Educating Walthamstow

Like everyone who seemed to pass through the library gates or take the uni bus, I was glued to the Educating Yorkshire series so I was delighted to see that Channel 4 is not just running a new series but that it will have two extra episodes.

It sounds like they have picked a good school as well to centre the series over. Frederick Bremer School only opened in 2008. So, the design of the learning spaces to fit the modern curriculum could be interesting. Just having a lighting/windows system that doesn't fight interactive whiteboard displays is a fairly basic!

It will not have the pupil-to-parent history we saw in the Essex and Yorkshire series; they'll have barely seen their first batch of eleven year olds through to GCSE, let alone them pitching up at parent evenings, 10/20/30 years later! And what about the internal community of the staffroom. I knew a lot of teachers who joined the new schools created during Milton Keynes' growth spurts in the 70s-80s. It could be an equally odd experience for people who'd taught for years, elsewhere, or NQTs.

But what has really made me grin, is that this time we'll see a female head this time. The senior management team at both Essex and Yorkshire were wonderful and I really respect them; I just think it will be fantastic to see a women in a city-based Engineering Specialist School. Jenny Smith has only been in post since 2012, herself so it's a bit like the risk our Vice-Chancellor took with the Freshers series here.

Musharaf Asghar (and Mr Burton) will be a tough act to follow. Think I'd better buy some tissues just in case.

Job satisfaction for Friday

I'm happy to see that teachers in primary/early years (13) and secondary (34th) settings come out really well in the Cabinet Office's report on life satisfaction associated with different jobs. Librarians don't do too badly (43) although library clerks and assistants are down at 196. And educators working in higher (61) or further (79) education institutions are a pretty chipper lot as well.

So, I guess that means we love Monday mornings too. (And I won't be dreaming of a little spot in Derbyshire.) Or don't statistics work that way?

The actual report was undertaken by the Legatum Institute as part of a long-term  project looking at wellbeing analysis. The Beeb has put together a quick list, if you want to check out the paths-not-taken.