious Studies. We don’t live in an isolated bubble, either of geography or time. Our presence is a tiny but important notch on the timeline of a world that spans years before us, and time still yet to be counted.
If we want our children to be lifelong learners they need to appreciate this, and in turn value the need for context and connection. The role of rigorous humanities teaching is fundamental to developing both transferable skills and important context. Context to our music, our literature, to architecture, art and drama. Context to various political and economic situations around the world. This type of teaching touches at our hearts and souls. This type of teaching enhances and develops relationships. This type of teaching encourages our children to debate, think, be critical and discerning, grapple with complex ides, be empathetic…. and fundamentally, to be eager for more. Let us hold on to those curious three-year-olds who will not be diverted by their playing or learning. For to learn is both a privilege and a joy. n ‘Ourpresenceisatiny butimportantnotch onthetimelineofa worldthatspansyears beforeus,andtimestill yettobecounted.Ifwe wantourchildrentobe lifelonglearnersthey needtoappreciatethis, andinturnvaluethe needforcontextand connection’
Welcome to Riverside Nursery Schools, a family of five unique and beautiful nurseries set in the London Borough of Richmond. We provide children with a beautifully crafted environment in which highly qualified educators motivate children to learn and become independent.
We look forward to meeting you and your child and being alongside you at the start of their education.
University Foundation Certificate
STEM, Business, Creative Arts, Humanities
One-year residential course UK Year 13 for ages 17+ Four pathways: STEM, Business, Creative Arts or Humanities
Includes English Language and IELTS preparation Students complete the Extended Project Qualification All internally assessed – no public exams 1-1 UCAS counselling Leads to UK university entry
Earlscliffe
29 Shorncliffe Road, Folkestone CT20 2NB, United Kingdom
earlscliffe.co.uk
The joy of learning
Silvia Bellucci, a teacher of Italian and Spanish at Earlscliffe and Rochester Independent College, recounts how learning new skills at various junctures in her life, from the uncertainty of youth in Italy to teaching a new language to the elderly, taught her that we should all embrace learning, whatever age we are
Growing up in Italy in the 1980s and 1990s, my friends and I were told at a very young age that the world around us was rapidly changing, that job stability was becoming a feature of the past and that we would need to acquire a wide range of skills to even hope to keep up with the challenges of the time.
We experienced the collective panic that followed the Chernobyl explosion, saw the
horrors of the Yugoslav wars taking place just across the sea from us and witnessed the increasing internal instability following the Mafia political scandals of Tangentopoli and the never-ending assassination attempts carried out by the far left and the far right. We also saw unemployment rates peak at 12% of the labour force in the late 1990s.
The world was changing and, with it, the concept of education which now saw its remit stretching far beyond the school walls to prepare us for an ever-evolving world of work. The traditional paradigm of making a long-term career choice and landing one or two stable jobs before retirement was rapidly becoming dated. Instead, what was asked of us was to become self-reliant individuals, capable of learning multiple transferable skills in order to cope with a rapidly changing labour market, where technology was increasingly gaining centre stage.
Fast forward a few decades, there is a worldwide spread acceptance of the importance of lifelong learning. It isn’t just a tool to arm ourselves against unemployment and job insecurity. It is a holistic approach to education that consists in the mere joy of continuing to learn and explore different areas of ourselves and the world around us, for the entirety of our lives.
I recognise this in the ambition of many of my students, who are willing to give up some of their precious free time to learn Chinese, take up a drawing course or simply visit a museum and learn about the history of a certain civilisation.
I see it in the struggle of some millennial friends, who are having to retrain in their 30s and learn a completely new set of skills because their industry is collapsing or because they have suddenly been made redundant.
It is portrayed in the lives of some older acquaintances, who in their 60s and 70s are learning how to build a guitar, attending a weekly martial art class or challenging themselves with an IT course.
I have particularly witnessed it many times in my career as a language teacher. My youngest ever student was a toddler with a half-Italian mum who was learning the language through games, songs and role-plays; my eldest was a 76-year-old Jewish man who had had a tough life and was spending his retirement years finally doing what he loved, such as learning Spanish.
