Over the past few days, I have received messages from school leaders and teachers across the country. Many have shared stories of unexpected marking decisions, disputed reviews and outcomes that simply do not seem to align with the evidence in... Continue Reading →
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 →
