QUESTION, CHALLENGE , DREAM, IMAGINE, EXPERIMENT, EXPLORE! AND DISCOVER!

I have visited some great schools over the last few years and each visit makes me realise that leadership, teaching and teamwork are what matters.

GOAL SETTING AND TEAMWORK MATTERS!

I caught up with an old colleague and friend today and it reminded me that setting goals and personal targets for your team is a vital tool for success. It gives us our long-term vision as well as helping us with our short-term motivation... 

BUILD BRILLIANT LEARNING!

I don't know about you but I increasingly feel that we are 'painting by numbers' in a world monitored, policed and controlled by the 'bean' counters, the 'keep within the line' checkers and the 'weigh the pig' consultants. That we are trapped in a viscious spiral of negativity, of it's not good enough so let's do something else, of let's create another Academy or Free School, of let's get more experts and of let's make sure that we find someone to blame.

BE POSITIVE !

“You can program yourself to be positive. Being Positive is a discipline … and the more adversity you face, the more positive you have to be.  Being positive helps build confidence and self-esteem”

Rick Pitino, University of Louisville Head Basketball Coach

ACHIEVING THE IMPOSSIBLE!

We are challenged all the time to do better, and to do it faster and more efficiently and more effectively... challenged to do what many people would say was impossible....

HAPPY SUNDAY!

"For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin -real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin.

At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life."

Alfred D'Souza 

SELF-EVALUATION MATTERS!

RELATIONSHIPS MATTER!

"Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men."

Confucius

I was at a meeting at Yewlands Technology College today and again being with a group of extraordinary people made me realise that we all want to be outstanding and we all want success in our lives. We want success at home, at work, at school and in our relationships...

22 Reasons for _________ you name it!

I am grateful to Mike Osborne-Town, entrust Managing Director, who reminded us all at the entrust 'National Leadership Conference' today that those 'goalpost shifting badgers' are only the start of it, according to the poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy in her wonderful poem '22 Reasons for the Bedroom Tax'. All nature is in uproar, what with rule-bending ferrets, the fact-twisting skunks and the gun-jumping foxes. As Mike reminded us all it all adds up, to an explanation which makes as much sense as anything else in recent politics!!

Because the Badgers are moving the goalposts.

ENTRUST "EMPOWERING INSPIRATIONAL CURRICULUM DESIGN" CONFERENCE

I was at the entrust  'National Leadership Conference' at St George's Park, Burton-on-Trent today.

HAPPY SUNDAY: "If I Could Tell You"

I heard this wonderful poem again on Radio 4 this afternoon and wanted to share it with you...

"Time will say nothing but I told you so
Time only knows the price we have to pay;
If I could tell you I would let you know.

TOO YOUNG TO FAIL!

"In Britain today, one of the richest countries in the world, very young children still fall behind and stay behind at school. Children born poor in the UK have often failed at the beginning of primary school. Save the Children reveal in this report that a seven-year-old from a poor family has their GCSE results all but set. Seven is just the beginning of education but it is almost too late for a fair chance in life for too many children.

OECD ADULT SKILLS SURVEY 2013!

"If there is one central message emerging from this new survey, it is that what people know and what they do with what they know has a major impact on their life chances.