Travelling on a train isn't good for me...

Trouble is whenever I get the chance to think I realise that, while everyone is working hard and getting a lot of things right, a good chunk of what we do with our young people is irrelevant, redundant and a waste of time... it lacks challenge, inspiration and fails to engage young people as passionate learners. Is it then surprising that so many of our young people are disengaged from learning and disaffected with school... that around 4000 of our secondary age students don't attend school everyday and around 5000 reach the end of their schooling with no qualifications at all! Perhaps it is because so much of what we do, particularly in our secondary schools, is focused on the past, on looking backwards at an age where we adults understood what was required to get a job rather than looking forwards and seeing what skills and abilities our young people need in this new conceptual age. We must work together with businesses and communities to cut though this nonsense and put in place brilliant learning, in brilliant learning places, at the heart of brilliant and vibrant learning communities.

We must all contribute to this debate.
Chris