Just over ten years ago, I fixed my gaze firmly on leadership. Armed with little more than confidence, enthusiasm, and a spectacular lack of experience, I was convinced that leadership was leadership, regardless of scale or setting. The logic felt sound at the time: if you could lead a classroom, manage behaviour, motivate thirty young … Continue reading The Art of Effective Delegation as a Middle Leader
Leadership
We Collaborate Special: Tales of the Naïve SENDCo
The Naïve SENDCo Series As dawn broke through the early morning horizon, the Naïve SENDCo retreated to the troop accommodation to share battle wounds and strategy. As an educator, passionate about my field, there is nothing more fulfilling than galloping off to conference at the end of the working week, where there is the opportunity … Continue reading We Collaborate Special: Tales of the Naïve SENDCo
The Tale of the Naïve SENDCo
Come with me as we journey through the misty realm of unrealistic expectations and the valley of forgotten purpose. The mythical creature that is the SENDCo is possibly the most misunderstood of all the teaching fairy tale characters. I talk about it in this way because rather than being the hero of the tale, the … Continue reading The Tale of the Naïve SENDCo
Securing My First Senior Leadership Position
The hardest part about applying for a position on SLT was not knowing what to expect or how to even begin to prepare - hopefully this post might alleviate some of those worries for others out there. If you are coming to this post the night before the application deadline or the day of the … Continue reading Securing My First Senior Leadership Position
Why I Went Back to The Academic Route
At the beginning of my career I was told that I had to pick one of two routes, the academic route or the pastoral route... no pressure. Now, I'm not the brightest crayon in the box and it takes me a while to master something properly so the idea that I had to quickly pick … Continue reading Why I Went Back to The Academic Route
Creating a Department Tracker
A teacher’s guide to creating a department tracker within a reasonable timeframe Now if you're anything like me, you have moved from school to school and have always been reliant on that mystical 'Data Person' to build your department trackers; a mind-boggling piece of work that has so many different numbers, formulas and 'don't touch' … Continue reading Creating a Department Tracker
How are you supporting women leaders in education?
This week, @WomenEd challenged me to be #10percentBraver and write an article focused on one of the questions set out by them and @InnovateJournal. If I'm being honest it took me longer than it should to select a question; I wanted to make sure that what I had to say was authentic and meaningful. Here … Continue reading How are you supporting women leaders in education?
A Letter to My Future Self
In August 2018, I attended my first Ambition Institute (formerly Ambition School Leadership) residential. At the end of an inspiring and humbling week, we were asked to write a letter to our future selves thinking about the type of leaders we wanted to become and where we wanted to be two years later. Today I … Continue reading A Letter to My Future Self
MEd, is it worth it?
Over recent weeks I have witnessed teacher after teacher question whether or not a Masters in Education is worth the time, money and effort required for an improved chance at career advancement. Thinking through what I had to offer on this topic, the greatest advice I can give is to share my experience of completing … Continue reading MEd, is it worth it?
Finding My Teaching Leaders Tribe
Why having that neutral ground to touch base with, outside of the work place, has being crucial for my wellbeing. In the 2017-2018 academic year my wonderful Principal nominated me for the Ambition Institute's Teaching Leaders 2018 cohort. This meant, amongst other things, that I would embark on an intense leadership journey like no other. … Continue reading Finding My Teaching Leaders Tribe
#TENC19 Talk – How to enthuse and encourage Pupil Premium students with the English Curriculum
It was back in September 2018 when a DM from the awesome TENC (Team English National Conference) women appeared in my inbox asking me to lead a workshop at this year’s conference. I was stupefied at the thought that people actually wanted to hear from me. Keeping in mind, that this during the period when … Continue reading #TENC19 Talk – How to enthuse and encourage Pupil Premium students with the English Curriculum
A Long Time Coming…
I have been wanting to create a blog for quite some time now but never really mustered the courage to do it. So why now? I suppose the timing has something to do with fighting the 'imposter syndrome' that I have been battling with for a while. Not to mention the fact that I just … Continue reading A Long Time Coming…
A Scouser's Guide to Education 