⭐️ I am a skilled and motivated educator with 22 years experience in the classroom; most of which have been spent in positions of leadership. I hold a Masters Degree in Education and have continuously worked to develop and improve my knowledge and skills. 

🏆 As a senior leader, I consistently create impact. At The Chalfonts Community College, I lead on raising standards, moving Progress 8 from -0.23 in 2017 to +0.1 in 2019. Most recently (2025), I contributed to improved results at The St Leonards Academy. English Language moved above the national average; while other subjects made significant improvement in the percentage of Grades 9-4, including Science, Geography and Food Tech.

My main areas of strength and expertise are:

• Educational leadership
• Strategic thinking and problem solving
• Professional development and coaching
• Assessment
• Curriculum design and innovation
• Educational technologies

❤️ The area of educational leadership that I am most passionate about is teacher professional development and coaching. Teachers who are valued and nurtured, while being held to account, sit at the heart of successful schools. I lead and support staff with empathy, compassion and integrity; helping them to grow into highly effective teachers. I believe in the power of effective line-management based on structured feedback and coaching, to unlock potential.

🚀 The impact of this approach helped me to be a highly effective ECT Induction Lead and Professional Tutor for ITTs. I worked closely with a wide range of external providers (Ambition Institute, Teach First, University of Brighton, KMT, Teach in Kent); successfully embedded instructional coaching; championed evidence-informed practice; and contributed to significantly improved recruitment and retention of teaching staff. 

You can learn more about my experience and skills by reading my CV which is available on my blog.

🎯 I want to continue to work in education; empowering young people by supporting teachers and schools to develop and enhance the the quality of teaching, learning and assessment. Ideally, I am looking to continue as a Vice Principal/Deputy Head. However, I am also open to roles in:  

• Teacher training and development
• Curriculum development
• Educational consultancy

📌 I am happy to relocate for the right school/position but would prefer to remain within reasonable distance of London. Therefore, I am open to roles in:

• Berkshire
• Buckinghamshire
• Essex
• Hertfordshire
• Kent
• London (City/Greater)
• Oxfordshire
• Surrey

📬 If you’re curious about me and the impact I can bring to your school/organisation, or you are hiring, or know someone who is, please get in touch. I can be contacted via email or on Linkedin. 

🙏 Thank you in advance for your support!

“There are two kinds of failure. The first comes from never trying out your ideas because you are afraid, or because you are waiting for the perfect time. This kind of failure you can never learn from, and such timidity will destroy you. The second kind comes from a bold and venturesome spirit. If you fail in this way, the hit that you take to your reputation is greatly outweighed by what you learn. Repeated failure will toughen your spirit and show you with absolute clarity how things must be done.”

~ Greene, Robert, Mastery (2012)

Or, put more figuratively…

“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.”

~ Capote, Truman, Self-Portrait (1972) in The Dogs Bark: Public People and Private Places (1974)

1. Aurelius, Marcus: Meditations (r²)
2. Confucius: The Analects
3. Epictetus: Discourses and Selected Writings (r)
4. Gracián, Baltasar: The Pocket Oracle and Art of Prudence
5. Mascaro, Juan: The Dhammapada
6. Seneca: Letters from a Stoic (r)
7. Tzu, Lao: Tao Te Ching
8. Walker, Brian Browne: Hua Hu Ching: The Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu
9. Ward, Benedicta: The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks

I have begun 2021 with fewer texts, covering a wider range of subjects and ideas. Alongside Aurelius and Seneca, I am going to re-read specific sections of the bible; take a broader look at Western philosophy³; and also read Stephen King’s ‘On Writing‘ which has been sitting unread in my Kindle Library for over a year. Not a philosophical text per se, but one that I hope will go some way to helping me achieve one of my goals for 2021.

