I’m trying to figure something out: why is it that, in some contexts, school improvement is really simple and in others it’s really bloody hard! For the past 15 years I have been in the privileged position of working alongside school leaders to try and improve outcomes, both within my own schools, within the Leaf […]
“The staff really aren’t happy…” I looked around the SLT. My most trusted and candid colleagues. They looked uneasy. Luckily, I have/ had a team of leaders who have no problem voicing their thoughts. “It’s just…well… a lot” chimed one. “Morale has taken a hit for sure” added another. I couldn’t deny it was hard […]
After seven years of waiting, OFSTED finally inspected Blackhorse Primary on 25th November – the final week of the ‘early volunteer’ group of schools who had put themselves forward to be first under this new toolkit. My other school, Emersons Green Primary, which has also been waiting seven years and also put itself up to […]
There are some days where I as a leader absolutely smash it, endlessly ticking off those big and important jobs on the ‘to do’ list. I am strategic. I am purposeful. There are other days when I achieve literally nothing, have been insanely busy from the moment I arrive until the moment I leave. I’ve […]
22nd March 2020. The younger children skipped out to their parents as usual, blissfully unaware of the water rising up the school drive. First mentioned on distant shores. Then on Italian slopes. And now at our door. The older children were more frenetic, understanding the strangeness, but with no reference point with which to anchor […]
This week Blackhorse Primary School turned 20. Well… almost… the current ‘new’ building turned 20 – the school itself existed on another site since 1958. And to celebrate this milestone, we held a special day of celebration with children displaying their work focused on the school’s history, and with my good friend (and the Deputy […]
Miss Smith, my Year 3 teacher, gazed out of the window and sighed, drumming her fingers on the carton of cigarettes which sat openly on her desk. In 1982 teachers did not take kindly to unexpected meetings with parents on a Wednesday evening. My mother, a teacher herself, was unperturbed and wanted to know why […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
