School Shorts

Mohan Nair has written what he calls 'the nutrition label for AI'.
Rather than a 'warning label', this is just saying here are all the ingredients we need to be aware of so that we can use AI in a way that benefits our health rather than the other way around. More specifically in this episode we are looking at the ways in which children and young people an prepare to become 'Unreachable'. This is the title of Mohan's book.
After much research in the corporate world where he has worked with innovators from companies across the spectrum, Mohan has analysed what that world will want from its future workforce and the real, practical advice he would offer to families who want to prepare their children to be AI-enabled, rather than AI-afraid or AI-obsessed.
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Nancy Young is the creator of the infographic the Ladder of Reading and Writing which explains reading skills as a continuim.
Nancy is also the Co-Editor of the 2024 book 'Climbing the Ladder of Reading and Writing: Meeting the Needs of All Learners'
Here she also talks about exceptionalities that can co-occur alongside dyslexia, including ADHD, DLD and giftedness.
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Principal Steve McCracken doesn't want a student to be able to go through a day at school and not have a teacher or school leader say their name or greet them for a chat. It is one of the things he fears losing with growing school rolls as the Principal of Whangaparāoa College in Auckland, New Zealand. While there are many benefits of growth and the resource and specialisation it can offer. The school is looking at innovative strategies to give students the same experience they might get at a smaller school where the relationship with teachers is a benefit because of much time they are able to get to spend with a student to get to know them.
Is returning to a homeroom style class more beneficial than going to a range of specialist teachers? The school is on a mission to find out.
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There are so many things that happen with behaviour and attitude when hormones start changing in the teen years that it can be a bit of a mystery what is going on in the brain. After this conversation with Kathryn Berkett so much made sense. Kathryn has written many books translating neuroscience research in to practical insights for parents and her latest book is called 'What's Going on In There?'.
There is so much focus on the first 1000 days that we can sometimes forget there is also a big neurological and hormonal change that comes later and just how important these years are in development too. Understanding what is going on in the adolescent brain could definitely help to avoid a lot of the pitfalls and arguments that might come along with it.
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Is there any system of enrolling children at school that creates an equal footing? New Zealand has a 'rolling enrolment' system with flexibility within that for schools to decide how it might work best in their area and for individual children. In this episode, I talk with Andy Jackson, Head of Policy at the Ministry of Education about the reasons behind the policy and what, if any, work has been done on looking at the pros and cons of alternative policies.
We look at why New Zealand is one of the few places in the world that doesn't use 'cohort entry' (starting in groups) as the national standard and whether that can still work as the curriculum is changed to align with countries who do.
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