This video will teach you more about social mobility than any textbook ever could. The question asked is… ‘Is nature natural?’ TEST yourself! Could you pass an OXFORD UNI interview?! – YouTube At the age of 17 I wouldn’t even have known where to start with this 🤣 not because I wasn’t academic, but because […]
Equity in entry processes: reflections from Oxford University admissions Read More »
Coming from a ‘working class’ background and raising ‘middle-class’ children has been one of the most insightful experiences of my life. It has also significantly shifted my views on social mobility… I used to think that educational attainment was the silver bullet that could shift the dial and that closing the attainment gap would therefore
Grades are not enough: my lived experience raising ‘middle-class’ children Read More »
Noise has been a great read with some very practical take-aways. As a natural sequel to the popular book ‘Thinking Fast and Slow’ it covers the topic of errors in our decision making and judgements using a range of real-world examples. In the first book they go into depth on the different types of biases
Always look your best: thoughts on Noise Read More »
My powerful knowledge series aims to help you:1. Go beyond the limits of your personal experience.2. Better explain and understand the natural and social worlds.3. Discover new ways of thinking in systematic ways.4. Engage in current debates of significance. As part of my content creation strategy, I ask myself a key question before I produce
Think in opportunity costs for better decisions Read More »
Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs is a useful framework for thinking about how our basic needs motivate us. Once these are met, we are then driven to fulfil our potential (see my video). McClelland’s Three Needs Theory of motivation provides a nice extension that has useful insights for the workplace. McClelland identified three key motivations for
Management: three key motivations that drive performance Read More »
My powerful knowledge series aims to help you learn new things to: In our everyday lives we are subject to biases that influence our behaviours and decision making. Interestingly, we have these biases because we seek mental shortcuts to help us make decisions easily. However, they sometimes lead to undesirable outcomes that we would rather
Powerful knowledge: five common human biases and how to avoid them Read More »
One of the biggest debates in education is around knowledge vs skills. In the age of AI, where we can easily access information, should schools still be focusing on knowledge or spending more time equipping young people with the skills they need to meet the demand of our economy? For the first few years after
Powerful knowledge Vs skills: what should you focus on? Read More »
I’ve found myself in a few debates about working from home over the last few years. Overall, I’m an advocate for going into the workplace, however, I appreciate ultimately the balance is dependent on an individual’s circumstances. I’ve had a few people tell me this week that they’ve learned new things from me and that
In your early career? Don’t work from home. Read More »
I recently visited Michaela (a secondary school), which scored the highest in the country in terms of pupil progress last year. This means that, according to the data, pupils that attend Michaela make more progress from Year 7 to Year 11 (GCSEs) relative to where they started than any other school in the country. What’s
Reflections on visiting England’s highest performing school (on progress) Read More »
As well as cheering on my fellow Moroccans, I’ve been interested in how they’ve managed to level-up their performance to be able to beat the world’s top teams. Having done some reading on this, I realise there are many parallels between a successful football team and any other team. I will highlight a few of
Team performance: learning from Morocco’s World Cup success Read More »