Even allowing for my personal affection for Larry however, anyone who’s heard him speak will know what a great storyteller he is. Even allowing for the shocking audio on this recording, I think you’ll find it a fascinating insight into one of the great living learning designers.

My thanks are due to my Innovation Unit colleague, David Jackson, not only for posing some of the questions, but for rescuing the recording when I thought I’d lost it.

It’s been a while since I last posted. I’d like to say I’ve been busy, but it would be a lie. Like most of Britain, I’ve become a couch-potato because of the Olympic Games. (I thought the aspiration was to get us all off our couches, but there you go). There’s been a great deal of media talk about what London 2012 says about us as a nation. As you might expect, I’m more interested in how the way the country has organised, and responded to, the Olympics offers some lessons to how we might improve schooling. It’s not such a tenuous link, honestly. Here are my top six lessons to be learned.

Cultures can change, if there’s a common mission. People who live in London are astonished at the transformation in the city this past two weeks. People on the tube are making eye-contact, and actually talking to each other. Jonathon Freedland brilliantly summed up some of the attitude-shifts:

“A place which succeeds brilliantly.. by drawing equally on all its talents, black and white, male and female. A place where money and profit are not the only values, exemplified by the 70,000 volunteers who made the Games work and showed the world a smiling face while they were at it. A place that reveres not achievement-free celebrity, but astonishing skill, granite determination and good grace…. A place where patriotism is heartfelt, but of the soft and civic rather than naked and aggressive variety”

School cultures are notoriously difficult to shift, but great school leaders understand the need the need to instill a sense of common endeavour, not just change-for-change-sake. We may have been repeatedly told that ‘we’re all in this together’ by our leaders, and urged to help create ‘the Big Society’, but none of the ‘Games Makers’ who happily gave of their free time needed such cajoling. They were doing it because they ALL wanted to make the city a happy, welcoming, place – if only for a few weeks. Time will tell if any of this endures, but if  mustn’t-grumble Brits can be transformed into smiley flag-wavers, then school leaders can turn around even the most recalcitrant teachers. 

Our education system should be like the Olympic Opening Ceremony. Yong Zhao argues that educational reform which is geared to ‘catching up’ with nations further up the PISA table, is both futile and doomed to failure. Instead, he suggests that systems should reflect each country’s strengths and characteristics. It was reported that Michael Gove, our education minister, marked an early version of Danny Boyle’s already-legendary opening ceremony,no more than 4 out of 10. Heaven only knows what Gove would have wanted, but I suspect it would have involved ‘traditional values’ and trying to outdo the Beijing ceremony of 2008. Boyle’s brilliance is that he began with who we were, but swiftly showed who we are, and who we can be, in all our quirky, eccentric, creativeness. And he didn’t care if the rest of the world ‘got it’, or not. It turned out that there was much the rest of the world didn’t quite understand, but they applauded its vitality, and individuality. We need to worry less about how our test scores  compare with our comeptitors and more about how well we’re preparing our kids to be successful global citizens, with unique sets of skills and attitudes.

Schools need to have ‘secret squirrels’. A large part of Britain’s success in the games comes courtesy of the cycling team, led by Dave Brailsford. Having already triumphed in Beijing, the cyclists were under fierce pressure to repeat their success.One of the reasons for that success lies in what Brailsford calls the ‘secret squirrel’ club: a group of experts who look for innovations which work in the worlds beyond cycling, and try them out in the workshop. Chris Boardman (a previous gold medal winner, and inveterate ‘tinkerer’) was commentating on the mountain bike race on the BBC.  He was asked what difference the absence of paint on the British bikes made. ’60 grams’, came Boardman’s instant response, ‘but it depends on the colour of paint.’ He learned this, apparently, from the aeronautics industry. Some of the really innovative schools I’ve worked with – Matthew Moss High School in Rochdale, Cramlington Learning Village, MLC and Northern Beaches Christian School, in Sydney – all have their secret squirrel clubs. They travel the world visiting, not just other schools, but other industries. We need more schools to get out there determined to adopt, adapt and experiment – how else can they innovate?

Diversity isn’t just good, it’s essential if we’re to succeed as a nation. My favourite Tweet of the games was posted after the ‘Super Saturday’ in the Olympic Stadium, where Jess Ennis, Greg Rutherford and Mo Farah had won gold in the heptathlon, long jump and 10,000m within one glorious hour: ‘There’s a ginger, a woman of mixed race, and a Somalian refugee walk into a pub, and everyone buys them a drink!’ A week which was shamed by a Conservative MP criticising the ‘multi-cultural crap’ of the opening ceremony, had ended with universal appreciation of the cultural diversity which makes Britain such a vibrant place. We also need diversity in our school system. I’m no fan of our government coercing schools to become academies, but I do applaud the introduction of ‘free schools’, simply because it’s the quickest way to create the diversity which the system needs, in order to build innovation. 

Politicians know precious little about what actually goes on in schools. How else do you explainDavid Cameron, the UK Prime Minister, vowing to make competitive sports compulsory in primary schools? In an interview with the BBC he foolishly said schools had abandoned regular competition in favour of ‘Indian Dance’ and ‘prizes for all’. Firstly, anyone can tell you that some forms of Indian Dance are pretty energetic. Second, schools haven’t abandoned competitive sports with other schools – they just find it harder to organise since the government announced the cutting of the School Sports Partnership Trust. Thirdly, if Mr Cameron listened to any of our new sporting heroes, he might not see competition as the ‘silver bullet’ to ensuring the sporting legacy of London 2012. Jess Ennis, for instance, suggested that competition should only be gradually introduced, and that the emphasis in primary school should be upon participation

If it’s good enough for physical education, why not the whole curriculum? In an attempt to translate the feel-good factor of London 2012 into a sustainable future for sports participation, the Labour opposition have proposed cross-party collaboration to create a 10-year plan. The argument is that the health of the nation’s young is too important to allow party politics and ideology to get in the way. Well, I know I’ve written about this before, but isn’t the academic, spiritual, intellectual and emotional development of our young people just as important? Parents, students and educators have all suffered from schooling being treated like a political football, to the point where we don’t even know what progress looks like anymore. Why can’t the major parties agree to work together to create a 10 year plan for schools, not just school sports?

