My thoughts are with members of the Black community and their allies in this significant and difficult week.
On the Teach First website, as promised, I’ve written about what we have done in the year since the tragic murder of George Floyd and about what comes next for us.
https://www.teachfirst.org.uk/blog/george-floyd-one-year-fight-equality-continues
It is hard to process the images and events coming from the US at the moment. President Elect Joe Biden called it an assault on the citadel of liberty. In ancient times, strongholds most commonly fell to internal treachery: someone had to open the gates…
There’s a danger in using schools to change society. It’s tempting: children are the future, after all. But it is also risky to prepare young people for the society we wish existed rather than the one they will actually find themselves in.
Popularity in leadership is a contradiction. We rightly prize the leader who does not court popularity, who makes difficult decisions and does what is right. At the same time, in free societies, people only really lead by consent and, without a certain level of confidence and respect, leaders cannot do their jobs.
The system or the student? This blog is written with the benefit of hindsight and the luxury of not being accountable. I don’t pretend to have warned this would happen or have any easy answers. The problem this year was that we tried to act as if exams were being sat when they weren’t. A […]
The dictionary says wellbeing is the state of being comfortable, healthy or happy. As hinted at with the use of the word “comfortable”, the happiness is usually taken as sustained contentment.
The reality of digital intervention in education has often fallen short of the claims. Yet I’ve been impressed with some brilliant uses of technology during the lockdown. Oak National Academy, for example, and the generosity of trusts like Greenshaw and schools like Parklands. Our own experience of delivering a fully virtual Summer Institute to 1699 […]
If you’d asked me three weeks ago about the prospect of reducing office space and increasing homeworking, I would probably have been quite enthusiastic. This week, the monotony and isolation are kicking in. The physical toll of screens and long periods of sitting, the temptation to schedule back to back calls, the lack of a […]
Unity is best served by disagreement. That is, people are most likely to commit to an action – even one they disagree with – if they have had the chance to make their point…
People are less likely to bring you bad news. They are more likely to agree with you. They are less likely to tell you that you are being an idiot. People are more reluctant to interrupt you with helpful observations. People may assume you have deep and wise reasons for your outwardly baffling decisions….
Note to self 