As we head into half term, join me in celebrating and congratulating a school that is outstanding across the board against the odds, and utterly deserves recognition as such:   Beth Dyer and the brilliant team at Nine Acres Primary School.   The context High free schools meals eligibility (29.1% vs average 25.9%). Higher SEN […]

Are you looking for great ideas to help your school be even better? Then let me introduce you to the outstanding headteachers who are speaking at Outstanding Against the Odds this year.   All of their schools are in challenging contexts and all have recently achieved outstanding across the board. They have lots of great […]

Back in July I told you about an Executive Head of three schools. All three schools are situated in tough areas. They don’t have a wealthy benefactor giving them money.   Unsurprisingly, they have increased complex needs.   Yet 2 of those schools were judged outstanding in 2024. The other was rated Good in 2022 […]

The truth about recently badged ‘Outstanding’ schools?*   Is that they are outstanding. In every way, no matter what criteria you are using.    It is what I have found after walking into scores of recently outstanding, and other, schools for over a decade. And these were all schools set in tough contexts.   I’ve […]

I spent over a decade visiting schools that recently achieved outstanding ratings, even in tough contexts, to understand what they did differently to move from good to great. It wasn’t their curriculum, which was solid. It wasn’t their behaviour management, which was excellent. It wasn’t their team’s happiness or well-being, which was great. All of these things were in place. What really set them apart was their people—they created high-performing teams [...]