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 […]
I stood proudly awaiting the children’s arrival. My first assembly as headteacher felt like the moment I’d be setting the scene for the temple of educational excellence which I would surely build. The music (calm yet stirring) – check! The carefully crafted PowerPoint littered with inspirational messages for both staff and pupils – check! The […]
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 […]
I’ve written and re-written this blog three times over the last three months. This is exactly three times and three months more/ longer than I usually think about these things. But I want to talk about resilience and mental health post-pandemic; choosing my words very, VERY, carefully. Because I’m not sure we, as a schooling […]
My brother-in-law Pete (who I do most of my daft running challenges with) has just got a new job working quite high up in a government ministry, after a lifetime working in town planning for a local authority in the South West. It sounds like local council planning departments and schools share much in common […]
Let’s be very clear. At school I was crap at all the sports. Football? Last to be picked and shoved somewhere out of the way where I could do no harm. Rugby? See above. Athletics? The slowest and least able to throw/ jump in the year. Cross-country…? Again, I was always towards the back of […]
In 1985, my Dad (a history teacher) decided that we should see Switzerland. At the time, Switzerland seemed a long way from Nuneaton – a industrial town on the edge of Coventry famed for it’s slag heap (Mount Judd). So that summer holiday, he packed me, my mum and my brother in the trusty Lada […]
“Netball..? I’d LOVE to coach Netball!” I’d never played netball. I knew literally nothing about netball. The Headteacher eyed me suspiciously. “It’s just… we really want someone who can take the netball club.” she said turning to the equally unconvinced Deputy. It was 26th June 1996. Later that day England would lose to Germany in […]
A couple of years ago, the then Education Secretary (Damian Hind) visited my school. As a lifelong Labour voter, at the end of a bruising decade of austerity, I was a little uncertain as to whether I should accept the request. Indeed, my School Business Leader (who he was really coming to see as a […]
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