A Headteacher's life - and a NAHT President's year

Red, Green, Yellow, and Blue - the House System cometh

2012-01-31T01:40:00.000Z

We have worked on the creation of a House system for Goddard Park over several months. The themes were based upon Swindon's heritage of Trains, Planes and Automobiles. We added water as a means of transport as the fourth. We asked the Schools Council, Staff, and Parents what names they thought would be right for each House. Some came easily as the GWR Castle engines gave us Castle House in its Green livery.Vickers Armstrong's Supermarine Spitfire provided Spitfire House with a Yellow Sun. Cars were plentiful with Honda and BMW's Mini, but we went back to Pressed Steel's MG for the Red MG House. This left us with the most difficult decision and that was Blue for water. We had suggestions around Swindon's canal, but nothing directly that the children could really relate to. Eventually, we settled on Weymouth House as it is often referred to as 'Swindon by the sea', many of our children (and some Staff) holiday there, we have had annual residential trips there from School for nearly 20 years, and it has the sailing Olympics this year.
All the children and Staff have now been attached to a House (with families in the same House) and a weekly Trophy is to be presented in a full School Assembly. Children can earn House points in a variety of ways including good work, perseverance, courtesy and good manners, being thoughtful about others, as well as good attendance and being in full School uniform. The Schools Council came up with some of the ideas and we are looking forward to this permeating all School life.

To France: the Dordogne for Christmas

2012-01-31T00:25:00.001Z

It was the Dordogne for Christmas in a converted station halt in a small hamlet near the splendid town of Excideuil.

Outings to Martignac and Sarlat were followed by time on a farm run by Thierry and Diane. We fed calves and saw the evening milking. Cows had a quick and effective response to a 'foreign' calf coming to milk, but not one I would recommend. Three days in, we had our Waterloo moment. Coming round a very sharp bend on a narrow road was our German Mercedes and it's British driver. Unfortunately, coming from the other direction was a French Peugeot on the same piece of tarmac. The outcome was another Waterloo with the French car 'totalled', and the Mercedes in need of some tender loving care, but eminently repairable. The female French driver was not Napoleon, but in fact Josephine.....
This did not affect a wonderful time

and we were very pleased that Father Christmas found his way with the reindeer to France. He even left his footprints!

The way home was amusing. Everything was fine until the ferry at Calais where we said goodbye to the replacement C3 (which never seemed to need to visit a petrol station). A full set of luggage and the family, no trollies, and a late ferry left us at 9pm at night at the Dover terminal contemplating options. The last train was 10.44pm and we had tickets for 7.44pm. There was no connection from London. Should we stopover in Dover? Not a sentence I've ever had to use before.
It was midnight as we came into St Pancras International. Huge amount of luggage, three very young children, and no trollies again. The trainguard was brilliant - a real railwayman. As we relayed down the platform I spotted a trolley and as the family came closer it looked eerily like a carbon copy of our situation - young children, lots of pieces of luggage etc. They were getting on the train and explained they had just a car crash in France! General laughter. This required a group photo, and agreement about the good old British 'Never say die' spirit. They gave us the trolley, and then we then entered our nine-seater taxi home driven by a very obliging Farzad from Old Town.

We three Kings and one mobile crown

2012-01-31T00:03:00.000Z

A 3rd birthday (December 13th) party with special guests

2012-01-30T21:11:00.001Z

As he approached his 3rd birthday James became increasingly excited. In addition to a bouncy castle at the party we had the services of Kenny, a local magician, as well as personal appearances by Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse. Fun for twenty friends including Lily, George, Ted, Freya, and special friend Aaron.

Nairobi in October

2011-11-29T11:05:00.003Z

I am always concerned not to spend much of a long-haul flight next to crying babies or 25 stone adults. I am sure there are redeeming features, but I can't think of any at the moment. So when we took up the whole row on the Virgin Atlantic flight with three children under three (and with the twins only four months old) it was with some trepidation on behalf of nearby passengers. It turned out to be a pretty good flight with Virgin Atlantic cabin staff in excellent form. The requirement to remove sleeping babies from their bassinets (cots) at the slightest hint of turbulence was soon removed when the proverb, 'let sleeping dogs lie' was sensibly applied to babies.
Seeing Dad's (now 86) and Mum's faces when they saw the twins for the first time - it was for James, a seasoned traveller, another trip at the ripe old age of two and three quarters, and he must have more airmiles now than most people I know, having been to Norway, Spain, the USA (twice), Singapore, and now Nairobi for the third time - a pure delight.

The Desai School was in good heart. Standard 8 (usually 14 year olds) were preparing for the Kenyan Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examination in November. I have been going to this slum area school in Kawangware for 13 years now, and am always amazed and humbled by the dedication of staff, all of whom live in the slum area, mostly in 10' by 10' mabati (corrugated tin) houses like the children, and share toilets with up to 15 families, and buy water half a mile away. Two years ago all 37 children who took the KCPE at the school passed - the best pass rate for this area of western Nairobi. The desire of the children to learn is always impressive. It is a pebble in a pond, but it is our pebble in the pond! www.desaimemorialschool.co.uk

Turning the other ear

2011-09-02T16:27:00.000Z

To the Rotary Club of Swindon Old Town.

Yesterday I was fitted with a hearing aid in each ear

This now presents me with certain challenges:

1. My wife now expects me to hear and engage with every word she says as opposed to the previous 1 in 10 ratio I was allowed.

In the film Captain Corelli's Mandolin a doctor removed a hardened pea from a male villager's ear. By the end of the film this man asked for it to be replaced as he could now hear his wife all too regularly.

2. I can now look forward to hearing Stewart Bell's rapier wit as in the past he could have been reciting farmers weekly or the archers for all I know.

3. I'm sure at last night's Swindon match I tuned into Radio 4, or that may have been wishful thinking.

3. With the growing number of hearing aid wearers in the Club I think President we should consider the creation of a committee for those whose fetish is walking around with battery driven digital rubber in one or two orifices.

4. I hope I no longer have to use coping strategies such as 'really' or 'is that so?' when I can see the lips are moving, but haven't the slightest clue what is being said.

5. Finally, I am retiring today as a full-time Headteacher after some 25 years in such a post, but start a new contract as Head for three days a week contract as from Monday.

I'm looking forward to continue working in Goddard Park as Head, although I do not intend to change my approach of smiling at, and asking a parent 'how is their sister', who I'd taught, to someone who may have just spoken an expletive to me. Its's just that they wouldn't have realized I hadn't heard it. Not quite the disarming approach of turning the other cheek, as much as turning the other ear.

Lily and George Welsh

2011-08-02T07:58:00.004Z

Lily and George Welsh were born on 19th June. George was 4lb 10oz and arrived at 6.07am, and Lily was 4lb 6oz and came into the world at 6.14am. I have attached a photograph of Lily (left) and George with their big brother James, who is now two and a half and is very excited about having a brother and sister.
Veronicah entered the Great Western Hospital at 4am, so it was a short labour. No time for any higher level pain relief, so Veronicah once again made do with gas and air. The staff were brilliant and as twins for a slightly older mum are high risk we had nine members of staff including four Doctors. Immediately after giving birth Veronicah was taken to the operating theatre, and was successfully operated on by the Consultant who stemmed some fairly serious haemorrhaging.
All are doing well.
Both Lily and George have put on nearly two pounds over their birth weight. Feeding through the night is fun as always with both of us looking forward to getting some sleep soon.
Names: Lily Wanja Veronicah Welsh after my Mum, Veronicah’s Mum, and Lily’s Mum. George Mukundi Michael Welsh after my Grandad, Veronicah’s Grandad, and George’s Dad.
A great start in life.

Heated conversations

2011-06-16T03:31:00.000Z

Last week we hosted a barbecue for family and friends. My 'Daddy Cool' apron came out for work at the charcoal face. It was a beautiful summer day and evening with one of those lovely relaxed times where both conversation and wine flows. There is something special about the UK when we experience these balmy evenings. Perhaps it is so fleeting we try to make the best of what we do have.
Sarah, Louis, and Lizzie were stopping for the weekend and they produced a splendid salad for the barbecue. A trip to Millets Farm Centre included test driving possible garden play equipment, including a tree house, which is on the list for the garden reconstruction this summer. After all of our travels we are looking forward to holidaying at home.

A whirlwind of names

2011-06-16T03:11:00.000Z

Returning full-time to school continues the intensity of 2011. It's great to be back with the children, staff and school community. A brief agenda includes developing a new curriculum map, managing staff changes, a major building programme, as well as ensuring the quality of impact on learning and all the usual day-to-day engagement. Fortunately, I have an excellent team with Bev as Deputy and Fiona as School Business Manager, and the Assistant Heads - the progress group - driving improvements, and a brilliant staff. It's been good to spend some time speaking with parents. Although these remain difficult times for employment, Swindon is in a better place for this than many towns.
Veronicah is not far now from having the twins. At the Clinic on Monday the Consultant suggested the I shouldn't leave Town (the opposite of the famous line in Westerns!).
We are ready with all the clothes and two cribs and a duette pram. Names have been the subject of some lengthy conversations. Boy 1, Boy 2, Girl 1, Girl 2, and any combination. At least we have the Kikuyu second names now. This has involved much discussion with Dad, Mum, and family in Kenya. There are a number of cultural traditions which we are intending to observe. These are complicated still further by it being twins. All good fun! Our choices for first names are constantly evolving with past favourites falling by the wayside. As we both work in school each name is associated in your mind with particular children we have had over the years. Perhaps Ziggy Stardust or Lady GaGa or Paulo Di Canio aren't that bad after all.

My NAHT Presidential Year comes to a close.

2011-04-27T23:01:00.001Z

I wanted to take the opportunity to record a few words in my last few days as President.

I'd like to thank the Northern Ireland committee and Colm and Michael in particular for a wonderful couple of days at the last National Executive in Belfast.

Well it all started with Children singing in Liverpool and I was delighted with a standing ovation for the presidential speech - the entrance to the gala evening will last long in my, and my family's, memory.

Any President will tell you that it is their aim is to leave the association in a better place than where they began - our members rightly demand nothing less. In Kenya there is a term used by a previous President, Daniel Arap Moi - 'Nyayo' which means leaving footprints in life.

