If you’ve been around long enough in educational leadership, you start to see cycles. One statement that never seems to go away is the - We take all the children with SEND whilst that school up the road does nothing....... Continue Reading →
5 minutes read time.
For more than a decade, I’ve led a 0-11 (All Year Round - 0-18 in holidays) mainstream primary school for over 600 children. We run a highly successful 55‑place specialist provision embedded within the heart of our school. Over 130... Continue Reading →
Why “Internal vs External Support” Risks Becoming a New Source of Unfairness The 2025 Education Inspection Framework (EIF) brings a major shift in how leadership, governance, and improvement capacity are judged.Much of this shift is positive: schools should know themselves... Continue Reading →
After three decades in education, 22 of those as a headteacher I’ve seen trends rise, fall, and occasionally come back with a new hat. But SEND has morphed from a challenge into a full-blown daily crisis, with a price tag... Continue Reading →
“Nothing is built on stone; All is built on sand, but we must build as if the sand were stone.” Jorge Luis Borges Memory of another time, not so long ago, has washed away… I can not remember what my... Continue Reading →
A week in education can be many sparks of time, fast, slow but there’s always an end.. here’s my reflection on last week. This week there have been times I have felt like a stranded astronaut staring out at the... Continue Reading →
I wrote a blog last week that detailed my recent health concerns and how I needed to acknowledge the impact that being a head teacher was having on my own wellbeing. It prompted an unprecedented response – over 100 DMs... Continue Reading →
Oh, in no time at all This'll be the distant past Father John Misty - Ballad of a dying man Very recently I have had to admit to myself that I am not made of iron; that I cannot just... Continue Reading →
Old Primary Head 