Today has been a public holiday in the United States...
Martin Luther King Day is held on the third Monday of January. It celebrates the life and achievements of Martin Luther King Jr., the most influential American civil rights leader, whose leadership, passion and commitment changed America and the rest of the world. And on such a special day we all need to have a dream where every child regardless of their background, their nationality, their culture, their faith or their religion is given the opportunity to go to a great school and to become a brilliant learner... whatever it takes!
Chris
Monday, 17 January 2011
Blue Monday!
So how did you cope with Blue Monday...
Research suggests that today was most depressing day of the year! Thankfully it's over but for some reason today, the third Monday in the New Year, is the most miserable day of the year, triggered apparently by bad weather, money worries and failed resolutions. I know it's dark and miserable, the traffic is horrendous, people drive so badly and we all get so cross with each other... and perhaps it was a depressing start to the week!
However, these are some of the things you can do to lift your mood:
Give to your favourite charity
Research suggests that today was most depressing day of the year! Thankfully it's over but for some reason today, the third Monday in the New Year, is the most miserable day of the year, triggered apparently by bad weather, money worries and failed resolutions. I know it's dark and miserable, the traffic is horrendous, people drive so badly and we all get so cross with each other... and perhaps it was a depressing start to the week!
However, these are some of the things you can do to lift your mood:
Give to your favourite charity
Love your family and friends
Sing
Drink coffee
Stretch and exercise
Eat dark chocolate
Dance
Give flowers
Listen
Write a blog!
Sing
Drink coffee
Stretch and exercise
Eat dark chocolate
Dance
Give flowers
Listen
Write a blog!
I am in Leeds on Tuesday afternoon so if you are anywhere near Costa Coffee at 2.30 I'll be there.
It would be great to catch up and see who is reading the blog!
Chris
Sunday, 16 January 2011
I went to see another new film on Saturday evening...
The film starring Ed Harris, Colin Farrell and Jim Sturgess tells the story of The Long Walk. It is the story of a Polish officer's imprisonment in the Soviet gulag in 1940, his escape and then a trek of 4,000 miles from Siberia to India, surviving terrible weather and unimaginable problems along the way. The photography is wonderful although the film was a bit long and the story and the acting didn't really have enough depth or passion to hold my attention.
Chris
The film starring Ed Harris, Colin Farrell and Jim Sturgess tells the story of The Long Walk. It is the story of a Polish officer's imprisonment in the Soviet gulag in 1940, his escape and then a trek of 4,000 miles from Siberia to India, surviving terrible weather and unimaginable problems along the way. The photography is wonderful although the film was a bit long and the story and the acting didn't really have enough depth or passion to hold my attention.
Chris
Friday, 14 January 2011
Exercise!
I am feeling great today and to be honest life is brilliant although I do miss my colleagues back in Leeds...
Sadly, I haven't managed to get to the gym since the beginning of December when I damaged my back. However, yesterday evening I started exercising again and it's true that it simply releases endorphins. We all know that the traditional benefits of exercise have been to improve and maintain physical fitness, as well as helping to prevent diseases such as high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes but I find that exercise is also great for improving my mood. Dirk always used to tell me that exercise decreases your stress hormones such as cortisol and increases your endorphins which are the body’s natural feel good chemicals. As well endorphins, exercise also releases adrenaline, serotonin, and dopamine and these chemicals work together to make you feel good even if you only exercise for a short period of time! I am reliably informed that just ten minutes of moderate exercise is enough to improve your mood, your energy levels and also stop you feeling depressed and lethargic. Sadly, I am told that we should do at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise every day.
Strange places gyms and I constantly ask myself why so many people who are overweight or obese are there... you want to tell them that it isn't working! In the latest Health Survey of England they predict that almost a quarter of the population will be obese this year. If current obesity growth rates continue experts believe that some 60 percent of men, 50 percent of women and 25 percent of children in Britain could be obese by 2050. I was reading on the National Audit Office (NAO) website that one million less obese people in the country would mean 15,000 less people with coronary heart disease, 34,000 less people developing type 2 diabetes, and 99,000 less people with high blood pressure. Trouble is of course it isn't what you do in terms of exercise that matters most it's simply what you eat! We all need to follow a healthy, balanced, low fat diet and get plenty of exercise and while education is obviously key it is also important for parents and carers and teachers to set the right example to their children - as early as possible in their lives.
