I closed our school today. We had no water. It was a simple decision to make, even at 6.30 in the morning. You can't have over 1000 people on site with no way of feeding them or for them to use the toilet. The problem affected the whole of the surrounding area, so clearly not … Continue reading I wasted £20,000 today

In the past month I have been distracted from the things I would like to be doing at work. It is immensely frustrating. I have been drawn to things that really need my full attention, and so I have focused almost entirely on these matters. The result is a deep sense of dissatisfaction and even … Continue reading Distraction is dissatisfaction

Scene 1 The glass doors slide open and a middle-aged lady enters the hall. She is dressed as if she has arrived straight from work and appears in a hurry. She scans the hall and refers to the flimsy piece of paper in her hand, trying to find where she should be going. Finally, she … Continue reading Sliding doors

I often get asked by one or other of my daughters what I've done at work that day.  I usually give them one of two answers. I might say "Nothing exciting. A few meetings. Wrote a report. Had to sign stuff." These are the bad days when I've had to plough through the things that … Continue reading MBWA

My daughter has a new, favourite TV show. It is called 'What would you do?". The premise is that various contentious situations are set up using actors, and members of the public are drawn in. Viewers are invited to think about what they would do in such a situation before watching how others react. The … Continue reading The Domain of Leadership

When it comes to school leadership, what you need is knowledge. Yes, you've got to do something with that knowledge, but acting without knowledge is foolhardy... damaging... even dangerous. If this sounds obvious then please tell me why we spend so much time concerning ourselves about generic leadership skills? Why is leadership training full of … Continue reading Leadership is knowledge

I've kicked the habit Shed my skin This is the new stuff I go dancing in, we go dancing in Peter Gabriel, "Sledgehammer" (1986) I've almost done it. I'm almost over obsessing about GCSE results day. Shedding this addiction has taken me over twenty years. My habit started with my first Year 11 class as … Continue reading All the things we don’t do