I was privileged to be invited to the House of Commons for the launch of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Education Inquiry into ‘The Loss of Love of Learning’. This goes to the heart of what has been happening in education and indicates what needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency. There isn’t much in the report that will surprise anyone. Increasing numbers of both pupils and teachers are opting out because of excessive pressures, a lack of consistent caring relationships, less opportunities for creativity, increasing inequality , a rigid, overstuffed curriculum with lessons turning into tick-box activities with little room for the ‘joyful serendipity’ that can spark curiosity and deeper learning.

“Supporting teachers is not a separate agenda from student engagement; rather it is a pre-requisite for re-injecting a love of learning into classrooms”.

Let’s hope that those with the power to change things will read this report and take action – sooner rather than later.

You can download the report here, and also see the 188 pages of evidence that were submitted. The evidence that I submitted is at pp.40-48.

The project

Discussing the report with a long-time friend and colleague, Dominic Boddington, he told me about the primary school where he is a governor – Sinclair – and what they were doing to make a difference for everyone around the school. We agreed that people needed to know more about what is possible for a school to achieve within the current constraints of finance and regulation, and learn from the example of real schools and what they are doing right now to promote a love of learning in their school.

We’ve now been to ten schools and written up what we found, and agreed those texts with nine of the schools: those will go into a book to be published next year. Meantime, there are brief details of our Love of Learning Project and what we found on this site.