Is this the beginning of the technological future? - Ben Evans, Sixth Former

In Back to the Future part 2, Doc Brown and Marty McFly travelled to October 21st 2015. It’s now November 16th 2018.  So, where’s my hoverboard, why don’t my shoes tie themselves, what gives? The future always seems to be so far away, and every time there’s a technological breakthrough, people seem less and less amazed. We’ve become numb to the rate at which technology progresses, and now, it could be slowing down.

In 1965, Gordon E. Moore predicted that the power of computers would double every two years. This was an ambitious claim to say the least, and people had many doubts about the computing industry, as shown in these quotes:

‘I think there is a world market for maybe five computers’ – Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
‘Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons’ – Popular Mechanics Magazine, 1949 
‘There is no reason anyone in the right state of mind will want a computer in their home’ – Ken Olson, President of the Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977

It came to pass that the people who were the most successful in the next 50 years were those who saw the potential of computers. Gordon Moore obviously believed in this potential and he later became a co-founder of Intel. His prediction was so accurate in fact, it became known as a law, Moore’s law. However, Moore’s law is ending. Not because we are getting worse at making computers, in fact we’re finding more efficient ways to do it all the time, which I will talk about later, but we are hitting some barriers. A processor is made up of billions of tiny switches, called transistors. Just like a light switch, these can be on or off and nothing else. If on is represented as a 1 and off as a 0, you can create a binary system, and this is the basis of all classical computing. As we make transistors smaller, we can fit more into the same space and thus we get smaller computers that are just as powerful. This effect is known as miniaturisation. The issue is that we have become so good at making transistors small, that the next smallest thing is a single atom. This poses a few issues, and it is the main reason that processors are no longer becoming twice as powerful every two years. The other reason is that the more power we put in, the hotter the computer gets. We have reached a level where if not cooled properly, most of the computers we use would simply melt and burn. Electronics are also far less efficient unless they are cooled. This is why the computer cooling industry is somewhat booming at the moment, and the prices show it.

While it may seem like we are reaching the end of technology development as we know it, we’re not and there are many things to be excited about in the future. I’ve personally noticed that advertisement for ‘futuristic’ technologies has certainly increased. The other day I saw four adverts in a row on new technologies. The first was for Microsoft AI, a project that involves programs that allow deaf people to ‘see’ sound, something I am actually researching for my computing coursework, drone security and helping architects recreate history in virtual reality. The next was completely about virtual reality, and how it could be used to affect people going through therapy, children going through education and using it to see chemical molecules in 3D. I then saw an advert for Samsung’s new 8k TV and finally a Siemens advert for voice controlled appliances. I didn’t really know what to think. Why would you need to spend hundreds of pounds on a virtual reality headset to see molecules in 3D, when you can just buy one of the model kits we have in our department for a fraction of that. 8K TV? Just to put that into perspective, that’s 33 million, 177 thousand, 600 pixels. The human eye can barely see the difference in 4K. Enough pixels! As for voice controlled appliances, if you’re going up to the washing machine to put the clothes in anyway, you may as well press the button while you’re there.

To read the full article, please visit our academic blog page www.canford.com/Academic-Blog

The Currency of Language - Dr Patricia Gibbons

We face a difficulty when we use language, because we need it to stretch in all kinds of directions to say so many things.  The contents of one language is needed to do it all – from expressing feelings of elation, to making abstract thought concrete, to talking about practical things.  It is ordinary language but we need it to do extraordinary things.  The language we use about education matters.

Increasingly, language from the area of Economics is used about education.  Our colleagues in the Economics Department regularly use terms such as customers, market exchange, consumers, commodities, money etc.  It is entirely appropriate to engage those terms concerning the transfer of goods, such as coffee or oil, from one person to another.  Transactions occur when a person wants to secure an item they desire which they do not provide for themselves.  The transaction occurs through the exchange of money for commodity.  The value of the commodity has no intrinsic value but has the monetary worth of what someone is willing to pay for it.  But is the language of Economics appropriate in matter of education, and do the economic ideas and assumptions faithfully portrays the vision of education we hold?

