Invicta Vlogs
Interest in the Autumn Statement this week - particularly as a Business and Economics teacher – has made me think about choices.
Interest in the Autumn Statement this week – particularly as a Business and Economics teacher – has made me think about choices. On the one hand we have George Osborne, a chancellor committed to substantially lower levels of public spending and, in time, reduced taxation; on the other, the prospect of a far-left Labour government committed to taxing and controlling everything that moves. This debate is something that will always get people animated when expressing views and opinions. There is no doubt that the reduction in Stamp Duty will have a profound impact on moving the housing market and Osborne’s decision to do this will have been weighed up against the Opportunity Cost of other ‘budget giveaways.’
The concept of ‘choice’ is something that I like to encourage at Invicta. This week, I have been meeting with Year 11 students and their parents to help them make their A Level choices. I have been very impressed with the way in which our Year 11 students have taken their ‘choices’ so seriously. The deliberation between one A Level and another is always weighed up against interests, university and career aspirations, along with the passion of subject teachers and examination results. But, what has struck me most this week, is that our Year 11 embrace this decision making positively and with enthusiasm. It is an exciting prospect helped by the fact that choices are extensive. I believe strongly that we must offer a broad and balanced curriculum with choice and our 6th Form Curriculum is no exception. In a similar way to Osborne, we have been faced with huge budget cuts and I have had to make decisions on the opportunity cost of 6th Form courses against other forms of spending. I hope that my decision to maintain breadth in the courses offered and not limit the choices for our 6thForm is seen positively and one that provides our students with an exciting choice.
Margaret Thatcher quotes: ‘Let us extend choice, extend the will to use and the chance to choose’. This reinforces my view of ‘choice’ and what I hope to promote at Invicta; I believe our 6th Form Curriculum illustrates this. As does the choices that we have, just this week, promoted for our whole school: the choices available in the auditions of Grease, our musical, the choices presented to students by the Duke of Edinburgh Award. This week, we had a total of 134 students receive Bronze, Silver and Gold Duke of Edinburgh Awards – an amazing achievement. These students have all faced choices in how they went about their award and one thing for certain, is that they will have deliberated long and hard about their options. It was, as with Osborne, viewed against the Opportunity Cost of doing something else, but because it was seized positively it reaped dividends. Let’s hope that the changes in Stamp Duty do the same!
