Written by IOE Events

Next up in our ‘What if…’ debates series was the matter of the teaching profession: What if… we wanted to transform teaching as a career choice?. To address this question we had union and think tank representatives in the form of Mary Bousted and Jonathan Simons, and international perspectives from Professor Martin Mills of the University of Queensland (and incoming Director of the IOE’s new Centre for Research on Teachers and Teaching) and Lucy Crehan, author of Cleverlands.

That there is a pressing problem with recruitment to, and retention in, teaching has become all too evident. Recruitment targets for initial teacher training courses have now been missed for five years in a row, while head teachers have been increasingly vocal about the difficulties that they’re having in staffing their classrooms. Graduates and teachers are voting with their feet (many to become teaching assistants as it happens) and the alarm bells are ringing – and not to mark the end of the lesson.

It seems that we have no alternative but to think about alternatives. What might they be? Never mind those lists for Santa Claus, what should we be asking the Secretary of State for Education to put under the Christmas tree for teachers? (more…)

Written by IOE Events

Tuesday saw the second of our ‘What if…’ events, this time asking What if… we really wanted to overcome the academic-vocational divide?. Our speakers were Sir Michael Wilshaw, Mary Curnock Cook, Tony Little and Professor Alison Fuller.

Vocational education suffers from its second class status – variously seen as a ‘consolation prize’ and ‘for other people’s

children’. It deserves better – for its own sake and for the sake of social justice, but also, as our speakers noted, for the sake of our economy. As Tony Little remarked, ‘we’re preparing our army for the last war’ – the economy and labour market are changing fast, and young people need a broader education. As evidenced by November’s Budget and Industrial Strategy, the government itself seems to have woken from its slumber on skills, and vocational education’s time has come (again). We have been here before, of course, so how can things be different this time around?

(more…)

UCL’s inaugural Festival of the Arts kicks off on Tuesday 7 May. For ten days, venues around campus will come alive with poetry readings, debates, film screenings, bite-sized lectures, exhibitions, and many more events designed to showcase the range and calibre of UCL research and creativity.

Listen to Professor Jonathan Wolff, Dean of the UCL Faculty of Arts and Humanities, explain what’s on offer and why we should put our hands together for the arts.

View the full programme and book your places on the UCL Festival of the Arts website.