Never Settle for Satisfactory!!

"The principal goal of education... should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things... men and women who are creative, inventive, and discoverers." Jean Piaget

Life is never ever dull, and the last few interesting months have shown me some of the outstanding practice, the incredible young people, and the inspirational colleagues that exist in schools in Leeds, Nottingham and so many other places across the country.

Change is happening wherever we look at a frightening pace, and all of the organisations we currently know and understand are being completely reinvented as I write. We need to work within the opportunities this presents to build a learning system for this new world. A learning system to equip our little learners with the skills they need to be successful bigger learners and to be successful in a world that is changing beyond recognition. A learning system where every little learner is a reader, writer and counter by seven or eight, a powerful little learner by the time they leave primary school and on a pathway to success by the time they leave secondary school. We need to continue to build brilliant learning places with the team around the school supporting the team around the child and the family at the heart of our communities, with strong local engagement and powerful and committed governance. We need to nurture talent, creativity and imagination wherever we can find it, and we need to continue to build partnerships to share and network the things that work and we must stop doing those that don’t!

We must continue to build brilliant and never settle for satisfactory when what we do can be outstanding. OK, satisfactory is easy, predictable and anyone can do it... well almost anyone! Let’s agree that we will never settle for things that are just good enough when with a bit of energy and effort we can be outstanding. We must all set new goals and to strive, work and struggle, each and every day, to be extraordinary, to be outstanding and to be brilliant… whatever it takes!

Chris