Kids Dont Count?

I returned home this evening following a parent's evening at my daughter's school to catch the last 1/2 hour of Channel 4 dispatches programme 'Kids Don't Count'. Coincidentally, the programme was focussing on a group of kids the same age as my daughter, who were learning Maths in Year 6. The standard of knowledge was shocking.

But rather than give up on these kids, brand them as 'slow-learners' and believe they couldn't learn, they were given some expert teaching and unsurprisingly their knowledge and skills accelerated rapidly. Two kids from the class were tested before and after and progressed their learning by 4 years in just 1 - but they all did brilliantly.

More evidence for those who pre-judge that children can't learn or are too slow or not 'bright' enough to learn any faster. The programme illustrated that if you put out-dated ideas aside and just focus on delivering excellent teaching then the results can be spectacular.

What a great day it will be when teaching excellence can be properly rewarded, when head teachers can hire and fire the best staff and pay them what they are worth and when teaching innovation can be properly stimulated and rewarded.

Important stuff.