One or two shared footprints from 2010/2011:

Firstly, the Bedouin tent has of necessity, with the refurbishment of the former Bonnington Hotel, meant the National Executive seeing other parts of the Country this year, but I believe that places like Bath and Belfast have shown we can at times conduct our business outside of London very successfully as a national association. A balance in someway with a revitalized Bonnington or Hilton Doubletree as it will be known, would be good.

We had a positive changeover of General Secretary without the pain and dislocation that could have occurred. We also have indisputably the right General Secretary, and we have had an excellent working relationship.

A restructuring of HQ is well advanced to place us in a position to meet the needs and aspirations of our members. We must now ensure that this promise is fulfilled.
I appreciate the considerable effort of many staff to make high quality provision for Member's needs.

We have had a new Government with an electoral mandate. In meeting with Ministers it is clear that they now take the Association as a serious organization with gravitas and they are in a better position to consider education policy if they talk with us first as recent progress has demonstrated. Fewer u turns will then be necessary. We need the 'Freedom to flourish'.

This blog illustrates just some of the engagement such as speeches, articles and discussions which I've been able to have with Branches, Regions, other school leader organizations, government, media, and individual members. This is frankly a punishing schedule throughout the year.

I have been particularly pleased, following the lengthy and ultimately fruitless efforts of a working party of council in a previous year, to lead a task and finish group - and I pay tribute to that group - which has led to the new method of National Executive working including the introduction of a new committee structure and in particular the information session which ensures all executive members leave here richer and better able to perform your roles in the districts branches regions and sectors. These excellent foundations are now ready to be further built upon.

At times I frankly admit I could have had a much quieter life at one or two points and go through the motions, but that is not me and I have always tried to work by principle and as custodian of the naht best interests. This has required on occasion telling individuals to wake up and smell the coffee. This has been done carefully, often behind the scenes, and invariably taken with good grace.

I think our debate and engagement in the National Executive this year has been rigorous, but in good humour and should command the respect of our members for these efforts and expertise and that of our HQ staff in developing and carrying out association policy always with the best interests of members at heart. There is no better voice when a member feels the world is caving in, or they just need support to do their job that little bit better, than the NAHT.

We have challenges such as developing the use of video conferencing which is so much better than teleconferencing and could enable colleagues to effectively engage at a lower cost in the range of smaller meetings we have.

I have met some great colleagues and characters around the Country from Northumberland to Ian Bruce in Cornwall, from Tom Thompson on the Isle of Man to John Deare on the Isle of Wight, and Windermere to the indefatigable Barbara Letchford in Kent, and a sane view in the New Forest from David Mewes. Many of these with National Executive colleagues quietly ensure the NAHT challenges the unfair, the uninspiring and unacceptable which causes so much anxiety and sleepless nights for school leaders who are simply doing their very best for the next generation.

I intend to undertake the role of Immediate Past President and support Chris and Steve, but I am also looking to restore and develop my family life. In July, Veronicah is having twins and has just been successful in gaining a place on a PGCE course. I am looking forward to returning as Headteacher of Goddard Park in Swindon and working with the whole school community again. This will be my 25th year as a Head - a brilliant job - and 20 years in Goddard Park with my fabulous team and children.

I would like to thank my wife, Veronicah, and my daughters Zoe and Sally, my grandchildren and many friends for their support this year. My little James: the innocence and unconditional love of this little boy is the light of my life.

I would like to thank you for your kindness and support in this most unique year in my life.
I am, and will always remain, so proud to have been National President of the NAHT.

Thank you.

The blog continues.......

November, April, and August: international engagement and decision-making

2011-04-27T22:31:00.001Z

Alan November updated some of his previous talks with a positive view of children's engagement with the Internet. He provided excellent examples of how pupils' work could end up on e.g. School tube, and You Tube.
I again held key talks with representatives of international school leader associations considering joining the International Confederation of Principals (which NAHT is a Member of), including the NAESP who are carefully developing their position. ICP are extending Observer status to both NAESP (Elementary and NASSP (Secondary School Principals) for it's Council meeting at the 2011 ICP Convention in August in Toronto.
ICP is engaged in a reform programme designed to improve it's engagement with national associations and to share good practice throughout the world. Key players include Ontario Principals Council, and IPPN in Ireland.
A 'Plan B' should this fail to thrive is the possible creation of a World Forum charging individual schools being developed by Ton Duif in the Netherlands.
Toronto will be an important juncture for these discussions.

24 hours to Tampa (with apologies to Gene Pitney and Tulsa)

2011-04-14T16:54:00.006Z

The last Conference of my Presidential year is the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) in the US. It's taking place in Tampa, Florida, a State I've never been to. In order to keep expenditure down my relatively cheap flight meant travelling from Heathrow to O'Hare in Chicago, and then flying south east to Tampa.
As part of the Kenyan dispora one of Veronicah's best friends from her early working days Tina, lives in Tampa with Mario, and their seven-month old son, Malik. So again I paid for Veronicah and James to accompany me at the Conference. As it's the Easter break immediately afterwards we are then moving from the Conference hotel to stop with Tina and Mario, before going on a driving tour of Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, and finally arriving in Washington DC to stop with Veronicah's cousin, Minneh who has just become engaged to Chris. A later stopover is taking us to Dallas to meet another cousin, Grace, who is married to Kelvin and have Leon and Kamau.
I'm particularly interested in the American Civil War and hope to see several key sites.

The Conference began with Sir Ken Robinson the UK's guru on creativity who now very creatively lives permanently in Los Angeles which he says is a short plane ride from America. His message is of vital importance however: that education systems should be encouraging creativity, passion, spirit, and energy with children in order to engage and prosper in the future.

Ken talks of Wayne Gretsky, the great Ice hockey player, who said that he never went to where the puck was, but where he thought it would be next! The backward-looking accountability loved by Governments and media is stifling children, and encourages teaching to tests which leads to meaningless grind. Of course children need to communicate and be numerate, but current 'if it moves measure it' systems are letting them down.
I refer again to Finland where, in one of the world's highest achieving education systems, there is no external assessments until the age of 18.
Ken may spend a considerable amount of time working with corporations now looking at creativity, but it is they amongst others who will employ our children. The CBI and others in the UK now rate very highly, for example, the ability to work in teams. Are we taking any notice?

Not just a dark blues win in the boat race.

2011-04-14T16:13:00.001Z

An excellent day with colleagues at a Presidential Seminar (and Workshop) on responding to the Government's consultation on the National Curriculum, in Wolfson College, Oxford. Representatives of Primary, Secondary, and Special Committees, National Officers, and key HQ staff took part. It was an excellent meeting with the opportunity to listen, think, and debate on the future of of the NC. The NAHT has always stood for a framework curriculum that does not over-prescribe detail, thereby entrusting teachers with pedagogy rather than civil servants. The heavy schedule of modern life can lead to reductionism, whereby major issues are dealt with in five minutes in a meeting, or by soundbite in the media. This day heralded a positive approach and continued the improved level of engagement and scrutiny this year by the National Executive that members would and should expect of us.

On the rails this week with First Great Western, Arriva Wales, and Virgin Cross Country.

2011-04-14T16:00:00.000Z

The intensive schedule continues unabated.
On 21st March I had two meetings including Strategy at the Commonwealth Club just off Trafalgar Square.
On the Tuesday in the same venue I Chaired my last joint meeting of NHT and ASCL in the morning and then Chaired the NAHT/ASCL/NGA/ADCS in the afternoon. Both were forward looking meetings which were intended to further develop the close working relationships and consider our positions on the key issues in accountability including governance, austerity, autonomy, as well as teaching and learning, curriculum, and pay and conditions. This always leads to a full meeting with interesting debate. In the evening I made my way by train and car to deepest Wiltshire to meet a group of Governors.
Wednesday was a four hour round trip to be the key speaker at the Dorset, Bournemouth, and Poole AGM. This also marked the retirement of Margaret Davies, Dorset Branch Secretary, who has made an invaluable contribution to the position of school leaders in the County. I am pleased that Vanessa Lucas, another Weymouth Headteacher, took on the mantle. The work of our Branch Secretaries is vital in each LA, and probably even more so as Governance becomes more dispersed with the advent of academies.
Thursday meant catching a train to Chepstow - a beautiful route into Wales from Gloucester and Cheltenham - to speak at the Bristol school leaders residential. Then another train immediately afterwards to Leeds. The train is crowded with racegoers going home from Chepstow after a full card. All shapes and sizes, but a smattering of younger participants with what would be seen as clothing to watch horse racing in: brown flat hats, and checked waistcoats. Although carefully affected it was still good to see some thought of tradition in these youths. I arrived in Leeds at 10.45pm to be met in the bar by three Executive Members and the General Secretary - any thought of an early night vanished, and a good time was had by all.
Friday involved introducing the NAHT Education Conference (North) and then the usual double-act with Russell when completing his session. A quick lunchtime dash to Leeds station had us on a train to Grantham for the Lincolnshire Branch AGM. About 80 Members were present and they were very focussed on the future work of the Branch. After our presentations there was an overwhelming request for a further special Branch Meeting on the academy programme which I agreed to attend. The key discussions were on SATs and Pensions - themes in virtually all my recent Branch Meetings.
The train home and a relatively early finish at 7pm on Friday and able to catch up with Veronicah and play with James was very welcome.

and the winner is..........

2011-04-14T15:24:00.002Z

The Education Resource Awards at the Motorcylcle Museum in Birmingham are held each year on the Friday of the Education Show at the NEC. BESA encourage educational suppliers to seek awards for a range of quality provision from the best with, and without, the latest technology. As our Members are heavily interested in quality products for our schools, the NAHT supports two Awards: School Leadership, and School innovation. Using my knowledge of watching far too many OSCARS and BAFTA ceremonies, I introduce a dramatic pause before announcing the winning name. This is followed by a crescendo of noise from the winners and no doubt silent groan from those who just missed out.

At the National Association of Secondary School Principals (USA) in San Francisco

2011-03-18T13:20:00.000Z

Escape to Alcatraz

2011-03-10T04:26:00.003Z

We are now in the reciprocal Conference season. There is an expectation that the NAHT President will represent the Association at key school leadership organization Conferences. In turn, the current Presidents of these organizations attend our Annual Conference. The National Association of Secondary School Principals in the US met in San Francisco. Where each President ends up depends upon decisions made years ago so it could be Detroit or Houston. These are not jollies as anyone who sees the the work schedule and sitting in airports in the middle of the night can testify. Even so, I was delighted that San Francisco came on my watch and decided to pay for Veronicah and James to come with me, so we could share time after the end of each working day. There were a number of key issues to explore with international colleagues. These are often elements of accountability, austerity, autonomy for our schools and their effect upon children's attainment and life chances, and conditions of service for school leaders.

