Education expert Dave Hendry challenges families to reassess their criteria when selecting schools, emphasising the importance of fostering independent learners over traditional test results and league tables.
Parents weighing school options are being urged to look beyond test results and league tables, as education innovator Dave Hendry argues that families should start with a more basic question: what counts as a good education at all.
In his new book, “Choosing Your Child’s Education”, Hendry says parents often focus on class size, homework rules, sports provision, teacher qualifications and university outcomes while overlooking whether a school actually helps a child become an independent learner. The book, published by Heron Books, is presented as a guide for judging schools, curricula and other learning models without relying on reputation alone.
Hendry, who leads Real Curriculum and has previously held senior roles in educational technology, is described by the company as a veteran of national education research projects and a co-inventor on several learning patents. Real Curriculum says his work has centred on learner engagement and instructional design, while the book draws on that background to argue that children should be treated as individuals rather than as products of a standardised system.
The pitch lands at a time when families in the US face a wider range of options than in the past, including charter schools, homeschooling, microschools and AI-assisted programmes. Education commentators have long argued that school choice only works when parents know what they are looking for, and Hendry’s book appears to place that decision-making burden squarely on the family rather than on rankings or marketing claims.
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