Confessions of a Reformed School Leader
I am no stranger to the Damascus Road. In fact, I have had at least three conversion experiences in my life so far. I was brought up in a strict, non-conformist Protestant sect known to many people as...
View ArticleAn Objective Perspective (1)
Teacher appraisal has been on my mind a lot recently. This is because in my school we have had a series of discussions about it at senior leadership level, which have led to a decision to move away...
View ArticleAn Objective Perspective (2)
I blogged recently about my school’s decision to move away from teacher appraisal objectives based on pupil exam results, but I did not cover what we are going to use instead. In all honesty, this was...
View ArticleInset Day at Animal Farm
There was a subdued atmosphere as the animals shuffled into the barn. They looked carefully for their names on the seating plan, then made their way to the round tables, shooting anxious glances at the...
View ArticleThe Strait and Narrow Way of Curriculum Leadership (1)
I saw then in my dream, so far as this valley reached, there was on the right hand a very deep ditch; that ditch is it, into which the blind hath led the blind in all ages, and have both there...
View ArticleThe Strait and Narrow Way of Curriculum Leadership (2)
In my previous post I made use of a passage from John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (1961) to provide a metaphor for senior curriculum leadership as a narrow path between opposing perils. In this one I...
View ArticleThe Strait and Narrow Way of Curriculum Leadership (3)
In my first post in this series I made use of a passage from John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (1961) to provide a metaphor for senior curriculum leadership as a narrow path between opposing perils. In...
View ArticleThe Strait and Narrow Way of Curriculum Leadership (4)
In my first post in this series I made use of a passage from John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (1961) to provide a metaphor for senior curriculum leadership as a narrow path between opposing perils. In...
View ArticleThe Strait and Narrow Way of Curriculum Leadership (5)
I have written about my attempts to lead a process of school curriculum reform (posts one, two, three, four), advising leaders to develop expertise, start carefully, work hard and expect the process to...
View ArticleFrom Fear to Hope
(Hargreaves, 1976) ResearchED Northampton was the first event of its kind that I have attended. I shouldn’t have left it so long, but I have always been much more inclined to immerse myself in books,...
View ArticleComplicated Problems with a Curricular Solution
I was extremely impressed when I read the transcript of the ResearchED Kent talk from Becky Allen and Ben White (2019). As I commented in response, I think it is a sign of a good piece when it has the...
View ArticleA Deeper Dive
Order beneath the chaos One day I dried the dishes for my mum. I would have been 16 or 17 and, believe it or not, this wasn’t as rare an occurrence as you might think. The reason the occasion stands...
View ArticleWagging the Dog: A Tale
In a faraway realm there lived a princess. She was almost old enough to take part in the annual Great Ordeal, which all young people from noble houses were required to enter. Expectations of this event...
View ArticleAre pupil progress meetings worthwhile?
I was struck by the recent Teacher Tapp results on pupil progress meetings, which indicated that three quarters of respondents have experience of them and that over half consider them useful. I have...
View ArticleThe Elmers of Edu-Twitter
Yesterday evening I had a happy but humbling Edu-Twitter experience which made me feel like the kangaroo in Elmer and the Stranger (McKee 2009). For those of you who do not have young children, I will...
View ArticleLeading Questions
Few of us would dispute the importance of questioning in the classroom, but it is less well explored as a leadership tool. I would argue that a well-chosen question is of great value when posed by a...
View ArticleCan coronavirus make you lose your voice?
‘A high temperature and a persistent cough.’ It’s a short phrase which has embedded itself in our consciousness in recent weeks. We all know the tell-tale symptoms of COVID-19 and our minds flit to...
View ArticleAn Open Letter to the Rt Hon. the Lord Adonis
Dear Lord Adonis I am writing to ask questions arising from your recent calls for schools to provide 'adequate online learning' on Twitter and criticism of those which are not doing so. I have posed my...
View ArticleA Remote Possibility: Using multiple-choice questions to build conceptual...
I have become slightly obsessed with multiple-choice questions (MCQs) in recent months. I first considered them properly when I read Daisy Christodolou’s book Making Good Progress (2017) a couple of...
View ArticleAngry
In case you hadn’t noticed, things haven’t been easy over the last few months. Like so many others, I’ve been up and down with workload and anxiety. What I hadn’t properly grasped until recently was...
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