Mantle of the Expert author, educator and DIrector of Inquiry for Life CIC, Tim Taylor will give a presentation and lead a discussion:
On boys and learning
A boy is three times more likely to be excluded from school than a girl. If the boy is poor, he is four times more likely to be excluded than his less poor classmates. Boys with a black Caribbean heritage are the most likely of all. Persistent disruptive behaviour is by far the most likely cause, both for permanent and fixed period exclusions. Some boys, although not all, find school a difficult environment, a place where they don’t fit in, a culture that doesn’t meet their needs or engage their interests. By the time they reach secondary, many boys have become disappointed, disillusioned, and disappeared. Last year as many as 19,000 students simply stopped going to school, for one reason or another, and dropped out completely from education. Children with special educational needs and disabilities were disproportionately represented among this number, boys with SEND most of all.
Both the government and Ofsted have become alarmed by this trend and have instigated a number of recent investigations, which have shed light on the problem but offered few realistic solutions. So, what can be done? What can schools and teachers do to make school more attractive and more meaningful for their students? Carrying on doing the same, only more efficiently, or punishing schools for exclusions won’t get to the root of the problem. That needs more radical thinking, and the adoptions of approaches that threaten the status quo and challenge many of the assumptions we make about education.
In his address, Tim Taylor a teacher for thirty years in England and abroad and now working as an international teacher-trainer and consultant, will introduce a radical approach, which has been in development since the 1980s, that aims to collaborate with students, involve their ideas, and give meaning to their studies. In short, an approach that helps boys feel more like they belong in school and that they have something of value to offer wider society.
Free, but a suggested donation of £5 to cover room hire would be appreciated from any who can afford it.
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