From Shanghai to Portugal to England to Ireland🎓 Degrees & Disillusionment❓ Is the promise of a degree a betrayal?The panel responds to Gabby Hinsliff’s Guardian article, which argues that university no longer guarantees a better life.Key themes:📉 Graduate frustration: Young people are achieving high-level qualifications only to face dead-end jobs, mounting debt, and underemployment.🤖 AI’s rising role: AI now influences everything from job application creation to hiring decisions. Shane warns against assuming young people are passive in this—they’re adapting faster than most.🧱 Outdated universities: Lucy shares her personal experience of graduating into a recession and describes universities as resistant to necessary change.🪜 Social mobility gap: John highlights the stark contrast in outcomes between working-class and privileged graduates. Many lack the networks to translate degrees into jobs.🗨️ “If you’re sending young people out into the world ill-equipped for what they have to face, then you are cheating them.” – Lucy📏 Expectations in Education🧭 Why high expectations alone won’t fix behaviourInspired by Jarlath O’Brien’s TES article.Key themes:🎭 Surface-level standards: John critiques schools that equate high expectations with enforcing uniforms and silent corridors -arguing these are actually low expectations.🌱 Values over rules: Lucy believes teaching should focus more on developing empathy, kindness, and interpersonal understanding than rigid behaviour protocols.🗨️ “Expectations come from trust” – John🤝 Empathy & context:Shane warns that the phrase “high expectations” is often misused or weaponised.💪 Grit – A Buzzword or a Blind Spot?💥 Should children be taught to show grit?Responding to Poppy Wood’s Telegraph article, the panel takes a strong stance against grit being framed as a cure-all.Key themes:⚠️ Reductionist & risky: Lucy and John argue that calling for “grit” ignores issues like poverty, special needs, and systemic inequality.🏫 Already happening: Shane reminds us that most teaching already builds resilience through desirable difficulty. It doesn’t need rebranding.🧨 Real-world damage: John points out that real grit often shows up in ways we don’t credit—like caring for family, persevering in poor conditions, or surviving toxic school cultures.🗨️ “Some of the children with the most grit are the ones you never see shout about it. They show up. Every day. Quietly.” – Paul🧭 Leadership & NPQs – Are We Getting It Right?📚 What do leaders really want from NPQs?Shane discusses his Schools Week article on leadership qualifications.Insights from his research:🧾 Tick-box credentials: Too many leaders take NPQs just to secure promotions—but feel they don’t grow from them.🧪 Theory without practice: There’s too much reflective writing and not enough real-world application or scenario-based training.🧍‍♂️ Mentorship matters: A strong mentor makes all the difference. Without one, the qualification can feel hollow.🗨️ “We’re obsessed with defining the great leader, but ask any great leader where they learnt it—and they’ll tell you it came from failure, not a certificate.” – ShaneIs a qualification essential?Lucy and John are sceptical. Great leadership, they argue, is relational, not formulaic. They propose:🎓 Real-time observation and feedback👥 Team reflections or 360° evaluations🍌 Banana Time – Light-hearted endnotes🍭 70,000 lollipops! A girl in Kentucky ordered 70,000 lollipops for a pretend carnival. A sweet tale of tech-savvy toddler mischief.💪 Healing through CrossFit: Lucy shares a powerful story of reclaiming joy in PE—years after painful school memories.🔬 AI and protein folding: John brings in an awe-inspiring banana—AI has mapped every known protein, opening the door to curing diseases like Alzheimer’s.Follow us, we're worth it:🔗 Website🔗 Spotify🔗 Instagram🔗 Bluesky🔗 X (Twitter)