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Behaviour
No Excuses and the Pinball Kids
Several recent blogs and twitter discussions have explored the idea of a ‘No Excuses’ behaviour policy. As ever, I have huge problems with discourse that forces people to adopt a position from a binary choice; for or against; with us or against us. I find myself agreeing with people on both sides of this debate. … Continue reading
More carrot and more stick; more love, more warmth, more discipline.
Ahead of the start of this term, I was reflecting on where we need to go next to raise standards at Highbury Grove. Everywhere I look to find schools that are doing better than we are by some measure I see that they appear to be more disciplined; they secure stronger engagement with their expectations; … Continue reading
SEND IS Mainstream. But it’s complicated.
Lately I’ve been thinking a great deal about SEND provision in my school – for several reasons. a) It is at the forefront of our thinking as we plan our staffing and curriculum within the real-world context of declining financial resources – how best to deploy finite resources to meet the needs of every student? … Continue reading
Culture + Systems: The Spirit and The Letter
This is a slide I’ve used multiple times in various CPD sessions. It’s a theme I return to over and over. In numerous aspects of school leadership, I feel it’s important to consider the need to develop both the systems and the culture within which they operate, explicitly, deliberately and simultaneously. Systems don’t work … Continue reading
Towards Impeccable Behaviour: Phase 2.
It’s now exactly a year since we launched our original Behaviour for Learning System. I described the principles and the details of the system in these posts: Towards Impeccable Behaviour. Together and Towards Impeccable Behaviour. Ready for Launch. A year on, after another round of reviews and consultations, we’re about to re-launch the system with … Continue reading
Inclusion and Exclusion in a Community School.
I’ve just read Nancy Gedge’s excellent, powerful blog ‘Battle Weary’ about her son’s experience of school and the challenges of parenting a child with Down’s Syndrome. It encapsulates a range of issues around inclusion and the extent to which schools truly embrace the concept. Since arriving at Highbury Grove, inclusion is something I’ve thought … Continue reading
Towards Impeccable Behaviour Part 2: Ready for Launch
In an earlier post, Towards Impeccable Behaviour. Together, I described the process we would be going through to set up a new behaviour system at Highbury Grove. Behaviour is generally very good in the school but we’re aiming extremely high, with ‘impeccable behaviour’ as our goal. We have now gone through the process of generating … Continue reading
Towards ‘Impeccable Behaviour’. Together
In my discussions with my new colleagues at Highbury Grove we’ve talked about the need to ensure that the teaching and learning agenda is put at the centre of all we do – in terms of CPD, ethos and our overall improvement strategy it is the most important thing. But we’ve also agreed that getting … Continue reading
Scale: CPD, research, and getting the basics right.
In our quest for a deeper understanding of our work as educators, across all the debates, conferences and blogs, I sometimes think that we lose perspective on the relative scale of different aspects of raising achievement in schools. There are hundreds of variables and we’re rarely able to make like-for-like comparisons that help to identify the relative … Continue reading
Pedagogy Postcard #4: Working in silence.
A series of short posts about specific elements of teaching practice that I think are effective and make life interesting. Some are based on my own lessons and others are borrowed from lessons I’ve observed. There’s a particular kind of learning atmosphere that I love to create every so often to inject some real purposefulness … Continue reading
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