EdBlogs

Have you known excellent classroom practitioners who have failed to make the transition to successful school leadership – as middle leaders, senior leaders, or headteachers? Have you known indifferent teachers go on to be skilful and effective leaders? I've been thinking about the relationship between teaching and leading in education recently. It ...

Growing up, the only thing I ever wanted to do was to be a teacher. I loved my subject, English, and wanted a career that let me continue to read and discuss, think and learn, and convey my enthusiasm for my subject to others. As a child I played "school" with my dolls and my friends and always took the teacher role. I completed a PGCE after m...

​School governance has changed in recent years. Gone are the days of light-touch oversight with a good dose of jolliness; governing boards are now expected to be more business-like rigorous, ensuring that the school fulfils their duty to their students and their budget. Never, then, has it been more important for school leaders and g...

A recent Twitter conversation about the advantages and disadvantages of headteachers having a teaching commitment made me thoughtful. I was a head for 30 years and taught each class of year 7 one English lesson every week throughout this time. I was paired with the English teacher who taught them for the rest of the time. If I had to be out of...

 There is very little correlation between the time a manager spends coaching an employee and their performance, according to new research. In fact, it's been suggested that some very hands-on managers actually do more harm than good. These surprising findings came from recent research conducted by a research company, Gartner, and are reported ...