Chris
Sadly, I haven't managed to get to the gym since the beginning of December when I damaged my back. However, yesterday evening I started exercising again and it's true that it simply releases endorphins. We all know that the traditional benefits of exercise have been to improve and maintain physical fitness, as well as helping to prevent diseases such as high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes but I find that exercise is also great for improving my mood. Dirk always used to tell me that exercise decreases your stress hormones such as cortisol and increases your endorphins which are the body’s natural feel good chemicals. As well endorphins, exercise also releases adrenaline, serotonin, and dopamine and these chemicals work together to make you feel good even if you only exercise for a short period of time! I am reliably informed that just ten minutes of moderate exercise is enough to improve your mood, your energy levels and also stop you feeling depressed and lethargic. Sadly, I am told that we should do at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise every day.
Strange places gyms and I constantly ask myself why so many people who are overweight or obese are there... you want to tell them that it isn't working! In the latest Health Survey of England they predict that almost a quarter of the population will be obese this year. If current obesity growth rates continue experts believe that some 60 percent of men, 50 percent of women and 25 percent of children in Britain could be obese by 2050. I was reading on the National Audit Office (NAO) website that one million less obese people in the country would mean 15,000 less people with coronary heart disease, 34,000 less people developing type 2 diabetes, and 99,000 less people with high blood pressure. Trouble is of course it isn't what you do in terms of exercise that matters most it's simply what you eat! We all need to follow a healthy, balanced, low fat diet and get plenty of exercise and while education is obviously key it is also important for parents and carers and teachers to set the right example to their children - as early as possible in their lives.
Chris
Thursday, 13 January 2011
The Talent Code
I read another great book over the last few days and, while it didn't tell me anything new, it was another reminder that greatness isn't born, it's grown...
"I have always maintained that, excepting fools, men do not differ much in intellect, only in zeal and hard work."
Charles Darwin
The 'Talent Code', by Daniel Coyle, covers similar ground to 'Outliers' by Malcolm Gladwell, 'Bounce' by Matthew Syed and 'Talent is Overrated' by Geoff Colvin. It draws on research to show that ability isn't something wea re 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. Daniel Coyle talks about 'deep practice', 'ignition' and 'master coaching' as his three keys. Deep practice is about goal setting; chunking up tasks, repetition and learning to feel and is at the heart of the work we have been doing with The Pacific Institute in STEPS and is deeply ingrained in the best National Strategies programmes, like Every Child a Reader. Ignition is about passionate engagement, ownership and belief; lighting the touchpaper in 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 the Education Leeds over the last ten years. The interesting thing is that brilliant learning requires all three and Daniel Coyle draws on example after example to show that we can build world class and not just in some places but consistently across the whole learning landscape. If you want to know how just call me!
Everyone who cares about learning and releasing the magic should read this book!
Chris
"I have always maintained that, excepting fools, men do not differ much in intellect, only in zeal and hard work."
Charles Darwin
The 'Talent Code', by Daniel Coyle, covers similar ground to 'Outliers' by Malcolm Gladwell, 'Bounce' by Matthew Syed and 'Talent is Overrated' by Geoff Colvin. It draws on research to show that ability isn't something wea re 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. Daniel Coyle talks about 'deep practice', 'ignition' and 'master coaching' as his three keys. Deep practice is about goal setting; chunking up tasks, repetition and learning to feel and is at the heart of the work we have been doing with The Pacific Institute in STEPS and is deeply ingrained in the best National Strategies programmes, like Every Child a Reader. Ignition is about passionate engagement, ownership and belief; lighting the touchpaper in 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 the Education Leeds over the last ten years. The interesting thing is that brilliant learning requires all three and Daniel Coyle draws on example after example to show that we can build world class and not just in some places but consistently across the whole learning landscape. If you want to know how just call me!
Everyone who cares about learning and releasing the magic should read this book!
Chris
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
GCSE Results!
I was delighted for my secondary colleagues in Leeds to see the GCSE results in the papers and on the BBC and DfE websites today...
It is great to know that Leeds continues to be one of the most improving cities in the country and that many of its secondary schools saw fantastic improvements in their 5A*-C including English and maths results compared to last year; including City of Leeds School, 32 per cent (12 per cent in 2009); Rodillian School, 48 per cent (33 per cent in 2009); Priesthorpe School, 56 per cent (43 per cent in 2009); Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School, 64 per cent (51 per cent 2009); Farnley Park High School, 45 per cent (33 per cent); and Allerton High School, 62 per cent (51 per cent in 2009). The great thing is the sheer number of schools that have transformed their outcomes, unless of course we look at the English Bacc! Congratulations to:= colleagues at Allerton Grange High School, Boston Spa School, Brigshaw High School, Carr Manor High School, Crawshaw School, David Young Community Academy, Horsforth School, Lawnswood High School, Mount St Mary's Catholic High School, Primrose High School, Ralph Thoresby High School, Roundhay School, Royd's School, Wetherby High School and Woodkirk High School who all raised their game again this year. These results also build on the results from some outstandingly successful schools; St Mary’s Catholic High School achieved 84 per cent 5A*-C including English and maths and 92 per cent 5A*-C; Garforth Academy achieved 74 per cent 5A*-C including English and maths and 91 per cent 5A*-C; Abbey Grange CE High School achieved 72 per cent 5A*-C including English and maths and 81 per cent 5A*-C; while Guiseley School Technology College achieved 72 per cent 5A*-C including English and maths and 85 per cent 5A*-C.
