SENDing out an SOS
Looking tearful, mum looked me in the eye. ‘So are you telling me you need to withdraw the support you’re giving?’ I hesitate. ‘Not withdrawing, just reducing.’ ‘But why? He’s doing so well?’ What do I say now? He is doing so well. Transformed, in fact. Progress everywhere you look – socially, academically, with his…
Building Trust as a Leader
For me this is the most important part of leadership. If you don’t get trust and buy in from your team you aren’t going to achieve much. I’ve written in the past about the fact that people will never be completely satisfied with what you can deliver. I know for a fact that I had…
The Most Useless Education Fads
Sat in a staff meeting, waiting for the latest thing we are expected to do. Someone has been on a course, read a blog or seen it in action, and now it is the must-have thing. We’ve all sat there knowing they won’t work as well, but we have dutifully tweaked, adapted and implemented them…
Mental Health, Meds and Me
Stress and anxiety? Not me. Of course, times get hard, right? You just deal with it and move on, it’ll pass, life will get better, things will get easier and go back to normal. Stress is part of life, it just means you haven’t organised your time properly, managed your workload or you’re just being…
Dear Mrs Keegan…
Dear Mrs Keegan, I wrote to one of your predecessors on several occasion, but this is the first time I have felt moved to write to you since you took over as Secretary of State. For teachers, support staff, admin staff and for everyone else who works in a school, education is a passion. It…
The State of Education 2023
As we move into a new year, it is commonplace to find ourselves in a time of reflection. Frequently this is focussed on ourselves, on what we are proud of, but more often than not on how we have improve, how we can better ourselves and setting goals (however unachievable they maybe, sometimes!). But this…
Trickle Down Edunomics?
What is the currency of education? Is it knowledge? Skills? Values? Respect? The true answer is probably that it should be a mixture of all those things. The balance of those things is different at different times, and probably rightly so – different circumstances lead to different priorities.The problem is, that isn’t what the currency…
Learning to Lead
I’ve been a headteacher for 6 years now. That whole time has been a massive learning process. Every day throws something new at you, and every day you learn something new about yourself, leadership, people and education. Here’s a few thoughts on things I’ve learned about leadership over my time as a head and how…
Here’s Why It Matters
Lots of talk yesterday and today about Johnson, Sunak, fines, law breaking and, around teaching and medical, Fabricant and his scurrilous claims around teachers and nurses popping into the staffroom at the end of the day together for a drink. Many people are trying to sweep under the carpet. We all broke a few rules,…
Dear Mr Zahawi…
Dear Mr Zahawi, I hope this letter finds you well. Unfortunately, it finds me less than well. It finds me exhausted, feeling inadequate and not really knowing which foot to put forward first. I understand 1 in 10 teachers were off school last week. In my school it was higher. In some it will have…
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The Secret Headteacher 