How is the start of the year going? Really well I hope 🙂 I’m hearing good news, happy vibes and refreshed teams. Yay! That doesn’t mean everything is perfect, but the sun is out (inside and outside school)! It’s great to enjoy this month in school. But make sure you...

Is your school set up for success or stress? Take the test here: https://schoolsuccesstest.scoreapp.com   I’ve made a short, 3 minute quiz. It looks, in depth, at the 3 indicators of success (aka high performance). There is not a sniff of Ofsted criteria, or results data, in the questions. And...

Hi! How were your first few days of this shiny new academic year? What were your favourite moments? What are you looking forward to next week? What lessons are you learning this week to take into next?   If you’d like to share then I’d love to be shared with...

It’s been a pleasure to work with Two Fresh Productions recently, who have helped us to produce two videos of testimonials from headteachers we work with; you can check them out here: https://youtu.be/KGTQnoOWAUAhttps://youtu.be/gfX_TK9VBgw The school leaders featured in the films have worked hard to make their schools great, for their children,...

Yep! It’s almost the end of the school year. It always comes around so fast.   Beginnings and endings are important; taking a moment to get these right pays dividends for your mindset and productivity.    So here are some tips which I really hope help you, both in your...

Ofsted isn’t in many people’s good books right now, and I totally get it.   There is much that can be improved about all aspects of inspections and as we’ve tragically seen, the pressures involved can be intolerable.    Given the criticisms and the stress, many heads, Trust leads and...

Last week I asked ‘how are you?’. Thank you for all of your replies. One theme stood out: well-being. Your team’s. And your own. And it’s a theme that has been around for a while, but it certainly seems more pronounced than ever.   So here’s a nice activity (which...

How are you?   I mean it, really, how are you?   If things are feeling hard right now, you’re not alone.   With just weeks until the end of term, uncertain budgets, recruitment being harder than ever, the day to day running of a school brings all sorts of...

Pandemics, strikes, soaring bills, budget shortfalls, recruitment issues and much, much more… All just another day on the job these days, right? Have levels of uncertainty ever felt higher? Many of my conversations with schools these days involve the word ‘but’…. ‘I’d love to develop my leader’s skills to improve...

It’s been hard to recruit good quality teachers for some time and it only seems to get harder.   The reality is it’s an employee market right now: There are fewer teachers to recruit There are plenty of vacancies   So how do you attract the best? As a student...