More hamster wheel than spinning plates
What does it say about my leadership that following the start of the new headship post, it has taken me three weeks before I’ve been out to set aside time to write my first post? (That is not to say that …
Leadership
Outlining vision and leading strategy
SEF checker
Four weeks into the 2016 academic year and the leadership team were finalising amendments to the Self-evaluation framework (SEF). Various senior colleagues had written their leadership contributions with the final draft being knitted together. At the time, I wrote these notes and saved …
Influence more powerful than authority
Influence is not authority. Authority is not leadership. Leadership does not guarantee influence. Though we often use these terms interchangeably, I am confident they are separate entities. These reflections were prompted by three unrelated, serendipitous “nudges” this week and knowledge of that …
Summer read #1
Distributed Leadership in Schools – A Practical Guide for Learning and Improvement – John A. DeFlaminis, Mustafa Abdul-Jabbar and Eric Yoak was the first summer read. Billed as a guide to the best practices and lessons learned in designing and implementing distributed leadership to …
Hard truths
Leading is most certainly an uneven path. Tonight I heard Sam Alladyce and others) outline his readiness for the National job. “Hardened,” was the adjective predetermined and delivered to the sharp toothed journalists. New school leaders such as myself are …
Driving to work with Gayle Allen
Like many, I drive to work in the morning. I leave before the traffic gets too heavy. I use the drive to think, reflect, plan and learn. Recently I have been driving to work with Gayle Allen. Not in person, obviously, …
Perspective and work-life balance
Early leadership courses spoke of “maintaining a work-life balance.” I really did not “get” the concept. Balance was not observed and reflectively, as a consequence I am not sure I ever took my foot off the pedal. Therefore, I am not …
Taught, caught, shaped and moulded.
A 3 minute video from Daniel Wright (Deputy Head and Teaching Fellow) via the FutureLearn course left plenty to question and discuss. So let’s take this one comment at a time. How do we go about designing and delivering a taught …