I suggest that as far as education is concerned, and very specifically private education where parents pay fees, adopting economic language is inaccurate and has a potentially corrosive effect, devaluing and distorting the high vision we have of education.

To read the full article, please visit www.canford.com/academic-blog

Has Rap replaced Poetry? - a debate presented by Kacper Kazaniecki (Upper Sixth Former)

If I were to ask you who’s the current Poet laureate, the people’s poet, I don’t presume many of you would know. I for certain didn’t until pretty much yesterday. However, if I were to ask you who won the latest Grammy award for the best hip-hop album, I presume many more would know. 

The MP Emma Dent Coad has pointed this out in the houses of parliament after the Grenfell Tower disaster. She says:
“At times of national disaster, poet laureates are often called upon to commemorate and reflect upon events. In North Kensington we have our own Ben Johnsons and Alfred Lord Tennysons. Our poet laureates are Akala, AJ Tracey, Lowkey, Peaky .. we have Stormzy and Potent Whisper calling out what he calls “Grenfell Britain” in gut-wrenching prose."

Although the two art forms share the same fundamental medium that of rhyme and rhythm, there is a great discrepancy between how the two are perceived within society. If you were to take the average GCSE student, chances are that they wouldn’t have the greatest opinion on poetry. ‘It’s boring’, ‘the language is too confusing, ‘I can’t relate to it’ they might say, views that they wouldn’t necessarily hold of rap music. So, has rap music replaced poetry for (at least) our generation? Or is poetry the eternal art of humanity that is here to stay for millennia to come as it has done in the past. Does one deal with the depths of the human condition, that of: love, eternal truths, and our relation to the world. And does the other cover the superficial and primitive aspects of humanity that of: greed, intoxication and sexual obsession. Or maybe the two aren’t entirely antithetical, as many parallels and influences can be drawn between them.

Before we delve deeper into the analysis of both, here are some sentences either from Shakespeare or from ­popular hip-hop.  Guess which one the line comes from.

• “To destroy the beauty from which one came” – Jay z, You Must Love Me
• “Maybe it’s hatred I spew, maybe it’s food for the spirit” – Eminem, Renegade
o Later in the song Eminem says: “See, I'm a poet to some, a regular modern-day Shakespeare”
• “Men would rather use their broken records than their bare hands” – Orthello
• “I was not born under a rhyming planet” - Shakespeare: Much Ado About Nothing
• “The most benevolent king communicates through your dreams” - Wu-Tang Clan, Impossible
• “Socrates, philosophy and hypotheses can’t define me” – Wu-Tang Clan, Triumph

The reason to play this mini-game, isn’t to cherry pick some obscure, unknown tracks just to be able to say ‘look, hip-hop has clever lines as well’. But more so to show that the boundary between the two, once the context has been removed, can be very blurred. The hip-hop bars were chosen from very well-known artists who are or were at the forefront of hip hop. Wu-Tang-Clan for example, had the first hip hop album to reach no.1 in the UK charts. Perhaps the appeal that the British audience found in the album was the resemblance to the more traditional aspect of English literature.

To read the full essay and other latest writings from Canford pupils, please visit www.canford.com/Academic-Blog

Developing Leadership

Leadership at Canford is not all about “commanding” but much more about “influencing”. Different types of leaders use different styles and indeed people respond differently themselves. Part of the skill of leadership is recognising how to approach individuals and teams alike in order to optimise the efficiency and energy and there is no richer environment than an active school such as Canford with its wide spectrum of activities from which these lessons can be drawn.

We aim to imbue our pupils with a sensitivity, a confidence, an ability to communicate and a perception that enables them to make a difference and pull together disparate elements into one cohesive team so the result is greater than the individual sum of the parts. Every pupil is encouraged
to take on a significant role as a leader at some point, normally in the Sixth Form, but any forum; house plays, the CCF, in the classroom, running a club, fundraising activities will all leave those involved with a heightened sense of what it takes and add to their skillsets as they embark upon their exciting lives.

