In 1981 my mother was terribly offended by my Year 2 teacher at a Parents’ Evening. 45 years later – and well into her eighties – she still brings it up… “A used car salesman!” Arthur Daley was not at all what my mother had in mind for this son of Nuneaton (a small railway […]
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 […]
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 […]
Reflections on the new inspection framework: 1742 days under the lottery finger My school and I have spent 1742 days in the OFSTED window (our last inspection was Feb 2018). 1742 days where, on any idle Monday (and until recently Tuesday and Wednesday) the phone could ring and inspectors could arrive at my door. Four […]
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 […]
The text popped up at about 10am on a casual Tuesday in early October. Running a really long way was something I’d taken for granted, the thing that had (since giving up looking rakish and cool by smoking, aged 29) been my go-to stress-beater. Whatever else was going on, I could always go for a […]
