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Jonathan Lear
Curriculum - Teaching and Learning - Creativity
The most common response from teachers who have travelled from across the country to see Jonathan Lear and his wonderful inner-city primary school where he is a deputy head is a sense of ‘Why aren’t we doing it like this?’.
And they don’t really have an answer. After all, there is nothing stopping them apart from a sense that way we’ve always done it is the only way. But there’s always another other way.
What Jonathan does is to bring the curriculum to life for children of all backgrounds and academic abilities through a combination of exciting and authentic real-life experiences, coupled with teaching children the skills of peer critique, mastery, thinking for themselves and taking a huge amount of care and pride in their work.
It is a no-nonsense approach to bringing the best out of children that hits all the right buttons when it comes to Ofsted and SATs, even though hitting the Ofsted and SATs buttons is the last thing they are trying to do.
What the whole school is driven by is making each day as enjoyable, effective, challenging and productive as possible. It is something that all the many visitors to the school see happening in a hugely inspiring way, one that does lead to the inevitable question – what’s really stopping us all teaching like this?
"There's doing what's right and there's doing what you're told. You can choose."
Jonathan Lear
Recent titles include:
- Doing What's Right or Doing What You're Told. Pick one!
- The Art of Guerrilla Teaching
- Curriculum Design and the Monkey-proof Box
Apart from being a first-rate educator and leader, Jonathan is also making a name for himself as an entertaining and challenging speaker who never fails to entertain and enthral an audience. Drawing on his experience both in the classroom and as a deputy head, he is not only able to share with his audiences many practical ideas to improve the quality and nature of teaching and learning in the classroom, but also an understanding from a leadership position of how to make change happen - and what might get in the way.
From the application of Robert A. Bjork’s concept of ‘desirable difficulty’ and the teaching of self-regulated learning to getting lesson planning down to a fine art and proving how effective concept-based learning can be even in the most challenging inner-city environment, Jonathan’s work shows what can be done.
It's a radical and inspiring approach to the primary curriculum that combines academic rigour and research, creativity, the bravery to trial new approaches and the confidence at leadership level to get rid of the things schools think they have to do to focus on embedding the stuff that really matters.
On top of that, Jonathan has also introduced the idea of Guerrilla Teaching to the world through his first book of the same name, encouraging teachers
everywhere to take the fight for a decent curriculum to the hills, regardless of what the latest government edict is. He has followed this up with a brand-new book cunningly entitled The Monkey-Proof Box, detailing the whole-school curriculum development work that schools can employ in order to bring teaching and learning to life in their own classrooms.
So, if you are looking for living proof that there is always another other way if you're brave enough to seize it, then Jonathan Lear is the Associate you have been looking for, no monkeying about.
Jonathan Lear In His Own Words
"WE TALK A LOT ABOUT CHILDREN BEING SECONDARY READY, BUT HAND ON HEART,
IF WE SEND THEM UP WITHOUT THE ABILITY TO SUCCESSFULLY OPERATE A RANGE
OF SOFT FRUIT THEN WE’RE FAILING THEM." - THE MONKEY-PROOF BOX
To make an enquiry about booking Jonathan please give us a call on +44 (0)1267 211432 or fill in the Booking Enquiry form.
If you have a date in mind that will help too.
We'll then get back to you reassuringly quickly for a free, no-obligation chat to explore your needs in more detail.
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- Jonathan has been with Independent Thinking since 2012
- His boss is also his sister-in-law
- Find out about working with Jonathan to design your own Guerrilla Curriculum
- You'll find Jonathan in our Leadership and Teaching and Learning topic areas
- You can watch Jonathan in conversation with Mark Creasy and Ian Gilbert in 2020 here
- You might also want to consider Mark Creasy or Simon Cooper Hind
Enjoy a free no-obligation chat.
Make a booking. Haggle a bit.
Give us a call on +44 (0)1267 211432 or drop us a line at learn@independentthinking.co.uk.
We promise to get back to you reassuringly quickly.