“Children are digital natives”

In today’s Sunday Times (19/12/21), there an excellent article by Sian Griffiths, detailing Anne-Marie Imafidon, who has followed in the footsteps of Carol Vorderman and Rachel Riley in becoming a presenter on Countdown. Passing GCSE maths aged 10, A-level maths at 11, speaking 6 six languages and starting an Oxford degree at 15, Anne-Marie is the eldest of 5 maths prodigies.

The article was not simply about a family of geniuses, indeed their father, Professor Chris Imafidon, insists that his children are not. Rather, he is a passionate advocate of nurturing and teaching children in ways that reflect the world in which we now live. “I want the government to ban all black and white text books from schools and teach Shakespeare as an app, with Bart Simpson quizzing Shakespeare”, Imafidon said. “ Children are digital natives. The ways of teaching them are Victorian”. He refused to bound by conventions and age appropriate determinations when educating his children and inspired them to success, by way of a range of positive learning principles. Professor Imafidon now uses these methods on pupils from inner London.

His top tips are:

• Let siblings compete to spur each other on and improve their abilities.

• Don’t think a six-year old cannot pass a GCSE

• Let your child use apps to learn on screen.

• Encourage your child to feel fine about making mistakes - errors help children learn.

• Make sure your child has a range of interests including sports and arts.

Educating the child to the extent of their potential, without being constrained by their age, should be an inalienable principle of education. We perhaps therefore need to think beyond our own childhood education and consider every potential avenue to most effectively learn in the modern world. These principles resonated in every way with my ethos in teaching, both in the classroom and now with The Prep School Online.