These Conferences give an excellent opportunity to meet with both host Country Principals (most of the world uses that term), and to network with international colleagues all undertaking a similar role. (I knew, for example, at least four of the previous NASSP Presidents). This means you are working on two levels: firstly, to gain an understanding of how the host Country is tackling the key issues, and secondly, to relate this across several other systems with the experience of those attending. This leads to good friendships on a personal basis, but enables you to be better informed, and gain real insight into international comparisons - Governments will often cherry-pick from these to suit policy choices - and test your Association's positions.

One of the stars of the NASSP Conference was Diane Ravitch. Diane is an education academic, as Professor at New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.
She had been Assistant Secretary of State in the Bush Senior Administration. Although education is largely at State function, the Federal Government does, increasingly, have a financial role to play (now about 10-15% which it uses to lever policy). Diane Ravitch, was significantly committed to a regime of high level external assessment. She has since written a book entitled, 'The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education (2010) ISBN 978-0-465-01491-0 repudiating this approach. Diane saw that this encouraged children and schools to have a dull, repetitive diet based upon the need for compliance and completion of work with little reference to quality or real engagement. She is clear that this does not raise standards. It also reflects the widely respected Finnish experience, where high attainment includes no external assessment of any nature except blind sampling until the age of 18. We come back once again to Governments distorting the curriculum - and teaching and learning - by inappropriate accountability measures.

Linda Darling-Hammond, is Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education at Stanford University where she has launched the Stanford Educational Leadership Institute and the School Redesign Network, and advises one of President Obama's key groups, followed this by presenting research that identified teacher effectiveness as the key to high attainment. "Bureaucratic solutions to problems of practice will always fail because effective teaching is not routine, students are not passive, and questions of practice are not simple, predictable, or standardized. Consequently, instructional decisions cannot be formulated on high then packaged and handed down to teachers." - from her award-winning book, The Right to Learn. She identified the approaches which enabled those entering the profession to have good support to gain this effectiveness and then to have this maintained by strategies such as coaching in the classroom by expert practitioners. Some research suggested that the usual diet of one-off in-service training sessions were less effective as lacking in depth - a real challenge to most schools!

Eric Sheninger (http://ericsheninger.com/esheninger) is the Principal at New Milford High School located in Bergen County, NJ. He is passionate about establishing and fostering learning environments that are student-centered, collaborative, flexible, and prepare all learners to succeed in the 21st Century. Eric presented on the future of ICT in schools and children's learning. He was an advocate of the hand-held approach as where children are at, together with the positive use of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, with the latter particularly useful for classroom teachers to share ideas in an educational forum.

California lived up to it's billing. Sunshine, the Golden Gate Bridge, an almost bankrupt State Government with significant street begging, brilliant restaurants, but the best was undoubtedly the cable cars, and a visit to Alcatraz.

There was really no contest. Seating on the cable car was either outside facing outward on benches or in the more sanitized interior behind windows facing inward. So going the first very steep incline I'm holding on to James for dear life, whilst Veronicah manages the folded buggy. For once, I'm delighted that there is a relatively tight squeeze on the benches as this actually assists with stability. This was not always the case over the eight rides we managed and, at least on one occasion, I found myself determinedly trying to stop a sideways movement that could have led to catastrophe. James was beside himself, and as usual making conversation - part verbal, part non-verbal signals - to fellow passengers.

The boat ride to the Island of Alcatraz in the Bay was relatively short. The Island was used by the military as a prison until 1933 - including Confederate soldiers and sailors during the Civil War - when it transferred to the Justice Ministry. It then held some of the most notorious gangsters of the next 30 years including Al Capone, 'Machine gun' Kelly, and Robert Stroud, the 'Birdman of Alcatraz' memorably portrayed by Burt Lancaster in the film of that name - in reality most of the work and study of birds took place in his previous incarceration in Leavenworth, but Hollywood was never strong on historical accuracy (and Stroud was never allowed to see the film). An excellent audio tour followed. The most surprising aspect was the small size of most of the cells at just 9' x 5'. This included a bed, toilet, and small chair and table. The holding cells for those who broke the rules were actually larger, but with an even tougher regime, and after that thee were a couple of windowless cells termed the 'hole'. Bobby Kennedy closed down Alcatraz in 1963.

The time difference -seven hours ahead - and jet-lag led to some strange physiological experiences with James thinking that midnight local time was perfect for waking up for breakfast literally full of beans. It took a couple of days to acclimatize. In the meantime, two bleary-eyed parents took turns in coping with this until persuasion (or at least bribery) prevailed.

The next day after returning to UK, I'm at Finance and Personnel Committees in London, then speaking at the Education Conference the following day, Friday, in Reading, and meeting with a group of Heads in the afternoon. Sunday is a flight to Amsterdam and a train ride to a monastery where the International Confederation of Principals is meeting, and then a flight to Belfast for our National Executive. Each meeting requires preparation, presentations, and follow-up work. In the meantime, the Government publishes it's Green Paper on the future of Special Educational Needs and Disability for consultation until June. This is a major piece of work for the NAHT in developing a considered response to Sarah Teather, Minister of State for Children and Families, and the Department. On Sunday, it's off to Dusseldorf with Russell Hobby to meet our Service Children's Education Branch and attend and speak at their AGM. A number of Branch Meetings to attend on my return.

I always enjoy seeing the signs of Spring and regeneration, particularly when the daffodils with their vibrant colour are in view. Now all I have to do is decide what is it I'm giving up for lent this year.

Home for a day.

2011-02-20T02:33:00.002Z

Home for a day, as the Swindon NAHT Branch holds it's Annual Conference at the Cricklade Country Club on the 17th. It was pleasing to chat with many good friends. The theme looked at the new Networks that schools need in the wake of the rapidly changing context of LA support services diminishing and in some areas disappearing altogether following the LA funding settlement. A number of presentations from exhibitors including companies set up by former LA employees set the scene. Russell Hobby as General Secretary provided a thoughtful insight into current national issues and how this was affecting schools and school leadership. The last session began to address the interesting and vital networking future in school improvement. Schools working with schools - now there's a novel idea. Following decades of encouraging competition, the bright future should be about collaboration and co-operation. Sharing the very best practice is essential if we are to raise standards still further. This requires a willingness to give as well as receive. It also requires practical methods and systems of engagement. Schools and school leaders need to build these.

Continuing to sing for my supper

2011-02-14T22:01:00.007Z

Really good news from the Henley Report on music. Virtually the only subject in the curriculum to have an underpinning review. At the Sing Up National Gathering (see my blog of 30/11/10) I called for the extension of both Sing Up and the Wider Opportunities scheme for children to engage with instrumental work. I'm delighted that the Government has resounded positively to the Report and is extending both approaches with funding of £82.5 million, and a National Plan for Music to follow. The creation of ring-fenced funded Hubs in each LA area gives some hope within a diificult context of LA Music services coming under intense pressure. There are now key discussions about the detailed use of the announced funding involving the Sing Up consortium as it is indicated that Sing Up itself has to be self-sustaining after this additional slimmed down year. Let's hope this leads to a secure and vibrant future for children and music.

Pensions - the sign of a caring society

2011-02-14T21:48:00.002Z

My last meeting as Chair of the NAHT Pension Trustees. We have the important task of ensuring there is a secure scheme for staff members. I'm delighted that at this meeting we agree arrangements for those staff who gain support from the Association to retire early to access an improved actuarially reduced scheme.
This occurs at a time when 63% of NAHT Members indicate that they would want to significantly defend the essence of their Teachers Pension Scheme. We wait for the outcome of the Hutton Review of public sector pensions.
A lifetime of work should lead to a dignified and happy retirement. The last couple of decades have witnessed a succession of events in many industries affecting pension schemes which have undermined this.

It's February, it's Cornwall.

2011-02-14T21:26:00.002Z

In Cornwall today (4th) for a one hour presentation on current issues to 50 Members of the Branch, plus a further twenty minutes at the Annual Dinner in the evening.
The Bedruthan Hotel just north of Newquay, is one of the best in the Country. Not for acres of marble, but for it's position overlooking the Atlantic Coast, and in particular the superb Reception where you are treated as a welcomed individual. The Staff here could train far more prestigious establishments on real engagement with hotel guests.
Key concerns today include pensions, doubtful future of LA services, the outcome of the Bew Inquiry into KS2 SATs, and information on the academy status.
Ian Bruce, Cornwall Branch Secretary, and SW National Executive Member, is properly thanked for his work for Members in the County, as is Steve Cleverley, Regional Officer, for high quality support for Members when the clouds seem dark.
The NAHT's Regional Officers are well respected for their work throughout each of their patches. They are a lifeline for hard-pressed colleagues.

On the train with Churchill and the Royalty

2011-02-02T02:20:00.000Z

January has been a very intense month with traveling and speaking in all parts of the Country. Groups of Heads in Bristol, Swindon, followed by SW Region in Tiverton, Devon. Kent Branch in Maidstone, and then the National Executive - it's new name replacing Council - at The Bloomsbury in London. The new style of a two day Executive continued. It received 70% support as a little or much better than the former construction which had lasted some years. We also continued the Information session with Executive Members going away rich in Information on a range of key issues, then examining these in more detail during the Policy, Professional, or Practice Committees. We then have detailed scrutiny of NAHT positions through testing these as Motions. This time it included considering a position on the NAHT's evidence to the Bew Inquiry on end of KS2 Assessment. These Motions are keenly debated, with amendments considered, and votes providing clear outcomes. The eventual position taken received widespread support. Members would be pleased to know the rigorous nature of this work on their behalf.

We also held our Annual Press Dinner, on this occasion in the atmospheric Harmsworth Room, in the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms. This is an excellent opportunity to meet up with our colleagues in the Media and discuss current issues. Any organization needs to get it's messages and positions over to Members, the public, key groups, and the Government. The Media play an essential role in this. As well as promoting school leadership as the best job in the world, we want to affect legislation and gain our Members the best possible pay and conditions for the vital work they undertake. Under successive General Secretaries, Annette Slade, has undertaken a dual role as PA, and Press Liaison. She has performed this with distinction. With the wide-ranging nature of the Media now we have moved to appointing a specialist Press and Media Officer, and Heather Forze has recently joined the NAHT and is already making her presence felt. In her first two days I had access to three Radio interviews -including speaking with Radio Lincolnshire on a freezing bus station bench.

