RSA Education

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Philanthropy in Education – what are the issues?

Is philanthropy necessarily a force for social good, or is there a darker side to giving? In the context of education, does the upsurge in philanthropic private and voluntary sector activity represent an invaluable injection of innovation and resourcing; or an undemocratic vehicle for the influence of private corporations and wealthy ...

Rose Among Thorns – What now for the primary curriculum?

With all the focus on the election there has been little media attention to the abandonment of the Rose reforms as part of the rushed progress of the Children, Schools and Families Bill in the haste to dissolve parliament. Yet, this potentially represents a catastrophe for primary schools, the vast ...

What do the great and good think everyone should know? Desmond Tutu, Shami Chakrabarti and Lord Bingham give their view

What should everyone know?

What should be included in the National Curriculum? What this question really asks is 'what should everyone know?'. And this question is not as simple as it seems. This is why the RSA is holding a debate on this topic on 22 March at 6pm, inviting some individuals from outside the ...

Collectively thinking about the curriculum

As promised, Friday's seminar on the implications of social brain theory for how we think about the national curriculum resulted in a fascinating discussion. Social brain theory is based on a relatively new synthesis of social psychology, evolutionary theory and neuroscientific fundings that add up to a view of the mind/brain/individual ...

The social curriculum – how who we are affects what we learn

Social brain theory, which looks at insights from a range of disciplines that deal with human brain, mind and behaviour sciences, posits that our rationality is more emotionally driven, that we are more socially responsive, and that our decisions are made more unconsciously than simplistic models of rational, individualistic beings ...

Redefining excellence

This morning I went to a debate, held by the Young Foundation and Relate at the RSA, on whether schools should teach social, emotional and other skills alongside academic subjects, and I wondered how far the debate might be pushed in the direction of valuing such skills as much as ...

Apprenticeships and vocational courses – valued, to a degree…

Aiming to get 50% of the population into university, short of diminishing the advantage of the wealthy, may in fact have aggravated the problem. Of course, everyone who wants to study at university should have an equal opportunity to do so regardless of the amount of money their parents earn. However, now ...

I think therefore I learn

Teaching philosophy in primary schools is viewed by some as one thing too many or an unnecessary luxury, yet it seems to me that the disciplines such as rational and critical thought, learned through the practice of philosophy, can provide an important foundation on which a child can build throughout ...