Reflections of an ex-head teacher

I am soon to go on my first term-time holiday for nearly thirty years. It's okay, I am allowed to, having retired from teaching in September, so there's no need to report me. It still feels a bit naughty, though. There are so many flights now that I don't expect the airport experience is going to be any less stressful, and my experience of planes is that the most challenging passengers tend to be below school age, but we shall see if anything is different. One thing that is definitely not different is the price! I was expecting it to be much cheaper to go in June than in August, but maybe that is down to the fact that we have chosen not to go on a typical family beach-holiday. Out of curiosity, as cost is the reason given by parents 99.9% of the time, let's look at a more 'traditional' foreign holiday to see if there is any difference. Although I love Mallorca, it has some very family-friendly sites, so let's use it as our example. I've picked a mid leve...

In my upcoming book, currently titled ‘The Introverted Headteacher’ I devote a chapter to the importance of ensuring that young people are exposed to potential role models who identify as being introverted. This is particularly important for young people who are introverts themselves, as it helps them understand that it is not just strong, confident extroverts who we should celebrate.  One of the public figures that I focus on is Greta Thunberg, who could be argued as having reached role model status already, but given her ongoing treatment in the media, she certainly deserves all the support that we can give her. This has blown up again in the last few days, after she was prevented from entering Gaza on a boat carrying relief aid for the civilians there who are in such desperate need of help. Now, Greta’s mission, as well as helping to provide aid, is undoubtedly to keep the issue of Palestine in the public eye, so I don’t imagine that she was particularly bothered by the receptio...

Throughout my career as a teacher and then a school leader, one of my primary motivations was to provide the children in my care with as many memorable experiences as possible. As the head of a small rural primary school, I had a teaching commitment, which gave me the chance to scratch that itch firsthand, so to speak. One autumn, I decided to take the children blackberry picking and then ask them to plan and cook something that included the fruit we picked. My teaching slot was on a Friday afternoon, and the September sun was shining on this particular one, so we spent a lovely couple of hours picking blackberries in the fields surrounding the school. I believe that we came back with a hoard of around 3 kilos, just in time for hometime, which were then frozen for the following week. Flash forward to the following July, on another Friday afternoon. The year six teacher had asked me to work with the children on their leavers' speeches. This was a tradition in our school, as I am sur...

I really don't understand people who use 'woke' as an insult. As far as I can tell, it means being thoughtful, empathetic and inclusive, which doesn't sound like an insult to me. When I was a headteacher, my school was very much a 'woke' organisation, and I am proud to say that this was as much due to the attitudes of the children as to the example set by the staff. We had pupils who identified as being transgender, families with same-sex parents, families from many different cultures, and our children quite rightly accepted everyone as being part of our school community. Perhaps the thing that made me the most proud, though, was the fact that when I became the headteacher there we still heard children using the word 'gay' as an insult, but by the time I left my school, that had disappeared entirely. Knowing quite a bit about our families, I suspect that 'wokeness' was largely driven by our children making their own decisions about how they wante...

The summer term was always a strange one. It was usually the longest term of the three, or six if you qualified after 2010, but you never had enough time to do everything you were supposed to do. I guess that could apply to every term now, it's just that this term always felt particularly frantic. As the term is about to begin, the issue of transition rears its head. This will become a focus for everyone over the next few weeks, whether it is children moving classes, schools, or staff changing year groups, leaving for pastures new, or preparing to join your team in September. Throughout my years in education, I have witnessed, experienced, and implemented a wide range of transition strategies, some of which were successful and others that didn't achieve their intended objectives. With the levels of anxiety in pupils and parents skyrocketing since the pandemic, it is more important than ever to get it right, so I thought I would share my top ten tips for effective transition. 1....

  “Seven turns on the highway, Seven rivers to cross. Sometimes, you feel like you could fly away, Sometimes, you get lost.” The Allman Brothers Band The Navajo people believe that there are seven times in your life when you are required to make a significant, life-changing decision. Making the right decision will continue your journey, but making a wrong one will mean that you have to retrace your steps to make further progress. I find this idea captivating, and since I heard the song 'Seven Turns' over twenty years ago, I have regularly pondered which of my decisions were part of the seven big ones that have been allocated to me in my own life. As well as personal decisions, I like to consider career choices as being part of my 'seven turns'. School leadership certainly feels like a journey, with hills and valleys to negotiate, one on which it can feel like you are travelling in vehicles from bicycles to supercars, sometimes even on the same day. There are many unexp...