Imagine a mid-year staff meeting that is entirely imaginary. The headteacher has put “Open door: anything you need me to hear” near the top of the agenda. She means it, or at least she believes she does. She sits forward,…
Imagine two messages arriving home on the same Tuesday, about the same eight-year-old and the same moment in the lunch queue. The first reads: “Unfortunately Leo was involved in an incident at lunchtime and has lost his Golden Time on…
When Richard Ryan and James Connell asked primary-aged children why they did their homework, some of the answers were exactly what you would expect. “My teacher would yell at me if I didn’t.” “I want to learn as much as…
Imagine a staff briefing in early September. The headteacher, who is entirely imaginary, stands up and says that this year the school will protect teachers’ time. Fewer meetings, no emails expected after six, and a promise that any new initiative…
Picture two cars in the pick-up queue outside a primary school at ten past three. The families are imaginary, but I suspect most teachers and most parents will recognise them. In the first car, a nine-year-old climbs in and is…
It was the kind of morning that leaves a corridor humming. Maths books under arms, bags half-open, the scramble before the bell. A Year 4 girl, Maya (not her real name), had just finished explaining her method for a tricky…
The door swung open before I heard the knock. Mateo (not his real name), a Year 5 boy, had been sent out of PE. He didn’t sit down. He kicked the nearest chair, then the next one. “It’s not fair.…
Over the holidays, I have been reading a biography of Dom Pedro II, the last Emperor of Brazil. The more I learned, the more I found myself drawn to the kind of person he appears to have been. Pedro officially…
Over the last few weeks, I have dealt with five serious incidents in school: four thefts and one act of vandalism. The thefts involved World Cup football cards, the kind children collect, swap, compare, and talk about excitedly during break…
Many years ago, when I was still relatively new to leadership, I entered a colleague’s classroom one morning with what I thought was a simple message. I had made a minor mistake and needed to change part of the afternoon…