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I’m still reeling a little from Minister Stanford’s comment on Hosking’s radio show (and quoted in the NZ Herald 5 August), “No more of this ‘your kid turns up to school and decides what they want to learn'”. This comment implies that she believes a few things such as: Teachers…

I am no longer based in a school but I am still working closely with schools and leadership teams. I see colleagues struggling to align what they see happening in their schools as a result of their strong leadership, the awe-inspiring work of their teachers and the efforts of their…

If Charter Schools are the answer, what’s the question?  I’ve been out and about amongst school leaders a lot and we often spend time talking about the wider issues the sector is facing, as well as what’s going on in their schools and what is dominating their thoughts. Recently there…

​Last week I got an email from David Hood and he spoke about the launch of his book From Rhetoric to Reality, and about the work we had done together and the people we had worked with. I attended the book launch in May 2015 and on my return home published…

For the first time in twenty years I didn’t spend the summer break with some concerns about the upcoming school year nagging away at me like a rock under my towel on the beach. Every prior summer would have me worried about things like staffing, resourcing, property and also my…

Happy New Year to you all.​ If you’ve read some of my recent posts you may recall how I’ve used my big, hairy goal of running 100 miles at the Tarawera Ultra Marathon in February as a metaphor for school transformation. I have written about setting a truly aspirational goal,…

I love the How Might We Lead title of my little venture that is designed to support school leaders and their teams to look at how they might lead differently so they can bring their moral purpose to life in a way that allows teachers and students to thrive. The ‘How’ puts…

In my previous post I focused on the view that the number one principle seems to be that effective schools have clearly articulated and shared beliefs about learning that are lived in every classroom. ​This post proposes that the clearly articulated and shared beliefs about learning that are lived in…

While exploring the Education Leadership group on Linkedin I came across this: This jumped out at me as I’ve been spending some time delving into what seems to be the most important factors/principles that determine whether a school is effective or efficient (see previous post). What I have discovered to…

I have been delving more deeply into the work of Modern Learners, Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (OECD), Michael Fullan and Chris Leadbetter and their work with the Centre for Strategic Education, Valerie Hannon and her work with the Innovation Unit and Russell Bishop’s Teaching/Leading to the North-east which I mentioned in my previous…