Reflections of an ex-head teacher

  As an ex-headteacher who was also the computing lead in my schools for most of my career, I have a reasonable understanding of both online technology and the character of young people. That is why I was a little disappointed by the focus of the article on the BBC website titled ‘Government considers social media time limits for children’ that I read yesterday. Social media time limits for children considered by government - BBC News There was a lot in the article that I agree with, primarily the need to punish those sharing illegal and harmful content, and the words of Ian Russell, whose daughter took her own life after being exposed to such content, were very powerful. However, my issues are with the concept of ‘time limits’ and ‘curfews’, which the article itself acknowledges as having limited impact, as these are implemented by the user or the user’s parents and are therefore, by their nature, voluntary. In my view, the government should focus on addressing the issue of harmfu...

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...

Last week, I spotted quite a bit of online condemnation of the current Secretary of State for Education, so I decided to investigate. I wanted to see if the criticism was justified or politically motivated. Although she was in the media following an announcement of increased funding and support to tackle the mental health crisis in young people, the focus seems to be on her use of the word 'grit'. She used the word in the context of young people needing to show more grit, which she qualified as meaning the same as resilience.  Whilst anyone who has worked in education cannot argue that our children and young people need to be supported to become more resilient, the press have jumped on the use of the word 'grit', and I can see why. The word really does not sit comfortably within our enlightened vocabulary and definitely harks back to a different age, where we were all taught to 'suck it up and get on with our lives'. If you really listen to what she was saying, ...

This week is the first 'SATs week' since I left teaching. Although I am no longer part of the process, I have been thinking about it a lot over the last few days, and it would be remiss of me not to write a post summarising my feelings. I have seen lots of examples on social media from compassionate and creative teachers explaining how they have gone above and beyond to make the week as pleasant as possible for their children, as we did. I applaud them, of course, but instead of feeling inspired by their commitment to their children, it just makes me sad. Yes, school should be challenging, and we should have high expectations, but it cannot be right that we expose the children to something so unpleasant that we have to counteract it by spending our own money on them just to 'get through' the experience. Some argue that we are preparing the children for the next stage in their education by teaching them how to 'do' exams in the relatively friendly environment of ...

I was thinking just now about what I would be doing this week if I were still a headteacher. I reckon that about 60% of my time this week would have been taken up by  Standing on the edge of our school field and telling children to go back into class to get their hats and put them on before playtime/lunchtime Explaining to grumpy year six children who thought they were too cool to wear hats, why they needed to do so Collecting unnamed hats that had been discarded by children whilst playing and attempting to return them to their owners Writing letters and reminders via social media to our parents relating to hats, summer school uniform variations and sun cream In light of that, I thought I would try writing the letter I would have liked to have sent out when I was a headteacher. Feel free to 'magpie' this for your own schools if you wish! Dear Parents, There is not really any excuse for sending your child to school on a sunny day without a hat, is there? You can pick them up in ...