This weekend, I attended the funeral of Christopher, whose life ended in a car accident a few weeks ago. He was 20 years old. He was also a past pupil. I should admit to a little bit of poetic licence here, in that, strictly speaking, Christopher started school the term after I left as headteacher.… Read More Past Pupils

OK, I resigned from Ofsted well over a year ago, so the current, prolonged criticism doesn’t surprise me one bit. It is an organisation that has been struggling for years, with a very high turnover of staff. If you want to read my resignation letter from February 2021, it’s at the end of this blog.… Read More Ofsted

We use the word ‘paying’ quite plentifully in the English-speaking world. It can be used in a transactional way e.g. we are paying down on our debt, or paying into our pension schemes.   Or it can be used in a slightly punitive way, even masochistic. We are paying for the sins of the past,… Read More Paying the Price

As we begin 2023, here are my top 5 areas for urgent attention. I apologise to secondary/FE colleagues as I’m sure there are pressing issues in your phases too, but I’m going with those where I feel most at home. If we are to reduce inequalities, we need fundamental change in the value we give… Read More The Year Ahead

Prologue In 2019, I wrote this https://allencompasscouk.wordpress.com/2019/08/11/future-of-catholic-schools/  in an effort to stake out a vision for Catholic state schools in the modern era. Now, after all the disruption of the past couple of years, it seems a good time to revisit this, adding some practical examples to elaborate on some of its themes. It should… Read More A Catholic Ethos

Last week, I heard a curious story. One which, I believe, is absolutely true. What I was told is I think symptomatic of the current dysfunction in education. The tale revolves around a well-respected Maths teacher who has been at his current school for some time. He knows his students well, and they obviously like… Read More Drop In

Rhetoric and Reality: sustainability in schools Stonyhurst College, where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle went to school, and the place where JRR Tolkien gained much of the inspiration for the Lord of the Rings. Set in acres of meadows, woods and hills, near the Trough of Bowland and Pendle Hill, it is an area of outstanding… Read More Sustainability and Climate Change: Rhetoric and Reality

‘Education has become something to be endured. A new generation is coming up that’s internalising the rules of our achievement-based society.’ So said the historian Rutger Bregman in his 2019 book, Humankind. Three years later and the recent White Paper has set the tone for the decade to come. A further decade of endurance. Despite… Read More What the Schools’ White Paper means to me

Headteachers know about risk assessments. Our ‘elf and safety culture dates back decades, but certainly ratcheted up around the time I became a headteacher in 2002. Tragic incidents, particularly the Dunblane atrocity, led to fences, keypads, lanyards, buzzers and lockdown drills (no, lockdown meant something different then).  On balance, this was undoubtedly a good thing,… Read More Risky Business

Thanks to a tweet from @heymrshallahan this week, I came across the work of the Sport and Recreation Committee in the House of Lords. Clearly, this is something I must have missed during the last couple of years when us teachers were at home watching Netflix and sunbathing in the garden. According to the committee,… Read More Core Strength

Hi everyone, I feel strongly that I want to share something, so here it is. When I walked round the building on Thursday with the SIP, I think I went into each and every room. It was a normal Thursday morning and, though you were expecting visitors, it felt normal. Having reflected further, I want… Read More Letter to Staff

I will be delighted never to hear the word ‘bubble’ again. Its ubiquitous use in education will be forever associated with hordes of bemused children disappearing back home, or battle-weary parents faced with yet more shifting of plans. As for staff, I’m not sure they can face any more of the increasingly futile attempts to… Read More Bursting Bubbles