The lesson plans were obviously very different, but what the two students had in common was that innate passion for learning, and the enrichment that invariably comes from it. Neurological research which took place in 2014 to determine whether bilingualism influences cognitive aging found that those who speak two or more languages, irrespective of education level, occupation or gender, experience the onset of Alzheimer’s four and half years later than monolinguists. A campaign is expected to launch in 2023 to enable UK doctors to prescribe art, music, or other hobby-based treatments to fight off several physical and mental issues. Older students may be the ones who benefit from lifelong learning the most.
Research conducted by the academic Julia Morales in 2013 showed that with much younger language learners, children who learn a second language recall memories better than speakers of one language and work swifter and make fewer mistakes in memory-based tasks than their monolingual peers. The evidence suggests that children who are language learners work in a more logical manner and can recognise key data and text more quickly, too. So, whether in nursery or retirement, learning another language can only add value and purpose to our lives. To learn is to adapt, to evolve, to keep up with our times, to have something to look forward to, whatever our age. It has something to do with reaching our full human potential.
To quote T.H White in TheBookofMerlyn: “You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn.”
I remember when, during my gap year in India, I was learning how to play tabla in a room full of primary school children who were so much better than I was. One day an older Dutchman joined the class, and I could see him struggling, too. We slowly became friends, so I asked him what was keeping him going. He showed me a tattoo on his forearm that spelled ‘nu’. He explained to me that it means
‘now’ in Dutch, and it had been his reminder for many years. Never mind what your current level of ability is, what counts is that you are taking on the challenge of learning something new right now.
On Facebook one can find a variety of lifelong learning groups: a learner’s society, a platform to share materials and ideas, or an adventure group. There is even a page dedicated to a lifelong learning festival that took place in Limerick in Ireland in May, where both in-person and online courses were offered, and whose motto is, “Learning something new in 2022.” What will you do? n
ACADEMIC AND CREATIVE SUBJECTS AT GCSE AND A-LEVEL, YEARS 9-13
HAMPSTEAD FINE ARTS COLLEGE HAS A DISTINCTIVE EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY WHICH PLACES EQUAL IMPORTANCE ON THE ACADEMIC AND CREATIVE AND ENCOURAGES THE HIGHEST ACHIEVEMENT IN BOTH AREAS
The last word…
Every week at Dukes, we share a ‘Quote of the Week’ offered up by one of the team. We’ve collected some of our favourites from the previous term.
“Success today requires the agility and drive to constantly rethink, reinvigorate, react, and reinvent.”
“It’s not the awards and prizes that add value to one’s work, it’s the work that adds value to the awards and prizes.”
Abhijit Naskar Chosen by Tim Fish, Managing Director at Dukes Education
“Education is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundation rest the cornerstones of freedom, democracy and sustainable human development.”
“To wear this shirt, especially with the West Ham badge on it — it takes an honest player, hard-working, a player that leaves everything on the pitch and plays for the crest on the shirt.”
Mark Noble Chosen by Sebastian Hepher, Principal of Eaton Square Schools
“No one will protect what they don’t care about, and no one will care about what they have never experienced.”
David Attenborough Chosen by Ros Burgess, Vice Principal at St Andrew’s College, Cambridge
“Amolepastorchielouslaine.” “When the shepherd is weak, the wolf excretes wool.”
A 13th century French proverb, relevant to safeguarding Chosen by Prof Mark Bailey, Managing Director at Dukes Education
“We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.”
Toni Morrison in her Nobel Lecture, 1993
“I don’t lie, I improve on life.”
Josephine Baker Chosen by Amanda Constance, Director of Communications at Dukes Education
“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.”
Dr. Seuss Chosen by Sam Holderness, Business Integration Director at Dukes Education
“Teaching is like photosynthesis: making food from air and light. It tilts the prospects for life a little.”
Richard Powers in Bewilderment Chosen by Dr Adrian Rainbow, incoming Head of Eaton Square Senior School
“What happens in the shadows is always revealed in the light.”
(Unknown) Chosen by Kevin Chung, Head of IT and Systems for Outer London Schools