1. Aurelius, Marcus: Meditations (r)
2. The Bible (NSV)
   • New Testament:
     • The Epistles of Paul
     • James’ Epistle
   • Old Testament:
     • Psalms
     • Proverbs
3. King, Stephen: On Writing
4. Russell, Bertrand: History of Western Philosophy
5. Seneca: Dialogues and Essays

1. Hat tip to Doug Belshaw for that one.
2. (r) Indicates ‘re-reading’.
3. I feel that I have a firm understanding of Stoicism. And from sixteen years of teaching A-Level Literature and Media Studies, a sound understanding of more modern philosophies, particularly romanticism, modernism and post-modernism. My knowledge of various religions is good and I have a reasonable grounding in Eastern philosophies and theology but there are significant gaps in my understanding of Western philosophy. I hope that Bertrand Russell’s much lauded (and criticised) book can help begin to plug those gaps.

“The fact is that given the challenges we face, education doesn’t need to be reformed — it needs to be transformed. The key to this transformation is not to standardise education, but to personalise it, to build achievement on discovering the individual talents of each child, to put students in an environment where they want to learn and where they can naturally discover their true passions.”

― Robinson, Ken, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything, 2009

I was very sad to learn of Sir Ken Robinson‘s passing.

His 2006 TED Talk and subsequent work had a profound effect on my educational outlook and practice; and featured significantly in my M.Ed.

Schools should be places where young people have room to breathe and grow; able to explore ideas and make mistakes; where creativity is not only encouraged but actively nurtured. Those of us at the chalkface can honour his memory by working every day to “inspire and engage the imagination and creativity of the students” we teach.

If you haven’t read ‘Out of Our Minds‘ or ‘The Element‘, now would be a good time to do so; not least given the disruption that the pandemic has wrought on schools over the past six months.

Perhaps there is another way – free from ‘one size fits all’ and ‘standardised tests’, where children are not “educated out of” creativity.

Race, gender, religion, wealth: All topics fraught with difficulty at the best of times and I have struggled to fully form the words I would use to express how I feel about any of these issues in the current climate. However, Nick Cave has come to my rescue responding to questions about ‘mercy’ and ‘cancel culture‘ on his blog…

Mercy is a value that should be at the heart of any functioning and tolerant society. Mercy ultimately acknowledges that we are all imperfect and in doing so allows us the oxygen to breathe — to feel protected within a society, through our mutual fallibility. Without mercy a society loses its soul, and devours itself…

As far as I can see, cancel culture is mercy’s antithesis. Political correctness has grown to become the unhappiest religion in the world. Its once honourable attempt to reimagine our society in a more equitable way now embodies all the worst aspects that religion has to offer (and none of the beauty) — moral certainty and self-righteousness shorn even of the capacity for redemption. It has become quite literally, bad religion run amuck.

And there it is…

We cannot and should not deny our history, nor should we try to remove it as if it never happened. If society is to be equal, we must work openly to build a wider more honest narrative about our histories – good or bad. We must ensure that education provides the opportunity for people of all cultures and backgrounds to learn and debate ideas free from persecution.

But if we seek to simply cancel out the pieces of our past that we are angry about or not proud of, we will replace one biased view of the world with another. You can only redeem yourself when you are able to acknowledge your mistakes. As humans, we are more likely to do that, in a society that is open and merciful.

—

N.B. None of this is to say that I don’t appreciate the deeply held anger felt by so many people due to the way their gender, race, religion, sexual preference, et al, has been and continues to be treated. The struggle is real. However, we must strive to be better than those who came before us and not allow our baser instincts to drive our actions and decisions as we seek to make society a more fair and equal place for generations to come.

Curated by The Arts Institute of The University of Plymouth:

“The Ancient Mariner Big Read is an inclusive, immersive work of audio and visual art from the 21st century that reflects the sweeping majesty and abiding influence of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s 18th century epic poem.”

Divided into forty episodes, the multimedia project combines each reading with a piece of visual art like the one above¹, created by Stanley Donwood, for the eleventh instalment.

The list of readers is varied and each one brings a unique voice to their given section of the ballad. The moment when the mariner shoots the albatross is delivered with added menace by Willem Defoe; while Olivia Laing’s reading is steeped in sorrow as she describes the “curse in a dead man’s eye!”

At less than two minutes per instalment, the poem is made readily digestible. And the combination of ambient sound and distinct delivery bring each section of the poem into sharper relief.

