What can we learn from the Olympics and the Paralympics?

It's brilliant that the Olympics and now the Paralympics have taught us is that anything is possible with passion, commitment, determination and sheer hard work. This is a message we need to take into our schools and our classrooms.

Particularly in the Paralympics, you only have to look at these extraordinary human beings to realise that these are actually ordinary people who, having faced enormous challenges and against the odds, have achieved extraordinary things. The thing we can all learn from their example is that the keys to success are master coaching, ignition and deliberate practice. Deep practice is about goal setting; chunking up tasks, repetition and learning to feel and is at the heart of the work we did in Leeds with The Pacific Institute in STEPS and is deeply ingrained in the best National Strategies programmes, like Every Child a Reader and Every Child Counts. Ignition is about passionate engagement, ownership and belief; lighting the touchpaper in colleagues and learners and watching the fireworks. Master coaching lies at the heart of great learning and, through the work pioneered by my colleague and friend Dirk Gilleard, shaped and guided Education Leeds as an organisation over ten glorious years. The interesting thing is that brilliant performance, brilliant learning and brilliant outcomes require all three.

If you read the 'Talent Code', by Daniel Coyle, 'Outliers' by Malcolm Gladwell, 'Bounce' by Matthew Syed and 'Talent is Overrated' by Geoff Colvin, they all draw on research to show that ability isn't something we are born with but something that we can create, grow and nurture. This is great news for educators and a wake up call for parents and carers, schools, colleges, universities and governments because it shows again that we can build brilliant everywhere if we have the right toolkit, the right attitudes and the right people. Whatever anyone tells you, we can build world class and not just in some places but consistently across the whole learning landscape for every child, every young person and every community. If you want to know how just contact me!