Teacher & Student Wellbeing: The Problem & How We Can Fix It.
Teaching is the best job in the world. I have no doubt about it. To have the privilege of each day walking into a room and being able to shape and mould the minds and lives of young people is…
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How to start tackling racism in your school
The past couple of years have exposed in alarming ways just how much racism still pervades society and remains inherent in the national consciousness, institutions and systems. Racial inequality is undeniable. To quote just a few examples from the UK:…
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Read this if you want your staff or students to perform better
If your staff or students aren’t performing well, is it down to you? It has long been accepted wisdom that people perform better or worse in work and life in proportion to their self-belief. Henry Ford is reported to have…
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Why NOW is the time to re-shape education!
Since the government announced that this year’s A Level and GCSE exams will once again be scrapped I have heard numerous comments from students and staff along these lines… “Well what’s the point in the rest of the year’s lessons…
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Letter to my Daughter starting University
Dear Amy-Beth It feels crazy that you are leaving for university so soon after being born! The past 18 years have been amazing but they have flown by far too quickly. I worry that I have not told you…
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What COVID-19 is teaching us about Capitalism
‘Greed is good,’ stated Gordon Gecko in the film Wall St. He was describing an ideology that has long been held to be both obvious and essential to human and economic development – namely the ‘trickle down’ effect. Adam Smith’s…
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Why ‘good’ is better than ‘perfect’
“Nobody’s perfect.” This is a fairly universally held assertion. But I think it’s wrong. Not because some people are in fact perfect but more because everyone is. The statement includes an assumption: that there is such a thing as perfect;…
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The secret to understanding people!
All behaviour is communication. I came across this statement whilst assessing a special school for Unicef’s Rights Respecting School Award. Mountjoy School in Dorset caters for children aged 4-18 with severe learning difficulties. Many children there are unable to communicate verbally,…
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36 suggestions to transform the teaching profession!
These 36 suggestions have come out of lots of years working in and with schools. The teaching profession is haemorrhaging teachers at an unprecedented rate: 20% plan to leave in the next two years, 40% in the next five years! Lots…
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Getting out of the Cave – part 1
Or Why everything you thought you knew is wrong! The ancient philosopher Plato suggested that people everywhere live most of their lives like prisoners trapped in a cave. The prisoners are confined in their viewpoint and can only see shadows…
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