Since the National Executive, the following ten days included meeting a dozen Heads in Chippenham, a meeting with ASCL and the National Governors' Association in the Commonwealth Club, meetings with Heads in Poole and the Dorset Branch who were particularly exercised on the future of teachers' pensions. This is a national concern and we are watching developments very carefully under the expert guidance of Mike Beard in HQ. I then had a discussion with a Secondary Head whose School is 'satisfactory with good features' at it's last OFSTED, but has improved since and wants to become an Academy. He is watching colleagues gaining the freedoms and repatriation of LA retained funding, and believes this would be right for his school. I suggested he registered an interest and speak with the Academies Division at the DfE. The next day was a five and half hour journey to Windermere for the North West Region weekend Conference after completing some casework. Members attending the Conference are given the Saturday afternoon 'off' and are able to check out the delights of the Lakes.

I have to admit to a secret affair that afternoon. I rang Veronicah and owned up. After a brief walk around part of the Lake, I found the Royalty Cinema in Bowness. It had a Saturday afternoon matinee showing of The King's Speech with Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, and Helena Bonham Carter. With James now two years old we have not been to the Cinema since he was born. I went in and bought my ticket. It was Art Deco heaven. The staff wore black waistcoats, and brought out ice creams on original trays. With a superb film this was a wonderful time, but I had to tell Veronicah who immediately booked next Saturday for a Cinema outing at home!

Strategy Group, and Never on a Sunday doesn't apply.

2011-01-10T21:36:00.001Z

Strategy Group was on Monday. This means leaving home at 2.30pm on Sunday and meeting up with the other National Officers (Bolton, Lowestoft, Barnsley, and Swindon) at a local hostelry near the NAHT HQ at Haywards Heath. This provides food and accommodation, and enables us to spend time going through current and forthcoming issues at length outside of formal meetings. A number of families across the Country are giving up family time to enable such meetings to happen. It's followed by a formal Strategy session at HQ on Monday with senior HQ Staff. One of the key debates is identifying the need for Government to understand that the NAHT is both a professional association and a trade union. We will continue to support our Members in raising standards of attainment of the new generation. Engagement between the DfE and us prior to announcements would improve legislation and it's impact. Five hours of meetings, including a teleconference, and it's back on the train for a three-hour working journey home. On the road for the rest of the week with five Heads' Groups, and Branch and Regional meetings across the South West.

Christmas in the village

2011-01-10T21:04:00.002Z

A snowy Christmas and an icy blast, but a fun family time. Also time with friends coming to share our first Christmas in this new home: The Old Chapel. James walked twice around the village taking in the animals - horses with jackets, ducks on ice, and the local male blackbird looking for food. James playing snowballs with Daddy in the snow, and arriving back for a hot chocolate with Mummy. Father Christmas drank his milk and ate a mince pie - James found the crumbs. Half an hour later we are all playing with a Hornby train set, new farm animals, and a helicopter. We finished the day with Fireman Sam books and a Little Red Tractor video.
Awe and wonder comes in different ways, but we certainly enjoyed giving as well as getting. The Christmas Carol Service at St Mary's involved lighted candles. James didn't set anything on fire, but Fireman Sam must have been on standby.

End of Year Report for Michael Gove and the DfE

2010-12-28T11:10:00.001Z

End of 2010 year School Report on Michael Gove and the DfE:

What a truly amazing year!

We often say that a year is a long time in education - well, if we compare where we are now at Christmas 2010, then seven months have changed the educational landscape for children, schools and school leaders. The new Government has learned from Tony Blair's published experiences of not using his first 100 days to get reform going. What can we deduce from the changes so far?

Autonomy 4 out of 5
The call for freedom has led to structural change that is enabling those schools and school leaders who wish to take control of their own decision-making through converter Academies to do so.
The free school approach is potentially more divisive and will often have a negative effect upon existing schools.

Accountability 1 out of 5
We are pleased to have an independent enquiry into SATs, but it all depends upon the outcome and the Government's response. The White Paper proposals for a high-stakes Reading test - and it's a 'phonics' test not a 'reading' test - for 6 year olds, and an English Bacc are signs that again the curriculum is going to be distorted for thousands of children on a poor evidence base and in opposition to professional judgment. Inspection should become fairer and encompass support. We fully accept accountability, but the system must improve.
We need to clarify the differences between transparency and accountability, understanding the
grey areas.

Engagement 4 out of 5
The DfE is talking with school leaders. Announcements though still come out of the blue - too many details announced through the press rather than direct to the profession.

Austerity 3 out of 5
The headlines suggested that school budgets were largely being protected. This was positive, but beneath the headlines many schools will struggle with funding. Early intervention and sixth forms are under particular pressure. The Pupil Premium level at an initial £430 per fsm pupil was disappointing and will not cover the costs of for example, a reading recovery teacher. Let's hope this substantially improves. Most quangos will not be missed, but the need for sports, the 'Every Child ......' infrastructure, music (subject to the Henley Report) and a lack of innovation (and virtual absence from the White Paper) with ICT, stand out.

12 out of 20 - a promising start could be tarnished by a return to ideological rather than educational thinking.

Looking forward to 2011
A few priorities:
The end of SATs as we know them. Let us compete with world-class systems such as Finland on a level playing field (no external assessments until 18).
The creation of an effective system of KS2 moderated teacher assessment (including KS3 teachers). Must remember to hold schools accountable for results not methods.
Create confidence in schools to use their freedoms
A restructuring of LAs: now clarify a positive role
Reconsideration of the effects of a reading test for 6 year olds, and an
English Bacc
Wales moving towards equality of funding
Northern Ireland moving towards educational engagement
Raising the Pupil Premium, and look forward to debate on national funding formula
We need to address exclusions
A fairer Inspection system.

We would then have a world-class DfE (and schools).

Michael Gove is a positive politician. I hope he understands that these classroom priorities are genuine and necessary. He should be careful of siren voices in the playground which could lead to much frustration and distraction in class.

James is two years old.

2010-12-13T03:05:00.004Z

James is two today. I hope when he is older he will understand how his innocence, love, intelligence and fun give me unbridled joy each day. For both Veronicah and me James is the light of our life. James and wonderful grandson Ted, also two last week, shared a birthday party with their friends, bouncy castle, pass the parcel, party tea, and Thomas the Tank engine Cake and all.

'No ifs, no buts, no education cuts'......

2010-12-13T02:46:00.003Z

Lunch with Michael Gove, Secretary of State. This covered a number of areas of policy, including the experience of being an academy. The day was dominated by the very adjacent Student Protests about tuition fees. I've stated my concerns about how the increase in such fees will disproportionately affect children from inner area communities. This could have a significant effect upon social mobility as well as individual life chances. As I left the Department to return to St.James Underground station I met a large group of peaceful young protestors making their way down Tothill Street. The 'No ifs, no buts, no education cuts' was sung with gusto, but it was the young lad at the back with the banner - I'm only here to get out of PE' - which caught my eye.

The Sheriff of Nottingham or was it Long John Silver?

2010-12-13T02:31:00.000Z

At the Goddard Park Primary Christmas Concert on Tuesday night I was expecting to introduce our older classes when ten minutes before we started a breathless Year 5 teacher came along the corridor to let me know that the Sheriff of Nottingham was ill and his understudy unavailable for our Robin Hood-based pantomime. Within five minutes staff had identified that I had to fill the gap, produced a costume (partially stapled!) and handed me the script. Oh the joys of Headship. Needless to say the children, parents and staff had great fun with me playing the Sheriff (in the manner of Robert Newton's Long John Silver) with several ad libs about X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing. The children, not thrown by my presence on the stage, were brilliant and particularly enjoyed Robin giving the Sheriff his comeuppance.

Twins and buses

2010-12-13T02:08:00.000Z

I was walking in Swindon in order to collect my Senior bus pass when I came across an elderly lady having great difficulty in crossing the road on the icy surface. I assisted her to cross safely and she shuffled along her way. On my way out of the Council Offices I had occasion to cross the same stretch of road and immediately fell over with such force and speed that I injured my wrist and had a precautionary cast on for a couple of days. Veronicah suggested I purchase a Zimmer frame. As we have just received the joyous news that she is expecting twins next June I am challenging friends to come up with a design for a triple buggy (including James) and an attached motorized zimmer platform. At least James and I can go on the bus now to watch Swindon Town play free of charge - he is regarded as too young to pay and I'm too old! Our joy means that I'll be working until I'm 81.

The Midlands and more tests

2010-12-13T01:48:00.004Z

Working in the Midlands last week with Keynote presentations in both Leicester and the University of Warwick Science Park. At such meetings I always take the opportunity to meet and discuss with School leaders their individual challenges. The sheer professionalism of colleagues in the face of adversity is remarkable. The Government is sensible in providing more freedom and flexibility for school leaders to raise standards. What it must not do then is to ramp up the already overpowering accountability regime of OFSTED and SATs with the further distortion of the curriculum which will follow a high stakes reading test for six year olds, and an English Bacc for 16 year olds. Colleagues in the much vaunted Finnish Education system are able to work with children and young people who do not have to undertake an external test until the age of 18 years.

Brilliant grandaughters Hope, Daisy, and Scarlett, with James 23/11/10

2010-11-30T22:31:00.000Z

Singing for my supper in Gateshead

2010-11-30T19:05:00.005Z

Several keynote speeches this week including one to the Sing Up National Gathering at The Sage by the River Tyne in Gateshead. 24 years ago I became Headteacher of a school about a mile from here along the Felling by-pass. Bede Community Primary School. It had 83% free school meals. Very few parents had a job as all the major employers including Clarke Chapmans had closed down. The community was split by a railway line - now the Metro - with the Old Fold on one side and Sunderland Road on the other. As a designated Community Primary School we reached out to the community and enabled local people to set up a number of groups and activities. The Community School was one of the few meeting places for families.

