Leadership
The WHY of learning environments
What supermarkets, London 2012, Obama, The Great British Bake Off, routine and the colour yellow tell us about learning environments.
Growth Mindset – It can’t just be an assembly at the start of the year
Our school’s must be built with the growth mindset at their heart, it isn’t something that can just be tagged on or talked about in the first assembly of the year.
Do I still believe it?
At the start of the 2014-2015 academic year I thought it would be a great idea to reflect on my educational beliefs, those that underpin my daily activity. Now, at the end of the 2015-2016 academic year, I think it would be a great idea to see if any of these beliefs have changed.
Schools without a HOW
When schools do not have a ‘how’ they have a vacuum and this is very dangerous.
What I believe
At the start of the educational year it is a great idea to reaffirm and re-evaluate the principles that guide us in our daily teaching and leadership activities. What do you believe? What will you not compromise on? What do you stand by? What underpins your daily activity. Here, in some order of importance, is a collection of what I believe.
Raising Attainment
The biggest impact upon student attainment is the teacher that stands in front of them. There are numerous systems that can be put in place to raise attainment but what are most successful are those that improve that which has the biggest impact, the teacher. As such school leaders wishing to raise attainment should primarily concern themselves with improving the quality of these teachers.
Motivating Staff: Lessons from a head-hunter
An engaging talk by successful headhunters, from Moloney Search, at the recent Prince’s Trust Institute conference, has highlighted what is necessary to motivate staff in the school context.
Stuck for an idea? Try the room next door
There is something simple that teachers can do to make them even better than they already are, it doesn’t take very long, it will have transformational effects and what’s more it can be done every day.
What is it? It’s walking around and watching others.
An Indian Education
My recent visit to Indian schools highlighted the transformational power that effective school leadership can have, how education can change lives, how a ‘different’ style of examination system can foster high level thinking skills, why teachers should act as a ‘distanced friend’, the power of Skype, how children can make their parents ‘live better’ and why we should focus on nature and heritage
Education, cycling and marginal gains
To raise educational achievement you should identify all the contributing factors and continually seek to improve each one little by little
What motivates school staff? A lesson from Google
Empowering and encouraging staff to formulate their own ideas and to actually implement them will serve as the highest form of motivation