Being a Headteacher was what I wanted to do since I first stepped into the classroom in 1996. I turned 50 last week. Properly old! I’ve also been asked by the lovely people at Bloomsbury to write a book about what it is to be a Headteacher, including all the stories and scars which come […]
It has been 345 days since I wrote myself a letter as I sat in my back garden at the end of summer and contemplated the school year voyage which lay ahead. That journey is now 359 days old. And as we reach the final week, a speck has appeared on the horizon. Land has […]
With Richi firing the starting pistol of the next General Election on 4th July, the party for the Tories, literally and metaphorically, looks to be over. If it was a house party, the last revellers would be bringing the night to a chaotic close. Gillian Keegan and Esther McVey would be draining the last of […]
It has been, at time of writing, 2,241 days since an inspector last called. The first three years don’t count. The inspector rarely calls before their report’s third birthday. But, at time of writing, that is still 1145 days in the ‘OFSTED window’. 1145 days of waiting for the phone to ring on some idle […]
I recently vented into the Twittersphere my angst at how I felt those in charge of educational policy had lost their way. It seemed to touch a sentiment which was wide spread. A lot of lovely folk, some in positions of actual power about such things, said some nice things. One even suggested I should […]
If you drop a frog into a pan of boiling water, it will yelp and struggle until it eventually dies. However, if you drop a frog into a pan of cold water and then gradually heat the water until boiling point, it won’t stir. It won’t notice the temperature gradually increasing around it until it […]
When I think about OFSTED I sometimes wonder whether I’m suffering from Stockholm Syndrome… “You’re quite good at this aren’t you? Keep going.” That line from the besuited inspector to a skittish NQT in 1998 made all the difference. I’d not been a stellar student and this was perhaps the first time that someone, someone […]
On 9th February 1984, aged nine, I lay in bed in a room which I shared with my 11 year old brother in Nuneaton (a railway junction town outside of Coventry) and listened to the end of the world. Moments later my mother calmly walked in and told us that it was all a practice […]
The phone rang just after seven pm. “Now, I will need you to give me an answer before I tell you which school it is,” said the sombre Head of Education and Skills for the LA. “Mike?” [not his real name] repeated my good mate, and fellow Headteacher, Phil “Arrested?”. The June rain pattered on […]
Like many, I’ve just watched the Lionesses dominate Sweden to win their European Cup Semi-Final. It was a thrilling exhibition of where opportunity, coaching, practice and effort combined will take you. A team that had earned the right to rank amongst the best in the world. Yet I was also reminded of the contradictions which […]