Local teenagers - the older brothers and sisters of pupils at Bede - felt isolated, and detached. They began burning out cars on the school field. We responded to this by talking with them and then setting up a football team. Some of the boys played, and girls and boys were cheerleaders and supporters. We met each week and trained and talked. The local Police agreed to make a minibus available for friendly matches.We raised funds for a football strip and to go to a professional football match. The Police assisted, but would not agree to either a Newcastle or Sunderland game as these could be negative role models. Instead we went to Hartlepool v Burnley. I thought this might not be cool, but the group loved it as they had never been to a real match before. A after a few more friendlies the group were enjoying the experience. Later that Summer one of the boys, Mark, went to the local Cemetery with a couple of friends, sniffed a fire extinguisher, and sadly he died. His Mum had him buried in the team shirt as she said, "It was the only positive thing in his life".

Veronicah, James and I called in to see Alison and Angela at Bede - still the Admin Officers at the School - and lifelong friends.

Virtually 100% of Primary Schools in Swindon have signed up to Sing Up. Goddard Park has hosted an area training session, and our children have benefitted significantly from this. It has been a very successful initiative. Parents and children were recently singing at Debenhams. Alongside this Wider Opportunities has provided expert instrumental tuition to a whole year group at a time, together with Roadshows of brass/strings/woodwind/percussion that have stimulated interest and enjoyment amongst our pupils. I hope the Henley Review identifies the essential need for music education for all, and that the Government places a requirement in a new National Curriculum with earmarked funds. We need a John Winterflood (Swindon Music Service) and a Liz Terry (Sing Up) to make this happen. Our children would be much richer as a result, and it is difficult to see any effective alternative provision - it is a specialized area of school life.

James at 21 months on the Isle of Man

2010-11-24T21:05:00.001Z

An intensive time.

2010-11-24T20:57:00.000Z

Each week is very full and recently I had the opportunity of visiting both the Isle of Wight and flying to the Isle of Man in the same week. What characterized both visits are shared challenges, very different contexts and the professionalism of local NAHT Officers when supporting Members.
The Isle of Wight is undergoing substantial structural change, with the demise of Middle Schools, and the introduction of an external Academy provider for a group of schools, and a further going into a Trust. The remaining schools will be with the LA. The Branch Secretary, John Dear, has worked tirelessly on behalf of colleagues. I was pleased to visit a number of schools including one of the Middle schools where senior staff expressed their concern that children will lose something special when the current system finishes next year.
We were met on Sunday at the airport on the Isle of Man by Tom Thompson Branch Secretary who gave us an impromptu tour of the Island. The next morning we visited two schools one of 280, and the other of six.
I saw quality work in both islands. The Isle of Man has invested well in Apple Macs and these were well used in a range of curriculum activities. It is facing a huge challenge to public finances with changes in VAT arrangements with the UK whereby there is a gap of £140 million to close with obvious effects upon schools. Again Tom was well respected by his colleagues and ensured that their views were clearly communicated.
I met with both Directors and discussed the key issues of reorganization and economic challenge.

Cyprus

2010-11-24T20:09:00.006Z

Children in Greek Cypriot national dress in the 26th Limassol Primary

Cyprus

The European School Heads Association (ESHA) Conference is in Cyprus, and I'm accompanied by Chris Harrison Vice President, Jack Hatch National Treasurer, and Roy Tedscoe National Council Member and ESHA rep. It is the first week of November and the temperature is around 30* with constant sunshine and brilliant views of the Mediterranean. In England it's cold, windy and wet. Is this a jolly? Well let me go through reality. To get here meant leaving home at 1am with Veronicah and James to sit in a cold bus station and catch a National Express bus to Gatwick North. Then a four hour flight with a 22 month old. Negotiating a transfer to the hotel took half an hour. The taxi driver spent a considerable time driving with his mobile telephone in deep conversation. We only had two near misses. From experience I only sit in the back seat of taxis, and I admired my Vice President's courage or innocence in taking the front seat. On at least one occasion he could have
shaken hands with a lorry driver. Taxis aside the hospitality is excellent.

Although a European event it provided an excellent opportunity to discuss wider international school leader issues with Mike Benson and Vicki Shannon of the Ontario Principals' Council, and Gail Connelly of the National Association of Elementary School Principals in the USA.

Next morning we had the latest from Andy Hargreaves and the Boston School: 'Performing beyond expectations'. The outcome of research on why some schools, local areas of schools, businesses, and sports teams stand out beyond the norm often in difficult situations.

Neil Hawkes presented on the Values Agenda. Although I've heard Neil before and subscribe to the message, the single factor I picked out was to make this work explicit in the school community. This is linked to our UNICEF Rights Respecting Schools Award work. As we are now an Academy Trust one of the early pieces of work is for the school community to revisit it's aims and values and ensure that these are agreed, communicated, and lived up to by all.

One of the best sessions in international work is the twin opportunity to network with colleagues and school leader organizations across the world, and to visit local schools. At the 26th Limassol Primary we were presented with Cypriot dance and song. In a quiet moment afterwards I congratulated the music teacher who then rushed off and copied for me with great pride a CD of the songs from an original school recording. It will remain the highlight of the trip, and I will showcase the children's work on several occasions. This resonated with a visit several years ago to a school in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand where traditional playing by Primary School children of the soot and the elegance and expression of their dance impacted immensely on those watching.

So do SATs tell all the story or increasingly indeed any of the story.....and the Finnish Heads - always lauded by successive Governments as the top of the PISA league table reacted with horror at the prospect of testing at 11 years. They believed that as this would distort the curriculum it would reduce the effectiveness of their schools!

Keynote speech to the South West Region

2010-11-24T19:52:00.003Z

I'm immensely delighted to be National President of the NAHT.
I'm the 3rd President from Swindon following Matt Cammish, and Arthur Burke-Jones in the 1970's. Matt is in his 90's and was my own Headteacher at Secondary.

I had a wonderful working class upbringing in the 1950's and 60's and can remember a time before a television arrived for the 1958 Cup Final
My father and grandfather worked in the GWR. My Mum made the decisions for the family. There was always food on the table. After the privations of the second world war that was essential. The journey to freedom through the sacrifices of those who fought in that war are only too well understood last week, and some Royal Navy shipmates of my Dad's laid down their lives for it.

For many years when I was a child my Mum sat in bed early on a Sunday morning using beautiful copperplate writing and sums to ensure the bills were paid each week. I grew up thinking that there was a shop called 'apro' as Mum would come home with a pair of trousers or shirt and check if it fitted. It wasn't until I was much older I realized that she would go to the Co-op menswear in town and buy clothes for me 'on approval'.

I lived in a town which had a highly skilled workforce and was a world leader in locomotive technology. It had extensive adult education programmes, and more voluntary societies per capital than anywhere in the Country. In many ways it was idyllic. We always realized however that there was a glass ceiling, and this was largely based upon education. Even comics of the time reflected this division. We had Alf Tupper tough of the track who would invariably defeat the effete character from a privileged background who expected to win races on status alone. Unfortunately, this did not always reflect life and the 11+ condemned many at an early age.

How times change? Well last year only 12 children from free school meal backgrounds made it to Oxford.
There has of course been a meritocratic revolution. My generation - and I'm 60 - was the first to have the opportunity to go into higher education and even be given a student grant. Although it can be argued that a graduate's potential earning power should require a contribution through tuition fees, we should be careful not to restrict access at a time when the Country needs to invest in it's children and youth.
It faces a challenge from international systems of education. It is a challenge we have to meet if we are to have the freedom to flourish.

I want to take you on a journey. Where should we start?
Well according to the OECD PISA studies of international comparisons - and often quoted by our Government - a top performing Country is Finland.
I was speaking with a group of Finnish Headteachers on Saturday. There is no external test in Finland prior to 16 years old. The Finnish Heads said that their Ministry of Education was considering introducing tests as an easy accountability. It might be easy but it is sloppy thinking and the Heads were unanimous in condemning such a move as they felt it would distort the curriculum and encourage teachers to teach to the tests.

Returning to our journey. We live in an interdependent world, but we have we have to ask what about another of our competitors for future contracts? Singapore. In a Singapore Primary of 1500 pupils one of the classrooms had a complete wall as a computer screen set up as Singapore Harbour in the second world war.

Pupils can gain information by touching the screen, and place themselves as a second life style character in this scene and for example ensure survival or try to effect an escape. They can also do this at home with their parents. This technology is part of a project where the Ministry of Education and innovative companies are harnessing such state of the art technology and ensuring schools have the opportunity to access and use it. Michael Gove dispenses with BECTA. Where is there the thinking in the UK about harnessing cutting edge technological companies and schools? Is the interactive whiteboard the limit of our classroom world? Of course it
is not just having the technology, it is what you do with it that counts. Our challenge as a Country is not just to innovate, but to look to children developing those skills, attributes and values that the future world will require. Even the CBI recognizes that a list of historical dates by itself will not make you an effective team player. I do though appreciate the need for children gaining core cultural knowledge. My 23 month old son is effectively using a computer for fun and can actively read 50 words. We also swim, sing songs, enjoy stories, and go to football, but I want his school to access the best technology. By the way it means I have to work until I am 81.

So what about Canada? Ontario is a major Province and the Superintendent of Schools can and does rotate school leaders. That means families moving to another part of the Province. The UK Government is moving down a greater autonomy route. Autonomy in our Country has been hard won and is jealously guarded. The new autonomy does provide challenge and opportunity to the NAHT and to schools. The NAHT is going to kitemark a Services to Schools provider for support services such as HR.
We need a NETWORK system for professional development. In Ontario, 95% of professional development for school leaders is undertaken by school leaders. I've often marveled at the brilliance in many of our schools. How often do we visit each other and see this. We need to capture and share it. The NAHT could facilitate this. We need local/national and international networks of schools. We also should consider how we resource the time and workload involved and ensure it doesn't fall on already busy shoulders.

In Australia, the Country has largely escaped the major ravages of the recession and decided that it would keep its employment and activity in the economy up by providing one classroom or library for each school. The disadvantage is that, as with Building Schools for the Future, was bureaucracy and inappropriate matching with individual school needs.

We are told that Charter Schools in the US are the way forward and that the linked FREE SCHOOL model from Sweden is the way forward. NAHT National Council is about to take a view. At the very most we would want to see the 16 schools already announced be evaluated as a pilot. The potential for duplication in a time of austerity, and having a negative effect on surrounding schools is significant.

In South Korea high attainment rates disguise a very high teenage suicide rate that we would not accept.

The NAHT is currently conducting some research into these comparisons.

