Lazy thinking 2: Private means more innovative

Fraid not.  Nope.  It just doesn't.

Having visited two 'teaching schools' - both primaries - in the past few days, I have been bowled over by the original thinking that is going on in both:

    -    new ways of calming children down
    -    a willingness to tear up existing curricula and use others or, in the case of one, write their own - at Hammond Academy in Hemel Hempstead
    -    new ways of recruiting and developing teachers, using lots of pupil involvement, speed dating etc
    -    the total elimination of obesity in a school of 840 children - through the use of clubs and fitness programmes for all - at Warren Road Primary, in Orpington
    -    the deliberate encouragement of disruptive thinking throughout the school
    -    having no limitations in the standards they expect of children.... some of the year three persuasive letters I read at Hammond Academy were mind-blowingly impressive
    -    bold ways of structuring the top team, to combine the right mix of talents in the school

It's actually our state system - the combination of maintained and academy schools - that leads the way in terms of educational innovation.  Schools have for many years had the freedoms to change the way they do things and our leading heads have seized these, to their great credit.

Independent schools are, ironically, rather risk averse by contrast.  They are so scared of upsetting the middle class parents who pay fees and want to guarantee their children do well, that they tread very carefully when deciding to do things differently.  The boldest heads - Anthony Seldon, for instance - tend to get appointed only when the school has gone through a rocky patch and is willing to try something more left field.

To be developed....