These are our last scores on the doors as the education team in Leeds and highlight once more the significant improvements in GCSE results since Education Leeds was created 10 years ago. I am personally deeply proud of colleagues in these schools and Education Leeds and the fact that in 2001 only 39.5 per cent of young people achieved 5A*-C GCSE’s whereas this year the figure is 76.5 per cent while the figure for 5A*-C GCSEs, including English and maths, increased from 27.5 per cent to 50.6 per cent... now that's what I call brilliant!
Chris
It is great to know that Leeds continues to be one of the most improving cities in the country and that many of its secondary schools saw fantastic improvements in their 5A*-C including English and maths results compared to last year; including City of Leeds School, 32 per cent (12 per cent in 2009); Rodillian School, 48 per cent (33 per cent in 2009); Priesthorpe School, 56 per cent (43 per cent in 2009); Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School, 64 per cent (51 per cent 2009); Farnley Park High School, 45 per cent (33 per cent); and Allerton High School, 62 per cent (51 per cent in 2009). The great thing is the sheer number of schools that have transformed their outcomes, unless of course we look at the English Bacc! Congratulations to:= colleagues at Allerton Grange High School, Boston Spa School, Brigshaw High School, Carr Manor High School, Crawshaw School, David Young Community Academy, Horsforth School, Lawnswood High School, Mount St Mary's Catholic High School, Primrose High School, Ralph Thoresby High School, Roundhay School, Royd's School, Wetherby High School and Woodkirk High School who all raised their game again this year. These results also build on the results from some outstandingly successful schools; St Mary’s Catholic High School achieved 84 per cent 5A*-C including English and maths and 92 per cent 5A*-C; Garforth Academy achieved 74 per cent 5A*-C including English and maths and 91 per cent 5A*-C; Abbey Grange CE High School achieved 72 per cent 5A*-C including English and maths and 81 per cent 5A*-C; while Guiseley School Technology College achieved 72 per cent 5A*-C including English and maths and 85 per cent 5A*-C.
These are our last scores on the doors as the education team in Leeds and highlight once more the significant improvements in GCSE results since Education Leeds was created 10 years ago. I am personally deeply proud of colleagues in these schools and Education Leeds and the fact that in 2001 only 39.5 per cent of young people achieved 5A*-C GCSE’s whereas this year the figure is 76.5 per cent while the figure for 5A*-C GCSEs, including English and maths, increased from 27.5 per cent to 50.6 per cent... now that's what I call brilliant!
Chris
Continue to light that fire!
"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire."
W. B. Yeats
If you read the new McKinsey Report, analyse the new PISA data and listen to people like Ken Robinson it is increasingly obvious that, while we have achieved great things over the last ten years, we are not doing enough to ignite and inspire our children to become brilliant little learners...
Thank you by the way to those colleagues who have now joined as followers and friends. I have now had over 1000 hits on the blog over the last month and again over 40 today. If you regularly visit the blog please sign up to let me know you are there and want to continue to be part of a team who are passionate about learning, compassionate towards others and understand the importance of learning and coaching as well as teaching.
Keep the faith.
Chris
Real Friends!
I spent the evening in Leeds having dinner with some friends...
Friendship, real friendship, is forged through passionate enterprise; through the blood, sweat and tears, through the hard work, through the adventures and through the mistakes and failures. True friends stand together through the good times, and the bad times, to achieve their goals whatever it takes and to really make a difference.
I am blessed to have worked in Leeds over the last ten years and doubly blessed to have made so many great friends.
Chris
Friendship, real friendship, is forged through passionate enterprise; through the blood, sweat and tears, through the hard work, through the adventures and through the mistakes and failures. True friends stand together through the good times, and the bad times, to achieve their goals whatever it takes and to really make a difference.
I am blessed to have worked in Leeds over the last ten years and doubly blessed to have made so many great friends.
Chris
Monday, 10 January 2011
Jo Nesbø!
I am really grateful to Katy, the colleague, who introduced me to Jo Nesbø's books...
I loved Stig Larsson's Millenium trilogy and I started with 'The Snowman' which is the fifth Harry Hole novel. I have now read ' The Redbreast', 'Nemesis', and 'The Devil's Star' and I am working my way through 'The Redeemer'. These are great crime novels which are hard to put down and which always surprise me. I think Jo Nesbø is probably my favourite thriller writer and I am looking forward to reading some of his other work... I've just pre-ordered his latest translation, 'The Leopard', which continues the story from 'The Snowman'.
