English teacher Matthew Godfrey weighs up the pros and cons of our burgeoning reliance on digital devices in the classroom This article appeared in The Daily Telegraph on 31 August 2014 As parents of three young children and regular users of the M25, my wife and I know how effective tablet devices are at preventing family meltdowns in traffic jams. A spell on the iPad is normally enough to stave off sibling scrapes in the car, as well as cries of “Are we nearly there yet?” We are always grateful for a little “iPeace” when we face another delay around junctions nine and 10. But as we hand the gadget over, we have mixed feelings. There is mild guilt: shouldn’t we be engaging our children in stimulating conversation or playing an inventive game to stretch their imagination? And there is apprehension, too: at some stage, the contraption will need to be wrenched back from them. The addictiveness of some games and software is such that this can be like stealing a banana ...
Increased collaboration between private and state schools – where both share their expertise – benefits all, says deputy head Matthew Godfrey This article appeared in The Daily Telegraph on 21 July 2014 Michael Gove has said he wants to break down the “Berlin Wall” between state and independent schools. He hopes for a time when a state-educated pupil being accepted to Oxbridge is not a cause for celebration, but a matter of course. His laudable goal seems a long way off. Last year, a little more than a fifth of state-school pupils who applied to the University of Cambridge were accepted, compared to more than a third of applicants from independent schools. The gulf is even wider when analysing entry rates to the Russell Group, which represents 24 of the UK’s most selective universities. Around 65 per cent of students from independent schools go on to these universities, compared with just 25 per cent from state schools – a 40-percentage-point gap. In tackling this is...