Maxine McKew

In the UK politicians are perpetually harping on about how the standards of education do not match up to the best globally. In Australia this realisation came several years ago but, rather than trying to ape the rigid pedagogy and assessment focused approach of some countries, some educationalists chose to focus on the needs of students and address some of the failings in the system. In this book McKew looks at a series of schools and profiles a number of key players who have made significant changes to education for all. Whilst there is a slight bias towards schools serving SES (deprived) populations, there is also a concern about 'coasting' schools and an underlying paradigm shift in the attitude of teachers.

This book is very readable for an education tome and utterly inspirational. I had to have a notebook next to me so that I check up on references and have gleaned some really interesting information. There is equally good practice taking place in the UK but a global perspective is always interesting and this is fantastic. Having spent some time visiting Australian schools a decade ago I described the attitude as 'laid-back' - these educationalists are not laid-back but they focus on the right areas. I would thoroughly recommend this book as an uplifting and reaffirming boost for anyone jaded with the latest diktat.… (meer)