Years ago, when I (John) first thought of becoming a teacher, an old Irish farmer in County Galloway said “always remember that a balanced education is like a three-legged stool which can balance on any surface (unlike a four-legged chair) however rough that surface be, always providing that the three legs are of equal length.”

It has always seemed to me there fore that a balanced education,  like the three-legged stool, needs the child’s experience of the home, the community, and the school to be of equal importance/length if that education is to be of real value to the child.