Prof Andy Hargreaves and his team at the Lynch School of Education in Boston supported by the Institute of Education in London is about to realease some work on Performing Beyond Expectations - businesses, sports clubs, and Schools - that are exactly that, and teases out key attributes and features for success, including:

High fidelity
Fraternity pride community
Fairflow courage
Fallibility try risk
Friendly rivalry with other schools. Work together - assist each other
Fusion lead
Feasible growth shallow not built sustainable
Culture and collaboration
Use resistance to innovate
Fast and fair tracking sample testing important not summative
Charismatic legacy
Fortitude perseverance courage
Counterflow unexpected
Connect to the past and an inspiring future
Firm foundations
Fight for what you believe in
If you are depressed then sort it out.
Fundamental future
Fear can't deliver Henry V before Agincourt. How you respond to it is vital.
The destination is a dream not a number.

The Spirit Level by Wilkinson and Pickett published by Allen Lane identifies that unequal societies such as the UK and US do worse in a whole series of measures.

So to be a Headteacher I think is the best job in the world. To be a Headteacher in my hometown gives me great pleasure, but it also is a continual reminder that we are largely accountable for our children's life chances and that is an awesome responsibility. When things go wrong we must expect quality support from peers.

So the message to the Government is thank you for the freedoms, but that there is more to a league table than a list of numbers. Do not cherry pick on the basis of political expediency, look beyond the Daily Mail, and instead celebrate the excellence of much practice including school leadership, in this country.

Our challenge is to ensure we raise standards still further by opening our doors to one another and share this practice. Perhaps the South West could lead this revolution.
This then will give us the freedom to flourish.

2010-11-02T13:49:00.001Z

September
Meetings included a whole range from Branches and Regions to the Secretary of State in the DfE. A regular meeting is the NAHT with ASCL to discuss school leadership issues together, and both with the NGA to get a Governors perspective. This can lead to concerted action, but at the very least is a forum for considering particular issues.

I attended the Party Conferences of the Lib Dems, and Conservatives, and colleagues went to Labour's. This is useful for party activists and MP's to find out more about NAHT policies and discuss the educational landscape.

The 22nd saw Goddard Park become an Academy under the outstanding converter academy programme. This is another stage on our journey as an inner-area school of excellence. We feel we are in a position to further improve our children's life chances by becoming independent of the Local Authority, whilst having a cordial relationship. We remain part of our cluster group of schools. Our accountability is to our community and this is reflected in the five Trustee positions which reflect each key stakeholder in our school community inlcluding: parent/staff/community/Chair of Govs/Headteacher. Our Governing Body remains the same except we have one LA Gov out of choice and more from the school community. The retained LA funding comes to us, but we do not have one pound of other school's money - otherwise we wouldn't have gone down this road. Also we protect and invest in our brilliant staff, so all national pay and conditions remain in place. Will this help our children? I certainly hope so. We will reflect on it's impact.

It is now accepted that National Council go to the President's Region for one of it's meetings each year. I chose Bath for the South West. I trained at what is now Bath Spa University. Veronicah completed her B.Ed (Hons) there last year. Council met in the Macdonald Bath Spa Hotel - no not part of that chain..
It was instructive that it was £3,000 cheaper than meeting in Central London! A key debate was on SATs as I've already referred to. There was a Council Dinner in the Pump Rooms with external speakers for and against the notion of Free Schools.

A very busy September would become a hectic October. James continues to thrive and I want to come home each night whenever possible to spend time with him.

Freya

2010-10-30T10:22:00.004Z

September held a key date of personal pleasure for me.

On the 9th September my daughter, Sally, and her husband Dan, had their first child - a girl, Freya. My sixth grandchild came in to the world with a cute nose and bringing great happiness to the family. Val, Sally's Mum, would be overjoyed with both our girls now having their own families.

Freya - born on 9th September 2010

2010-10-30T10:21:00.000Z

September and SATs

2010-10-29T20:24:00.004Z

The intensity of work as President has precluded writing for some time so I'm going to review September and October here and try to keep up thereafter if at all possible in real time.

September saw an external issue which needed the Association to take a clear view on.

My view of National Council is that it has members who are expert and experienced in school leadership. They represent all strands of opinion in the membership. Any organization of this type, size and responsibility has great challenges in synthesizing the vast educational landscape and it's effect upon school leadership into clear concise policies that can be communicated to members, the media, parents, other groups, and the wider society whilst having an influence on Government and an impact upon it's legislation. One key way forward to assist the very good work of the Officers is for Council to have thoroughgoing, well-informed debates with clear outcomes. This means in my experience speaking to precise Motions rather than allowing debates to have ambiguous outcomes.

At September Council it was decided that the major debates would involve the Association taking a position on SATs, and Operation of Council. Due to the length of debates, 'Free Schools' would be separately debated later in the year. The structural alterations to trial a new methodology of working of Council to streamline whilst providing quality information sessions, followed by debate and decision were passed. The key debate was as expected on SATs.

The Labour Government had failed to recognize the incendiary nature of this issue.
Conference had voted in 2009 by 94% to 6% to call for action if having exhausted all other avenues the Government had failed to act on removing the current SAT regime. Further Consultation had produced similar results and a ballot for Industrial action gave a clear majority. Despite many increasingly desperate attempts to pressurize school leaders 4005 schools took action with the well-wishes of many thousands more.

The new Government realized that this is a significant issue. Russell Hobby our new General Secretary underlined the need for a fundamental change to the SATs approach whilst still reaffirming that school leaders accepted a wider accountability. Following discussions with Russell and myself, the Secretary of State announced a full Independent Review of KS2 Assessment, but with a sting in the tail that SATs for 2011 would go ahead. This then was the background for National Council to take a considered decision on behalf of the membership. The detailed a far ranging debate covered all arguments and a range of positions. The outcome was decisive. By 34 votes to 2 National Council agreed not to call for action on the 2011 SATs.

There had been no motion to Conference on SATs due partially to timing with the boycott taking place ten days later. Even so, the key argument seemed to be that any Government should be given the chance to take the right action, and an Independent Review due to report in the Spring -although there would be no guarantee that this would come up with the desired outcomes - offered a sensible way forward. For some colleagues, who thought they would never see SATs again this was a bitter pill. The link we must make however is that there would have been no Independent Review without the action last May. Although the Secretary of State would not make such a link he has acknowledged the strength of feeling of School Leaders on this issue.

Part of encouraging Council to be decisive is then to communicate such outcomes to the Membership and media. Russell Hobby and I sent a letter to Members detailing the Council decision. Throughout September and October I have raised this issue at the several Branch and Regional meetings I have attended. This has led to a lively debate. My e-mail and postbag has also been fairly full. Most Members have responded positively once you are able to engage.

We now wait for the Chair of the Independent Review to be announced and work begin.

2010-10-29T15:57:00.002Z

Well what a Summer it was.

The first Coalition Government since 1945.

4005 Schools with KS2 cohorts boycott the SAT tests. These tests disfigure and distort Year 6 for our children, lead to school leaders being placed under intolerable and inappropriate pressure by inspection teams, and provide ineffective information for parents, secondary schools and national trends. There must be a better way. We hope the new Government will listen to reason on this.

The Government did move quickly on legislation to provide greater autonomy for schools -starting with those judged as outstanding by OFSTED. These were termed converter Academies and would be state-funded independent schools run by Trusts and leave local authority or similar control. They would receive their share of the local authority retained funding. This received the support of the NAHT providing such schools were socially inclusive.

Goddard Park began it's journey to a new freedom providing it remained in the family of schools, and retained and developed it's partnerships. This was the start of an extremely busy summer.

......and to HQ.

2010-05-27T20:57:00.000Z

It feels a long journey to HQ in Haywards Heath from anywhere beyond London. This is probably because travelling across London by Underground quickly loses its uniqueness with familiarity. My second full week as President started with chairing the monthly Strategy Group at HQ. This Group is made up of the National elected and senior employed Officers of the Association. It looks at key issues – both internal and external – facing the NAHT and takes its lead from National Council and Conference policies and decisions. Strategy Group ensures effective monitoring of progress of Association priorities and business between Council meetings, and that Council is fully informed of this in order to make informed decisions when charting our direction.

We have a dedicated HQ workforce who are skilled and knowledgeable about supporting school leaders.

On Monday night I arrive at The Valley for the League 1 Play-off second leg, Charlton Athletic v Swindon Town. Swindon are leading 2-1 from the first leg. Having watched the Town for a documented 57 years it’s ‘in the blood’ and I meet up with several friends as over 3000 Swindon fans arrive at the match. After an action packed 90 minutes and extra time, with each side down to ten men, the teams are tied at 3-3 on aggregate. We are now in a penalty shoot-out with the winners going to Wembley. Town are notorious for their poor penalty shoot-outs, but what’s this, the Charlton captain misses and the Swindon players keep hitting the back of the net. It’s the last penalty and Steven Darby, a fullback on loan from Liverpool, has the chance to send us through.

In front of nearly 30,000 he steps up and scores! Pandemonium breaks out and the Swindon fans trumpet the ecstasy, and the Charlton supporters in virtual silence, the agony. We are at Wembley on 29th May. The Town players and fans share fifteen minutes of undiluted pleasure. As we leave I do a three-sentence interview for GMTV, which it seems every child in my school sees.

On Tuesday it’s the Operation of Council Task group. Excellent debate and engagement leads to a positive direction of travel in trying to ensure our National Council is the most effective it can be when representing 28,500 Members. The ideas that have surfaced will be reported back to Council in June.

Later in the week I meet with Carole Whitty, our former Deputy General Secretary, to discuss some members having access to the SSAT’s Leading Practitioners in Enterprise for identified staff in their schools. Carole’s husband, Tony, has just been inaugurated as Mayor of Totnes in Devon. I’m sure he is going to have a great year.

I attend Secondary Committee on Friday, and we interrogate funding, accountability and curricular issues such as Diplomas facing Secondary colleagues. This is a very good meeting and we set ourselves clear tasks.

There has been vibrancy about the week.

Our Chair of Governors checking progress

2010-05-16T18:26:00.001Z

First full week as President of the NAHT

2010-05-16T18:01:00.002Z

Monday 10th May is the start of the NAHT and NUT SATs Boycott. I’m approached by a wide variety of media, and undertake three radio interviews and several newspaper interviews from across the Country.

