Blog

After 33 years of teaching, following many different trains of thought, always amending my approach and trying earnestly to keep myself ahead of the game, I have found myself curiously captivated by what really is good feedback?

So why write another blog on middle leadership? Well, in one way the answer is simple. I would like you to ensure that you take up your three member places on our new Middle leaders’ programme which begins on 30 January 2025 or consider becoming a delivery partner for our National Award for Middle Leadership (NAML) programme.

It was great to see so many colleagues from across our network at our member event on 2nd December. It is always great to connect in person and share ideas.

I have been tracking every inspection carried out in England since the start of the 2023/24 academic year. The focus has been on what ‘need to improve’ comments have been made in inspection reports. There are now over 1,600 ‘need to improve’ comments published on reports conducted since the start of the academic year and so I wanted to identify some emergent themes.

Leading schools is exhausting and never more so when rapid changes are needed and the external climate is uncertain. In this post, I want to share a very personal experience of the challenges this very situation presented for me as a headteacher between 2019 and 2023.

This is the third and final of a trilogy of blogposts about SSAT’s Head Cases programme, which uses case studies and case methods to explore typical challenges facing headteachers.

In the face of underlying issues that extend far beyond the school gates it’s easy to feel powerless, helpless. But, even amidst the everyday demands of teaching and school life, there are powerful (and empowering) things we can do. And one of the most powerful is to change the conversation – a conversation about the way we relate to young people, a conversation rooted in listening, support and boundaries.

Last week a large group of school leaders came together for this year’s Leading Edge conference. This year, we returned to a familiar theme, that of understanding what supports high performance.

I can confidently say that Embedding Formative Assessment (EFA) programme has completely changed our school for the better. This is evident not only in improvements in attainment, but in the powerful insights our teachers have about how this programme reshaped their work.

There is a crackle of ‘expectation’ or ‘frustration’ around where this government will take SEND provision in England, following increasing media reports of children who are unable to find placements in schools they want to go to, funding for the level of support they require, or schools who ‘do not meet the needs’ of specific children.