Tag: education

“Open to Work”

❗️ After dedicating six years to The St Leonards Academy as Vice Principal, I have decided that it is time to look for new opportunities. 

⭐️ 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!

Goals (2022)

I have decided to retire the ‘less, more, none’ format1 and replace it with a simple list of what I hope to do/achieve in 2022.

  • Be as attentive as I can possibly be2
  • Exercise regularly3
  • Travel4
  • Visit galleries and museums 5
  • Read as many books as possible6
  • Take steps to support and advance my career7
  • Write regularly8
  • Upgrade our tech9.

There will be a whole host of other things that we do this year. For example, keep doing the crossword every morning and continue to buy more ‘grown up’ furniture10 but the items above are the most immediate list of personal and shared goals that came to mind when I sat down to write this.

  1. The ‘less, more, none’ approach was useful when I first started using it but I found myself shoe-horning items in to the format. I feel that a simple list is more flexible.[↩]
  2. Focus on one person / one task at a time.[↩]
  3. I failed miserably with this in 2021 yet I know how much it helps me both physically and mentally. [↩]
  4. It’s been far too long since we (Jennifer and I) stepped foot in another town let alone another country. Keeping all fingers and toes crossed that we can get back on the road this year.[↩]
  5. It’s also been far too long since we experienced art and culture without a screen being involved.[↩]
  6. Reading more books over the past two years has undoubtedly had a positive impact on my mental health.[↩]
  7. I completed an M.Ed in 2013 but as I continue to consider whether Headship is something I want, I am thinking about completing an NPQH.[↩]
  8. As noted in my review of last year, I am adding this but I need to give some genuine consideration to what I mean by ‘write regularly’? What type of writing do I want to do? Who am I writing for? What should I write about? Does it need to be published on this blog?[↩]
  9. Neither of us seek to replace our devices when the latest and greatest phones/computers are released but both our laptops and phones are really starting to show their age. This looks like it will be the year to invest in replacing them.[↩]
  10. We finally replaced the IKEA bed that we’ve had since we got married. It only took 17 years![↩]

On the value of failure…

“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)

Morning Reading

A daily ritual that I have observed for several years now is to begin each day by reading from selected philosophical and theological texts. Last year, alongside revisiting the Stoics, I managed to give myself a grounding in Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism. I supplemented these with some early Christian monasticism and the maxims of the 17th Century philosopher Baltasar Gracián.1

  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.[↩]

Perhaps there is another way

“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.