On Tuesday 11th, I travel to the Royal Commonwealth Club in London for a meeting in the morning with ASCL (Association of School and College Leaders). This looks at developing some joint positions on issues such as accountability, and funding. We are joined by the National Governors’ Association for the afternoon session. Discussion includes the future role of School Governors; and information about the rather sad berating of Chairs of Governors whose Schools were taking part in the SATs Boycott. My own Chair of Governors characterized this as being ‘bullied’.

Train to Manchester on Wednesday, to take part in interviewing candidates for the new post of NAHT Director of Operations on Thursday 13th. This post is designed to be responsible for the day-to-day operational concerns of an organization serving 28,500 Members and a further 11,000 life Members, and will be line-managed by the General Secretary. It will enable the General Secretary to concentrate on key issues relevant to the Association. A very good field. After a fairly exhausting day we (Stephen Watkins, Jack Hatch, Margaret Evitts, Russell Hobby and myself) arrive at a decision and await a response from the selected candidate - which is a Yes. Arrived home Thursday at 10.15pm.

Catching up on Friday with preparation for next Monday’s Strategy Group meeting at HQ in Haywards Heath, West Sussex. The Strategy Group meets monthly and is made up of the National Officers: President, Vice President (Chris Harrison), Immediate Past President (Chris Howard), Treasurer (Jack Hatch), General Secretary (Mick Brookes), General Secretary Designate (it is Russell Hobby’s first official day of working for the NAHT), and invited senior staff. Media interviews continue throughout the week. Several further invitations arrive for meetings and speaking engagements. I’m also working on writing two articles, and following up letters from two Branch Presidents.

My first full week as President is set against the SATs boycott, and the construction of the first coalition UK Government since 1945. What will the next week bring?

Some members of Goddard Park choir and staff at Liverpool

2010-05-16T17:57:00.000Z

Presidential Speech to 2010 NAHT Annual Conference

2010-05-11T09:12:00.001Z

Presidential Speech to 2010 NAHT Annual Conference

2010-05-11T09:07:00.002Z

Presidential Speech to 113th NAHT Annual Conference.

My Conference theme of freedom to flourish is based upon the urgent need to ensure the power-holders in our society recognise that the creeping centralization of education in our Country has had its day and we should move forward to release the talents and creativity of our children so they can succeed with the lifelong challenges that will face them.

We also should challenge the growing fragmentation of our school system and it becoming a marketplace.
Freedom itself was well understood in previous generations, but more recently it has been seen in absolute terms.
Freedom to allow the weakest and most impoverished to go to the wall is unacceptable. I see freedom from child poverty as a key aim of society. Freedom must have a moral imperative to it.

In educational terms it is essential that every child, and every school, have the opportunity to succeed.
The question is: will this come from draconian measures that denigrate many in league tables, will this come from calling schools failed rather than in need of targeted support, will this come from hounding out Headteachers who have given their whole careers to encouraging children and raising standards of performance and then expect this to be an attractive post for Deputy and Assistant Heads to aspire to. What Michael Fullan calls ‘high stakes vulnerability’.

When I sat for the fifth time in my career waiting for the last 30 minutes of an OFSTED Inspection in February this year, and the final judgements I was with my Deputy. She knew the Inspection had gone well and I asked her if she now wanted to go for Headship. Her answer was a clear and resounding ‘No’. ‘I never want my career on the line for what we might hear in 30 minutes time’.
There was no answer to that, as I have known excellent Headteachers who have suffered such a fate. Assessment has to be proportionate, fair and supportive. Accountability should not be destructive by being permeated by a lack of trust.

Data is very important but it has been elevated to an industry in its own right. We must regain its context of assisting in identifying children’s progress and then support intervention and good professional development when necessary.

Reductionism plays to the sound bite and trite headlines. Our schools deserve better.
There is a rather sad view from Government and some of the Oxbridge-educated elite, that parents are unable to comprehend a few sentences to indicate the progress of a school. The idea of a School Report Card poses a challenge to us. If a school is to be reduced to a single letter then this should be opposed root and branch. It would, of course, feed into a whole new league table system with the A’s to the F’s.

However, a School Report Card with a wider range of weighted indicators, and identifying trends over time is something worth negotiating. Schools are complex places and even to capture a range of indicators and weigh them requires careful and professional engagement between educationalists and those who have a meaningful grasp of statistics. Although the construct will be difficult the outcomes could be a well-rounded and accessible Report.

We hear a lot about Austerity
If we think front-line services are well-funded then why at a recent meeting of local Heads one explained how she was a dab hand with the boilers and her deputy was A* at unblocking the drains when the caretaker wasn’t on duty. Another Head spoke of the financial work she had to engage with, as there was no money in the budget even for a shared bursar.
We must expect that all Heads receive effective support for their role as of right. The Workload of school leaders is immense and these posts require effective support in all phases.
• This should include good direct and personal administrative support for Headteachers as of right.
• Our default position should include the time to read, think strategically and visit other schools as part of the job. This is essential in sharing good practice.
• How much resource has been wasted in the last thirteen years on quangos and consultancies. One major private consultancy went from having 43 major contracts with the Department in 2003 to 141 major contracts in 2007. Did any one of these raise standards in any school, did anyone of these teach a child to read, and to read for pleasure?
• We must retain the investment for schools.
What about key support from the wider educational field? Whilst the GTC has yet to capture the hearts and minds of the profession it should consider focusing more on its core business which is not professional development, and completing its work more expeditiously. The National College – and it is important to have a National College - now talks of Schools as quote ‘Outlets’. Why doesn’t the National College insist with local Governance that it broker bespoke support for every School leader where aspects of performance cause agreed concern. It is far too in the thrall of exalting the latest fad of structures and models of leadership than working with all existing leaders. School leaders don’t need Chain schools or outlets, they need effective advocacy and appropriate support.

Rather than tackle the issue of recruitment we are now hearing that Federations are the panacea. Two years ago I had the opportunity of running two schools until a new Head could be appointed. I would suggest that with additional non-contact time for Deputies, the savings being suggested are illusory; apart from the immense pressure it can place on Heads. If a Federation is part of a bottom-up approach and retains a school presence where otherwise it would disappear then a case can be made. As a major instrument of Government policy it is a fig leaf.

Autonomy is multi-layered. In essence it should be about not a market culture, but a collaborative one where schools support and inspire one another. It is the ability to place decision-making at a level where it counts and makes a difference. This has had more effect than many misplaced initiatives, because it liberates professional thinking and action. We should guard this autonomy carefully. In many parts of the world, from Canada to Kenya, Headteachers are regularly rotated and moved without choice by provincial or district education authorities.
This often happens when a Head has worked in a school for four or five years. Research suggests Headteachers are particularly effective between years 4 and 7 in any school.
I’ve been a head for 24 years so I must have been effective at least a couple of times.
As the advert states ‘everyone remembers their favourite teacher’ and I would add everyone remembers their Headteacher

What do we deduce from this? For the last 13 years successive Governments have attempted to run schools, the curriculum and even classrooms from the Department in Sanctuary Buildings in SW1. I don’t believe they understand Local Management of Schools. As Bernard Levin said, ‘the less the power, the greater the desire to use it’. They have invested heavily in expensive quangos to do their bidding and second-guess schools. This amateurish command and control approach has had its day so what do they do - try to blame Headteachers and Schools. Well it won’t wash.

There are some congratulations to the Government
On investment, and, for example, with Children’s Centres. This is an excellent example of a Government working at its best. It realised the lack of joined up services for 0-4’s, and it has rolled out a programme embracing both statutory and voluntary sectors with a core offer and message. Where Children’s Centres are run by Schools or work in close harmony they have been particularly successful in early intervention and removing the inhibitors to learning.
Now though you place a blight on this success by making them subject to heavy handed OFSTED Inspections and we have another accountability industry set up, providing a major distraction for staff and parents.

The challenges with Society ahead include:

• The quick fix. Building and maintaining a good school takes time. Seeing a quick data fix by pushing children through hoops does not embed learning. We must move away from the football metaphor of saying that unless the manager achieves promotion this season then they should face the sack. On that basis we would see the departure of many more Secretaries of State. There is the need for effective and continuing professional development that resonates with the school culture.

We have simplistic messages going out from the Media and this reflects a failure of governance by the Government. In the Times in March an editorial suggested that OFSTED had indicated some 40% of children at the age of 11 ‘could not read or count at the level expected’ and then carried the message that the Government would have a ‘guarantee that parents could sack failing Heads’.

The Culture of celebrity
The celebrity based and all-embracing sound bite media in modern life elevates the shallow. It does not encourage taking on the difficult or hard tasks, which might not be immediately rewarding. It does not encourage perseverance in the face of adversity. It does not encourage positive risk taking. It does encourage the soft option of gambling. It does encourage children to be grown up before their time and in the loss of childhood and innocence that this means. Consumerism needs to be balanced with the real. Spending time at a football match with your child rather than always seeing it on television. Going swimming together, or having a picnic, has to be encouraged rather than just the latest fad on the games machine.

We also have the evil of drugs – we require fresh thinking – what has been attempted to date by successive Governments has failed and the spectre of drug dealers near the school gates must end. The market in drugs must be destroyed. Too many young people are ending up in the criminal justice system to feed their drug habits. A Magistrate friend estimates that 60% of cases before him are in some way drug-related. The burgeoning prison and young offender institutions are a testament to this failure. As with racism we need to be part of the answer. Schools play a vital role in community cohesion, but we must expect others to be partners with us in society.

Professor Andy Hargreaves speaks of parental responsibility. I would expect any future Government to echo this. We must expect parents to be full partners with schools and to support our work. The creation of a Local Commissioner to hear parental complaints again moves in the direction of lacking trust in schools and Governing Bodies.

The NAHT defends its membership – most LA Officers and OFSTED Teams are fair and professional - and fortunately the vast majority of Parents and Governors are challenging but supportive – but the message must go out loud and clear that the Association can no longer tolerate its members having their careers at the mercy of rogue elements and will take these people on - if necessary in the Courts to end the culture of the ‘disappeared’.

Is there hope in the Election Manifestos?

A hero of mine is Dickens
The other night I had a dream, and in it there came the clunking of chains: followed by three spirits

• The first was a vision from sanctuary buildings via Keble College, Oxford
It was the Secretary of State.
As we know the number of colleagues applying for Headship is very low so what are we going to do to make it more attractive? He and his closest advisers put their collective wisdom together and came up with:
Yes let’s introduce parent votes to remove school leadership teams that’ll do the trick.

