I recently read this piece by Alex Quigley, of the Education Endowment Fund, in tes magazine: ‘Try tinkering, rather than making bold changes’.  Alex explores the research… Read more “The benefit of tinkering…”

I am a planner.  I like to be organised.  Friends laugh (fondly, I hope!) at my ’80s’ style filofax’ which I use in preference to an electronic… Read more “Adjusting to a different rhythm”

One of the things I’m doing at the moment is reading Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror and the Light, the third part of her Thomas Cromwell/Henry VIII trilogy. … Read more “On the loneliness of leadership”

Some of you may know that we live in a village which floods.   The Trent, which is usually about a mile away from the house, sometimes makes… Read more “Control”

When I posted my blog on Staff Training Days, in which I said, “A staff training day needs to be the start of a conversation, not the… Read more “Staffrooms, and making connections”

Is it just me? Whenever I read or hear someone saying how important it is that the pupils in their school, or the staff, should be ‘happy’,… Read more “On happiness”

As many of you may know, I started teaching in 1980.  Over the next 30 years I taught in six different schools. Throughout my time in my… Read more “Staff Training Days – what’s your experience?”

On Sunday 12th January 2020, the wonderful Caroline Spalding led an #SLTchat discussion on the subject of Motivation, and this made me thoughtful.  I’ve mentioned motivation in… Read more “Motivation”

I have written these #nurture posts for the last few years, reflecting on the year which is ending and looking ahead to the year to come.  The… Read more “#Nurture 19/20”

I enjoyed writing ‘Making the Leap – Moving from Deputy to Head’ in 2016, and found writing for a professional audience considerably more straightforward, and in some… Read more “Writing”