On a personal note, now that the Olympics are over, I need to channel my own secret squirrel observations, and get back to writing my book.Hopefully, it’ll be finished before Rio 2016!

I came across a great example of a student using blogging to improve her writing skills, and raise awareness of school nutrition at the same time.

Martha Payne (her Dad advised her to use a pseudonym, ‘veg’, but since she’s had her picture splashed all over the papers, there’s not much point in anonymity) is 9 years old and lives in Lochgilhpead, in Scotland. She has ambitions to become a journalist, so was encouraged by her father to start a blog on her schools dinners.

NeverSeconds features a daily report on what she had fur lunch, complete with photo, ratings, number of bites required, and piece of hair found (fortunately none so far). Some of the pictures show disturbingly small portions, but, in true investigative jouralism style, she’s already having an effect. Jamie Oliver has tweeted her, and her blog has since had over 100,00 visits in its first week, and already the quality of the food has improved!

Last Thursday’s post – after the school was no doubt taken to task over portion size and nutrition read:

‘I was a bit nervous going to school, but everyone was great, and I’m glad I haven’t upset anybody…. today’s Chicken Fajita was very nice and enjoyable. It was stuffed with salsa and served with garlic bread.I got sent back for salad as I missed it first time round.’

Yes, I bet you were, Martha.

A genuine win-win situation, and further proof of blogging’s power as an educational tool.

I’ve been back in the UK for little more than a week, following a 6 month sabbatical in Australia. It all feels rather different to the place I left last October, so I thought I’d share some reflections, while I still have the perspective of the outsider:

1. What kind of a country is it that can be in drought, and experience flood conditions, at the same time?

2. That nice Mr Gove seems awfully chummy with the Murdochs. I know who to call if I ever fall foul of the Sun King….

3. I go away when the economy seems to be out of recession. I come back and it’s like Groundhog Day. The key to averting economic disaster, in Australia at least seems to lie in Beijing. Isn’t there something we can sell to the Chinese?

4. Whilst Australia boasts some of the finest restaurants in the world, its pies are the finest I’ve tasted. I suspect, though, that this isn’t the reason why everyone in Greggs rolls their eyes whenever a pasty is mentioned? Why has the humble pasty become such a political hot-potato? (Wait, that can’t be right)

5. Don’t we have anything better to talk about than Simon Cowell’s sexual antics?

6. I was severely jet-lagged, but did I see Heathrow staff wearing purple sashes with the word ‘Help’ written on them? And if so, does the world’s least welcoming airport think that’s going to fool anyone?

7. One of the reasons why Aussies and Americans can’t take to football is the  hypocrisy displayed by its proponents. John Terry’s ‘he just backed into my knee, guv’, after the Barcelona game, has preserved the sport’s reputation in the eyes of our colonial cousins.

8. With so many changes being forced upon schools, it seems that the most outspoken critic of current education policy is Jamie Oliver. While Michael Gove seems to be asking people to wait 10 years, before we can judge the success of his policies, where’s the opposition?

9. I know Australia is a very long way away, but why is it never in the news? 

10. Is it just me, or does everybody seem, well, a bit miserable? Event the rich want to get away. Come on, folks, the Olympics are coming!! 

I don’t know about you but I often see lunchtime as the place where I can catch up on all the social media stuff that might be interesting. Well, actually, I suppose I can spend a great deal more than a lunchtime doing that, but I guess I’m not alone in that.

Because I’m having my lunch, I’m usually looking for something lighthearted, nothing too taxing on the digestive system. Today, however was different. As I clicked on a fairly random link, I had no idea I was going to be an emotional wreck, not just over my lunch, but for several hours afterward.

Before you click on it (and I really hope you do, even though it will take 30 minutes to view) let me just say why I found it so moving. It isn’t just the subject matter, though God knows, bringing an evil man to justice, is powerful enough. It isn’t just the production values of the piece, though it’s beautifully edited, if a touch emotionally manipulative (I’m nor criticising – some issues need to manipulate our feelings). No, what moved me so much was the breathtaking vision of the whole campaign. It’s a wonderfully creative response to the despicable injustice of tens of thousands of young lives being forever scarred. It also makes us realise that, with enough eyeballs on a given issue (not to mention tweets and posted comments) governments have to take action on our behalf. This campaign could be one of the defining moments of the social media revolution. 

It also says something about learning and the importance of tapping in to student’s passions. It’s faintly ludicrous that most kids at school will be deprived of the opportunity to discuss these issues of injustice, because their school firewalls block YouTube.But, thanks to the Global Learning Commons, hundreds of thousands of young people around the world will gain a better understanding of child slavery, child soldiery, and the children made invisible by Joseph Kony. They will, hopefully, get involved in the campaign to bring Kony to justice and, just maybe, they’ll start to realise they can make a difference and that political action isn’t just for the over-40s. The Global Learning Commons gets active with causes like this, and, once mobilised, can, literally change the world. We’re only just at the start of this open learning phenomenon, but it is both thrilling and deeply moving to see campaigns like this using its full force, with passion, creativity and innovation. That was what moved me to tears, and to get involved.

Please watch the film and then do the same (crying into your tuna salad is optional).