Returning to Laing’s section of the poem, for example, I was struck anew by the following two stanzas:

“The moving Moon went up the sky,
And no where did abide:
Softly she was going up,
And a star or two beside—

Her beams bemocked the sultry main,
Like April hoar-frost spread;
But where the ship’s huge shadow lay,
The charmèd water burnt alway
A still and awful red.”

The juxtaposition of the moonlight with the bloody sea distinctly captures the beauty of Coleridge’s writing while conveying imagery that is inherently melancholy and horrifying. This instalment also provided my favourite image² thus far (above), created by Desmond Morris. Like Coleridge, he perfectly captures the contrast between the beautiful and the grotesque.

As of this morning, the project reached the half-way point but it’s never too late to jump in. Each episode can be enjoyed in various places, including YouTube and Spotify. However, the richest experience comes from the project website itself where each reading is complemented with the art work, contextual information, critical commentary,  and the relevant stanzas of the poem.

So pull up a chair and listen to the “bright-eyed” mariner’s tale.

1. Stanley Donwood, Residential Nemesis, Acrylic on canvas.
2. Desmond Morris, The Voyager, Oil on canvas.

It is make or break time for humanity and we have a responsibility to draw a line in the sand, admit our mistakes and create a system of education that can begin to undo the harm that we have done to the world. For all the talk over the last twenty years of the ‘global village’, it has not stopped us continuing to destroy our planet, to wage wars and to continue to ignore the inequalities in society. What is the purpose of education? Surely, it is to create unity by helping future generation to recognise the values that humanity share.

That was me in March 2011. Weirdly apposite right!?

Doug Belshaw included the quote¹ in a post about ‘education for a post-pandemic future‘ with a number of others that featured in an online campaign to capture ideas about the ‘purpose of education‘. A book was even published collecting all of the 500 word contributions. My copy is sitting in my office at work. 😋

Re-reading the varying ideas collected in Doug’s post, not least my own words from nine years ago, gave me chills. They also left me feeling deeply sad. I don’t believe that we have moved forward in that time. Inequality in society, and in education, has only widened. Will it be better post-pandemic? I want to believe that things will change. I want to believe that after the lockdown is lifted, and life returns to normal, people will reevaluate the contribution schools make, not only in providing education, but also as an important component of their local communities.

Education is both a gift and a right. It can be the silver bullet; a cornerstone on which an open-minded egalitarian society can be built. Schools should be utopian spaces where ideas can be explored and debated; where creativity is encouraged; where our similarities and differences are celebrated. But society has to change first. We have to throw off the “mind-forged manacles” of capitalism; eschew entrenched divisions; and agree that we are all better off when we work to support each other.

If that can happen then education can serve its great purpose: Helping future generations to develop the thinking and skills that will allow them to contribute to, and shape the world around them.

1. You can read my full 500 word contribution to the Purpos/ed campaign here: Busting a hole in the wall (the purpose of education).

“If there is sadness in Ghosteen, perhaps it is the recognition that we are often blind to the splendour of the world and indifferent to its attendant wonder. Perhaps the sadness is the recognition that the world is indeed beautiful, that it spins within the palm of our own hands and its beauty is available to all, if only we had eyes to see.”

~ Cave, Nick, The Red Hand Files² (2019)

If anything good comes out of the Covid-19 pandemic, I hope it is this. I hope that we emerge with a renewed appreciation for each other and the world around us. Society has been consumed for too long by capitalist and commercial ideologies – resulting in a moral decline – that has contributed to the creation of an inequitable, fractured society and a broken planet.

We must not allow ourselves to be blind to the beauty of the world any longer. We must open our eyes and see!

1. I’m Vice Principal of a Secondary School, and we were opening for vulnerable pupils and children of key workers.
2. ‘The Red Hand Files‘ started in September 2018. Nick Cave responds to questions from fans. The results are deeply intimate and thought provoking.

My playlists…

Currents is a regularly updated mix of music that has grabbed my attention, alongside a few tracks that seem to stick around for good.

Running, Clanging and Banging is my original running and workout mix. Over 200 tracks of uptempo rock, heavy metal, rap, dance and pop. Use it to work out at home or if you live near lots of open space and can get outside (responsibly), let this mix propel you.