Among the ways in which we foster these skills:

• Development of leadership qualities ranks highly within the Canford assessment criteria. In the grade descriptors for the three weekly assessments which pupils receive, the top grade is awarded to those who achieve not only above target academic progress and excellent effort, but who also show leadership within the classroom. 
• Important leadership qualities are actively encourage within all houses. Pastorally, Sixth Formers act as House prefects and are responsible for running various different areas of House life whether on the social side or taking a role in pastoral issues and for helping to settle the juniors each evening. 
• The CCF offers a rich environment for the pupils to cut their teeth as leaders, starting right at the beginning where the activities all encourage confidence and adventure. Certainly the Norway Cross-country skiing expedition pushes the cadets to their limits but in doing so multiple lessons are draw from the experience where we see pupils supporting and encouraging each other in adversity. Ten Tors training and competitions adds further to this.
• Through Sport, pupils are given opportunities to lead their peers and develop teams to their full
  potential alongside coaches. The leaders of sports teams should display confidence and strength of character to address their teammates when some may prove disruptive and unfocused during training sessions. A real leader will have the courage to challenge a friend’s behaviour, however difficult this may be.

“Leaders don’t create followers, Leaders create more Leaders”

Stepping up to the exam challenge with confidence

“I’ve always taken an approach to just get on with the job.”

So says Theresa May and her words strike a chord with me, even if I don’t agree with all of her policies.  With the exam ‘season’ now upon us, I think it is important to reflect on just how hard we are working in independent schools across the country within an ever shifting educational landscape.

Schools are currently tackling significant operational changes such as a major reform of examination systems and more strategic matters such as what is the right ‘type of school’ to best educate our young people – grammar school, free school, academy and so on.  In the independent sector we are working hard to protect the freedom of decision making and action that we currently enjoy and use so effectively “to get on with the job”.  

Alongside the academic and intellectual there is a heightened importance on developing soft skills, building mental toughness, and supporting the well-being of both pupils and staff in an age where the pressures of social media and an ever increasing demand for instant communication and transmission of information has significantly increased the impact of workload expectations, stress and accompanying mental health issues.

We could not “get on with the job” effectively for our pupils without the dedication and commitment of our staff.  Teaching staff shortages have been well documented in the press and statistics show shortfalls across a wide range of subject areas, such as STEM, Humanities, MFL and the Creative Arts.  We are fortunate to attract high quality staff and it is fundamentally important to us that we support their professional development.  A recent joiners’ ‘post induction’ feedback process at Canford revealed that this commitment is highly recognized and much valued.

For pupils sitting external examinations this summer, I hope that that sense of purpose, intellectual curiosity and the blend of those soft skills of self-discipline, resilience, leadership and teamwork, which we work so hard as educators to instil will combine to ensure that those facing the public exam challenge step up as individuals and support and spur each other on collectively to achieve their very best.

Equipping pupils for a hectic world

What kind of a world are we sending our pupils out into?  As educators, are we equipping them with the right skills to meet the demands of a rapidly changing work place?   Could we do more to prepare them?

Within the idyllic surroundings of Canford, it is all too easy to feel immune to the turbulence beyond. Our pupils are able to make the transition to adulthood through sometimes tricky teenage years in a safe environment where they are encouraged and supported.  We hope each Canfordian will leave us having achieved their very best, both in academic terms and also in the development of their characters and in their spirit, able to step out into the wider world with confidence.

One of our Festivals of Ideas was appropriately titled ‘Order and Chaos’.  The organiser, Head of Enrichment John James, struck a very relevant chord when he opened the festival with these words: “Every morning I drive to work down the Kingston Lacy beech avenue. The enfolding beauty and symmetry of the tree tunnel, with the rising sun rays fingering through the branches, seem in such contrast to the news of Syria and Ukraine, uprooted people, the chaos on the political scene, the levels of mental illness amongst young people and so on. It seems that we are all fighting to create a sense of order in this chaotic world.”

At this festival, Anthony Seldon placed importance on taking time to explore one’s inner self, in order to face a chaotic external life.  Without this inner confidence, he argued, we will never be able to bring order and fulfilment to our own lives, and this is an important prerequisite for making a positive difference to the lives of others, whatever paths we choose to follow.  In order to achieve this inner peace we need to make time and space for thought and reflection.

