The Lord pulled his cloak tighter around the bundle he was carrying in his arms. The snow was blowing in his eyes, but it was more important to keep the bundle he was carrying warm. He had been trudging through the Forest most of the night, and yet he hadn’t found a suitable place to leave his son. He wanted him to be found, but he didn’t want any one to know whose son he was.

Walking in the forest at night, was believed to be a foolish thing to do. There were rumours, of groups of outlaws who would attack, and take the belongings from anyone they met.  The Lord was thinking about these rumours, and how he may react if he met such a group, as he grew closer to a small cluster of tents. It was past midnight but he could still see some fires burning and hear the chatter of people tidying away. This would be the place to leave Robin.

John was digging over the fire to make sure it was out for the night, when he thought he could see a movement just behind one of the tents. Curious to see what it was, he stepped slowly forward. Whoever it was, had gone, and the footprints they made were already covered by the continuous snow fall.

Many years of hunting and tracking in the forest, had given John the skills to be able to sense a heartbeat, and this was what he could sense now. For an experienced tracker like John he was able to identify where the snow had been disturbed. He moved towards the sound, dropped onto his knees and began to move the snow with his hands. It only took him several seconds before he located the bundle and found himself looking at the face of a tiny baby.

John thought that the person who had left so quickly, must have done so for a reason, as the camp was at least five hours walk from the nearest house and a long way from any town or village. It was the reason his group had chosen the spot for the night. John did not hesitate, he knew that living in the forest with a band of outlaws was not a place for a baby but he decided that the outlaws would have to make room for one more. He carefully tucked the baby into his cloak and held him close while he returned to the tents…

Some of the elements of this story may sound familiar, could it be a plot from Game of Thrones, could it be the early life of Robin Hood, could it be neither? Was Robin left in the forest by his father? Was he found by a band of outlaws? Was this how Robin Hood began life as an outlaw who ‘robbed from the rich to give to the poor’?

Yes, I have rewritten the known narrative for the opening of the legend of Robin Hood. A story that has been passed down through the centuries. A myth. A legend. Its likely that there is some historical truth in the Robin Hood story, however we cannot separate the fact from the fiction, so could retell a new version and begin to change what we believe. It does not take long to change the myth. The story of Robin Hood as already been changed many times (including by Disney), which version is the correct one?

In Education, we do not have to look very far to find myths and legends, there are books on the subject, such as ‘Urban Myths about Learning & Education’ which examines many of these including, ‘93% of our communication is non verbal’, ‘boys are naturally better at mathematics than girls’ and ‘you can train your brain with brain gym’. We may all be thinking how could we have accepted such truth, but we do and we have.

We have a tradition in education to accept the headlines and then we rewrite the narrative. Its quickly becomes a truth, but unlike the Legend of Robin Hood, we use it to structure our teaching.  For example, there is much discussion around ‘learning styles’ which were for many years explicitly included into lesson planning as VAK (Visual, Auditory, Kinaesthetic) Where we doing the right thing? Where was the evidence which supported this practice?

I think it is time we adopted the philosophy behind the new member led College of Teaching, of taking back our profession and the narrative behind it. We can be and should be active within our own educational research. We should know we are delivering evidence based practice and where and what the evidence for this is.

We can do this, we can become the myth busters and by taking part in research can support professional development, bridge a research into practice gap and talk about our findings with others.

This week, the SEN & Inclusion team at Entrust, will be embarking on a SEND research project, with Praxis Education in which we hope we will be able to rewrite the narrative and challenge some of the myths that exist in Education. Maybe in 900 years people will be reading about us rather than Robin Hood.

I’m looking forward to it.