For long morning runs, I started to lean more towards chilled out sounds. Running at First Light evolved out of this having tried running to the Marconi Union album: ‘Weightless’. The way the ambient sounds drifted into the background allowing me to focus more on my form and breathing had a massive impact on my running. The playlist is also great for yoga and meditation, as well as a good candidate for those of you who require calm, quiet focus, to get work done from home.

Electric Miles is my favourite playlist; exploring, arguably Miles Davis’ greatest and most experimental period. Starting with the epic 33 minute ‘Circle in the Round’; the playlist traverses five prolific years from 1968 to 1972, taking in such archetypal examples of Jazz Fusion as ‘In a Silent Way’ and ‘Bitches Brew’. Make some coffee, turn the lights down low, and lose yourself with Miles.

Sticking with Jazz, In a Silent Way is a contemplative mix of late night jazz to be enjoyed over dinner or with a glass of wine on a spring evening.

Finally, (A) Spoonful of Disney is perfect for the young at heart; sing along with and lighten the mood in these dark, sobering times.

You can find all of my playlists on Spotify.

Other people’s playlists…

One of the features of Spotify that I have enjoyed the most since I signed up is the rich network of music fans and artists who create and share playlists. Here are some playlists made by others that hit the spot.

I’ve been a fan of Merlin Mann for some time. Most people know him as the Inbox Zero guy. That seems like such a long time ago! He is, now, better known for his many podcasts, one of which I have listed below. He is a prolific music fan and the playlist: Merlin’s World of Music covers an extensive range of musical genres from the 60s through to the 00s. While there are a number of well known tracks, a significant portion of the playlist is made up of deep cuts and lesser known tunes.

I’m also a huge fan of electronic music; particularly that of Kraftwerk and Aphex Twin. This playlist by Pitchfork founder Ryan Schreiber highlights Richard David James’ piano playing. This is another good pick if you need to find focus when working from home. Also, if you love the 80s, Schreiber’s Poolside ’86 mix is ab-fab!

In hist most recent newsletter, Austin Kleon shared a fantastic series of “epic yearly survey playlists” by Fluxblog. We started with 1979 (the year I was born) on Friday. We are now part way through 1980. They are beautifully curated, seamlessly transitioning between moods and genres.

And some podcasts…

When I discovered the podcast Strong Songs, I was blown away. Kirk Hamilton’s analysis of the ‘strong songs’ he breaks down is deep and intricate. As a musician himself, he directs each track, exploring the nuances of melody, timing, key changes, musicianship and lyricism. To get started, I recommend the following episodes:

• “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen
• “Moanin’” by Art Blakey
• “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin

There is also a Spotify playlist of the songs from season one of the podcast.

The next two podcasts feature the Labour politician Ed Miliband and radio presenter Geoff Lloyd. The first, Reasons to be Cheerful is a ‘podcast about ideas’. Started in September 2017, the podcast explores a diverse range of ideas that could help us tackle the biggest problems facing the world today. Their guests include experts, campaigners, academics and politicians from across the globe. It is thought provoking and a fantastic way to stay informed.

In addition to this, Ed and Geoff recently launched a spin-off show: Cheerful Book Club. Each week they interview an author about their writing and their lives.

Finally, Back to Work with Dan Benjamin and the aforementioned Merlin Mann is the original productivity podcast. I have listened to every single episode since the show launched in January 2011. Their chemistry is fantastic, and the podcast has remained fresh, covering topics as broad as project management, smart-home devices and parenting. You can jump right in or if you want to dip into the back catalogue, I recommend episodes #1, #5, #7 and #9 which introduce some of the long running themes and bits that have become an integral part of the show.

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I hope that you find something in here that helps you navigate the coming weeks as we continue to face up to the Covid-19 pandemic. Stay strong!

After 16 years, I am leaving The Chalfonts Community College (on Thursday!) to join The St Leonards Academy as Vice Principal.

Jennifer and I are relocating to Hastings to live and work by the sea. I took the photo above on the day I interviewed for the position. The role itself was certainly enticing but this view sealed the deal.

I am very excited about this opportunity. It is the ‘next step’ I have been working towards for some time now.

🚀🏖️🌞