According to one educational commentator, it is the so-called 'soft' skills and character traits of creativity, teamwork, leadership, empathy, grit, and resilience that give independent school pupils a truly rounded, meaningful and enduring educational experience that impacts well beyond their classroom years. Sentiments echoed by many others in and beyond the sector.  I am proud that our pupils regularly demonstrate these attributes in so many areas of life across the school community, through both their ongoing personal interactions and on a more public stage. Whether it be our sportsmen and women winning through to County, Regional and National honours, our NCOs leading the CCF through a successful annual inspection, our musicians performing complex works as part of their Diplomas or Houses testing their creative skills in the annual House Art competition, our pupils are given the opportunity to develop their confidence and their spirit far beyond their comfort zones.

What myself and my colleagues see emerging and developing in the young Canfordians we work with each day are qualities which we believe will help to address and re-order at least some of the chaos which surrounds us.

Regulation must not rule!

The number of regulations contained within the Independent Schools Inspectorate framework has increased from around 10 to around 400 in just over a decade, while high achieving academic schools appear at the foot of some national examination league tables due to the fact that they offer qualifications not recognised in official government circles.  In recent times schools have been issued with regulatory guidance updates only to then receive additional revisions several times in the weeks following. This generates uncertainty and adds enormously to the already very burdensome regulatory work load placed on schools. The sheer cost of managing and implementing the regulatory demands in financial and man-hour terms is immense, and is to the detriment of core educational provision. The ubiquitous Anthony Seldon wrote that “The crushing burdens of state requirements, league tables and inspection regimes have squeezed the lifeblood and originality out of much of the sector.”  Mr Seldon’s educational standpoints are frequently worthy of discussion and debate, and on this issue I do feel he has a very valid point.

While I hope the current political leadership will be a positive one for independent education,  I am fully anticipating a further increase in regulatory requirements, escalating the already heavy burden of paperwork and red tape which can only place more pressure on teachers who simply want to stimulate and educate their pupils as best they can. I do wonder if ministers have sometimes lost sight of the real purpose of education while weaving their intricate web of regulation.

Academic results are acknowledged as essential keys to open the doors to the next stage of education and for the world of work, and very valuable skills are acquired in the pursuit of these qualifications. Independent schools are proud of their success in external examinations and university entrance and Canford is proud to be at the forefront of top grade academic success - ranked in the top 25 in the country for A*/A grades at A Level last summer by Best Schools UK.

However, I firmly believe that academic success in independent schools is also as a result of the wider co-curricular enrichment opportunities they offer which generate a culture of curiosity and aspiration.  I would be very sorry to see these diminish further due to schools feeling increasingly weighed down by regulation.  Whether or not to run an inspirational school trip close to home or further afield, for example, is now carefully considered given the additional time required to complete all the necessary paperwork.  Last summer holidays alone there were eleven trips involving 217 pupils and 37 staff.  Canfordians headed to the Red Sea for a CCF diving expedition, to orphanages in Tanzania, Ghana, India and Argentina, to UK based CCF camps, to a geographical expedition to Iceland, to D of E trips on Dartmoor and to a rugby pre season camp in France. The skills and insights the pupils develop and what they learn from such experiences are not always tangible and quantifiable but they are invaluable as part of their personal educational development.

We want our pupils to see the connections between and coherence across the different, varied and enriching elements of independent school life.  What one learns as part of a team on the sports pitch can provide the confidence, self- discipline and motivation to perform better in the classroom.   The time made available to debate the latest world issues in a Canford Global Forum, to play a role in a school or house drama production or be part of one of the school orchestras or ensemble groups can provide the catalyst to transform a pupil’s future.  The opportunity to tackle the Ten Tors on Dartmoor, to contribute to local community partnerships or to give children in inner city communities the chance of some time away are all initiatives which provide our pupils with a sense of what fundamental human values are alongside a feeling of personal achievement and belonging. This in turn develops skills which are very relevant to both their own education, and to the society in which they live and work well beyond their schooldays.

Through innovation and originality, independent schools foster in every pupil the enthusiasm to broaden their horizon, to achieve highly and to have respect and empathy for others.  The importance and impact of this on their overall education cannot be underestimated.   I do hope that this hallmark of an independent education will be allowed to continue – and to flourish.