Jo Nesbø was born in 1960 in Oslo and graduated from the Norwegian School of Economics with a degree in economics. Nesbø worked as a freelance journalist and a stockbroker before his bestselling crime series, featuring Detective Harry Hole, became so successful. After the success of 'The Redbreast', his first novel, Nesbø devoted his time to writing and to his other passion: music.
Happy to lend my copies of the books to anyone who wants to read them.
Chris
Followers!
It's funny that I am getting a lot of hits on this new blog but few of you have logged in as followers...
interestingly, I had over 700 hits on the blog over the last month and over 40 today but very few of you are joining up as followers so I know that you are there on a regular basis. If you regularly visit the blog please sign up to let me know you are there.
THANK YOU
Keep the faith.
Chris
interestingly, I had over 700 hits on the blog over the last month and over 40 today but very few of you are joining up as followers so I know that you are there on a regular basis. If you regularly visit the blog please sign up to let me know you are there.
THANK YOU
Keep the faith.
Chris
I saw 'The King's Speech' yesterday evening...
The film is about George VI, also known as Bertie, who reluctantly takes the throne of England when his brother, Edward, abdicates in 1936. The unprepared king turns to a radical speech therapist, Lionel Logue, to help overcome his nervous stutter and, as the result of a turbulent relationship, the two establish a friendship. Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush play Bertie and Lionel with Helena Bonham-Carter playing Queen Elizabeth. It's a really good film with great acting and some wonderful music.
Chris
The film is about George VI, also known as Bertie, who reluctantly takes the throne of England when his brother, Edward, abdicates in 1936. The unprepared king turns to a radical speech therapist, Lionel Logue, to help overcome his nervous stutter and, as the result of a turbulent relationship, the two establish a friendship. Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush play Bertie and Lionel with Helena Bonham-Carter playing Queen Elizabeth. It's a really good film with great acting and some wonderful music.
Chris
Sunday, 9 January 2011
"People are always blaming their circumstances for where they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in the world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want and if they can't find them, make them."
Those of us who understand what it takes to build brilliant provision must continue to challenge the assumptions that extraordinary classrooms, schools, offices or companies are the province of a limited number of highly qualified and gifted individuals with rare gifts and talents. We can create extraordinary learning places and the stories from the last ten yesrs working in Leeds provide the key ingredients for success. It isn't about structures, processes or control or more autonomy. Reading the McKinsey report makes you realise that the keys to success are simple: people, passion, relationships, partnerships, compassion, ownership, engagement, empowerment and trust. Leadership is also vital but not the quick fix nonsense because real change and deep learning always take time. If you are struggling with this and need help give me a call.
Chris
Those of us who understand what it takes to build brilliant provision must continue to challenge the assumptions that extraordinary classrooms, schools, offices or companies are the province of a limited number of highly qualified and gifted individuals with rare gifts and talents. We can create extraordinary learning places and the stories from the last ten yesrs working in Leeds provide the key ingredients for success. It isn't about structures, processes or control or more autonomy. Reading the McKinsey report makes you realise that the keys to success are simple: people, passion, relationships, partnerships, compassion, ownership, engagement, empowerment and trust. Leadership is also vital but not the quick fix nonsense because real change and deep learning always take time. If you are struggling with this and need help give me a call.
Chris
Saturday, 8 January 2011
Extraordinary Times!
I have been thinking about my colleagues who are still working as part of the team at Education Leeds and I found these two quotes by Anthony Robbins...
Remember, "Life is a gift, and it offers us the privilege, opportunity and responsibility to give something back by becoming more."
Remember, "You are now at a crossroads. This is your opportunity to make the most important decision you will ever make. Forget your past. Who are you now? Who have you decided you really are now? Don't think about who you have been. Who are you now? Who have you decided to become? Make this decision consciously. Make it carefully. Make it powerfully."
Wherever you are and whatever you are doing you have the power, the potential and the opportunity to do something extraordinary. So what are you waiting for?
Keep the faith.
Chris
Remember, "Life is a gift, and it offers us the privilege, opportunity and responsibility to give something back by becoming more."
Remember, "You are now at a crossroads. This is your opportunity to make the most important decision you will ever make. Forget your past. Who are you now? Who have you decided you really are now? Don't think about who you have been. Who are you now? Who have you decided to become? Make this decision consciously. Make it carefully. Make it powerfully."
Wherever you are and whatever you are doing you have the power, the potential and the opportunity to do something extraordinary. So what are you waiting for?
Keep the faith.
Chris
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