"...the language used to describe servant leadership and the implied values within the approach make challenging the theory tantamount to heresy." (Minnis & Callahan, 2010) Never one to avoid controversy, I find myself mildly irritated once again by the tendency of some to endorse any superficially appealing leadership notion because it sounds worthy. I really … Continue reading Servant Leadership: truthfulness and usefulness

There are many claims about what schools should be and how they can be improved. Most are well intentioned, if not always well informed. As a school leader, I find myself swimming in a sea of 'oughts', and drowning in intuitively appealing claims and counter-claims. Where is the life jacket? In Seymour B. Sarason's seminal … Continue reading The Untestable Abstractions of School Improvement

It’s still morning, a slight chill in the air. You feel the rumbling of the earth before you even see the mass of bison pounding across the prairie toward the precipice, and toward you. As you stand beside the rock cairn, boughs of sage or juniper in your hands, and in the hands of your … Continue reading How to chair a meeting

Dr Julia Shaw is a psychological scientist specialising in memory and criminal psychology. In her book 'The Memory Illusion' she tells the story of a memorable lecture by one of her favourite professors at university. In the lecture, the professor takes a large sheet of paper and begins to fold it in half, and in … Continue reading Memory, identity and becoming

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists Whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable Than my own meandering experience Baz Luhrmann - Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen), 1999 Before becoming a teacher, I … Continue reading Wear sunscreen

A graveyard at night. Mist... the blanket that comforts those resting below. The camera closes in on one grave stone in particular. It stands slightly apart and askew. An ominous minor key lets us know that something is about to happen. And it does. A hand shoots free of the earth, reaching for the dark … Continue reading Zombie Interventions

Sometimes, expressing what you believe to be true to someone who holds an entirely different mental model for the territory in question is... frustrating. You want to say 'But I don't think it works like that', but the matter in hand is so dependent on your personal perspective that it would be necessary to explore … Continue reading GCSEs and Leaky Buckets

What should it be? A expensive summer school which the wrong children will turn up to? Longer school days? Forcing teachers to give up their weekends and holidays to teach catch-up? These ideas are all being proposed in some form or other by people with a very narrow and simplistic view of what schools do. … Continue reading School recovery: a working definition

Dear Department for Education Thank you for your recent guidance to schools. To be honest, I might not have read it, and if I did I doubt I digested it very well. As a headteacher, I've been quite busy, and what I have found in recent months is that much of the guidance issued hinders … Continue reading An open letter to the DfE

Never in the field of schooling has so much effort been expended by so many for so few. Am I still allowed to reference Churchill? I've lost track. In fact, I've lost track of everything over the last 11 days. The task of bringing just two year groups back into school for a day a … Continue reading Flipping school