• There followed a vision with a full mock up of sanctuary buildings via Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
It was the Shadow Secretary of State.
There has been huge structural change in schools and public sector funding will be very tight. What does the education system need? He and his closest advisers put their collective wisdom together and came up with:
Swedish-style free Schools, which will allow all and sundry to set up and run schools and take critical funding away from the rest.

• The third vision was someone with a rail ticket to sanctuary buildings via Kings College Cambridge
It was the hung-parliament Secretary of State.
The blame culture has a demoralizing effect upon hard working teachers and school leaders. So what shall we start our manifesto with? He and his closest advisers put their collective wisdom together and came up with this introduction:
Too many children are still leaving school without the knowledge and skills to be successful. Finding a good school is a struggle, lessons don’t always stretch the brightest or support those who need more help…..

How far are our politicians away from reality?
We are offered more ineffective accountability, more structural change, and more blame.
My concern is that current and prospective Governments have a grad grind view of education, which is materialist in outlook and is designed for a bygone age. The Conservatives look back with rosy-coloured spectacles to a time when Ladybird books ruled and there was a policeman on every street corner. Well, Michael this did not exist for all and many children were condemned not to reach their academic potential by selection at 11. I work in a community where the average child has heard 17 million words and had limited experiences by the age of five, yet I live in a community where the average child has heard 50 million words and has had a wide range of first hand experiences by the age of five.

I would not suggest that materialism is unimportant to those without modern essentials. It is that we are not as a society providing the riches of mind or as T S Eliot put it: It is in fact a part of the function of education to help us escape, from the intellectual and emotional limitations of our time.
• The 1956 Doris Day song
• Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
• What will be will be
• The song did win an Oscar for best original song in a film, but its sentiment must be challenged.

Another hero who did challenge is Paulo Friere. Friere saw the struggle for popular education and informal education of adults as liberationist. He saw those without power in society transforming their lives. Freedom indeed.
Carmen was a 33 year-old mum with two girls living in an inner area community. She wanted to help in school. From this she became a Teaching Assistant and gained NVQ 2 and then 3, followed by a Foundation Degree, and a B.Ed (Honours) with six marks away from first class. Carmen took part in the Graduate Teacher Programme and received QTS. Her practice was excellent and she progressed to Early Year Foundation Stage Leader and is now an Assistant Headteacher.

That wouldn’t happen this year as with the economic downturn some are looking for shelter in teaching until the storm abates. We must remain a vocational professional with the highest calling.

It also challenges the education establishment who are involved in developing policies and initiatives. They must come from a wider spectrum of society. How many understand the searing experiences of growing up in some of our inner area communities. Last year, Oxford accepted 12 children from free school meal backgrounds.
To doff our caps in deference to power holders without accountability on their part can lead us to the Banking disaster, that is causing untold damage to private and public sectors in our Country.

The challenges of the next forty years are complex. The personal, national and global challenges of climate and environmental change and its effect upon the natural world including mankind are manifest. It is our children’s and grandchildren’s world we are custodians of. How are we preparing them for their decision-making?
• Or as Tamsin Elliott when aged 8 put it ‘The world is in such an awful state
When I’m older I’ll make it great
No more wars or pollution
How I wish I could find a solution.
No more oil in the sea.
But this won’t happen just because of me.
So I’ll find some people to help me,
And together, we’ll save the
WORLD!”

There are positive programmes such as UNICEF’s Right Respecting Schools Award, the Transition Towns movement, and the International Schools Award amongst others that assist children.

What does international experience tell us?
A common theme doing the rounds is that in forty years time Africa with the lowest wage rates will be the workshop of the world, South East Asia and India will be the businesses and entrepreneurs of the world, and Europe will be the pensioners of the world. Now Mrs Oakley in 1958 in Gorse Hill Juniors ensured that I knew this didn’t cover the whole globe, but the theme is still relevant.

Singapore has some Primary Schools where whole classroom walls are covered in a Computer screen and children can place themselves as characters in the Second World War in Singapore harbour, and gain information and make decisions as they participate. They can also do this from home with their parents engaged as well. What I would give for that in Swindon, with its heritage of the Great Western Railway, and other areas of the Country for children to engage with the past, but with learning for the present and future.

Benjamin Disraeli stated that ‘Upon the education of the people of this country, the fate of this country depends’.
We look forward to an interdependent world, but must also think through what the UK vision for excellence in that world should be.

That vision, excitement and engagement cannot be created or communicated through the structural changes, league tables, and the dead hand of command and control from Sanctuary Buildings. Nor can it be developed through a fragmentation of schooling where structural change will no doubt favour the metropolitan chattering classes to the detriment of every other child who will have larger classes and fewer resources.

It is interesting to be compared with Finland. Finnish teachers have class sizes of no more than 24. They have a fully comprehensive state system. Have Ministers checked their assessment regime with no external tests until 15. What they do is liberate their school leadership and provide additional development funding to all schools.

There is often referral to PISA and similar international comparisons of academic attainment between Countries. The two features that stand out are firstly, UK children coming near the bottom of the well-being comparison. Although there is much hand wringing it has led little practical response; and secondly, there is much more disparity within Countries than between them. Parental occupational status and socio-economic background has a much greater effect on student performance, than whether you operate an education system with different structures.

These then are some of the challenges and inhibitors to progress.

So what are approaches and culture we need for success?

Trust is vital. As Andy Hargreaves states, Active trust. We have to be persuasive in developing this. Local stakeholder governance is essential. We start from a positive base. Surveys indicate that parents have high trust in their Headteachers. We believe in hope, and have relentless optimism for our children.

Mutuality This is an old co-operative word, but it suggests that there are shared interests, which should encourage partnership and being connected in a landscape where schools collaborate on working together rather than remain isolated in unfettered competition.
Most Parents send their children to their local school. Some voices are now contemplating a lottery for secondary places as the only way forward. As Ted Wragg said, ‘The idea that the market place takes care of quality by itself is one of the most bogus arguments that (has) emerged’.

Schools not structures. Deal and Paterson suggest that:
Of late far too much emphasis has been placed upon reforming schools from outside…while policymakers…are pressing for new structures…..too little attention has been paid on how schools can be shaped from within….excellent schools can be at the heart of every community, schools which teachers and the vast majority of parents can ensure are positive, caring and intellectually challenging’.
We must then trust schools and school-leaders to raise standards.
Successful school cultures have leadership emanating from many people – authentic leadership that maintains and supports learning for all children as well as learning for all staff. Successful cultures have leaders who know how important schools are to children and want to make them the best places they can be.
Early intervention is vital. This cannot be compromised, and should be enhanced.

Schools are organic as with all organizations. Over a few years we can be on top form some of the time and pretty good most of the time and occasionally have a hiccup. Just at the time the school might want some support which if carefully and jointly targeted and accepting of responsibility, is effective, instead, along comes OFSTED and instead we get a punitive, clunking fist which demoralises rather than enthuses.
Christine Gilbert talks of raising expectations and then only uses the big stick to do this.

We should remove the blame culture and celebrate success
School leaders and teachers do not walk into schools each morning and say ‘how am I going to lower standards today?’ We must challenge Government to stop directing schools from the latest tabloid headline or sound bite discussion on breakfast tv.
Ministers should understand that Waterloo Road is a fictional series not a documentary.
We share the vision of every school, a good school and stretching the minds of the next generation of children.
There is a challenge for the media here. Be courageous and celebrate our children’s effort and success. You are part of their well-being as well.

Ensure schools are subject to fair and effective accountability.

Tim Brighouse and Ted Wragg identified the need for an inspection system that provided support and less destructive pressure.
What do we need to achieve this?
Well it is here. It’s The NAHT Charter
Fair accountability, and real accountability as in our Charter. It accepts that we are accountable to society and parents in particular, and ensures that accountability can support progress not hinder it. This is not a soft option. It is rigorous and ensures that schools can become in Sergiovanni’s phrase, ‘Communities of responsibility’.
We need to build a consensus around the Charter as the way forward. It is a developing document.

We must however, work with our democratically elected representatives to develop and construct a better understanding.
They must in turn listen to and engage with School leadership prior to pouring out more legislation and regulation.
Irrelevant and bureaucratic initiatives such as ‘licence to practise’ should go.

Now I wish to turn to the future of the NAHT.
I am proud to be the President of an Association, which stands up for its Members and for the children of this Country.
We are in a period of change, and I would like to give sincere thanks to the work and leadership of Mick Brookes as our General Secretary. I will return to that theme tomorrow, but for now, I would also like to praise the dedication of Branch, Regional and National Council post-holders who give dedicated service week in week out for the benefit of Members across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. We have an able and high quality team of paid staff at Headquarters, and I would like to mark the tragic passing of Ian Foster a former Council Member and latterly an Education Officer at HQ, whose wit and friendship is much missed.
In the field our Regional Officers ensure the best information and representation is available without any comparators in the land.

So where now:
Whilst we expect Government to create a fair and equitable playing field and conditions for success, we should also look to ourselves.

From another hero, JFK, I turn to say - ask not just what your Association can do for you, but ask yourself what can you do for your Association?
To build upon the excellent foundations of service and support should come professional sharing and development. In the Ontario Principals’ Council in Canada, 95% of continuing professional development is led by school leaders themselves.

We should consider that amongst our 28,500 members there is a tremendous amount of expertise to share. How often do we have the opportunity to go into each other’s Schools to see excellent practice? I have seen a state of the art programme on learning to read in a Hampshire Primary, a brilliant web-based school development planning and progress toolkit in Cornwall, innovative early years outdoor play in Corby, thought provoking international engagement in Treherbert, music to raise the soul in a school in Belfast, sporting prowess in an East London High School, a Special School providing fabulous opportunities for children with severe learning difficulties in Swindon, creative dance in a Gateshead Primary, and if I want to know how Diplomas are funded then I have to weave my way to Plymouth to speak with a Deputy Principal who certainly does know!

These are a small sample of the many thousands who could share and gain from such practice. Let us make the NAHT the vibrant natural home of sharing this. We are considering whether the Education Conference in the Autumn of each year should be its pinnacle and entitled ’Sharing the very best practice’, and we need you to nominate school leaders in your area – sometimes yourselves – who could assist in developing this.
A second and allied theme is communication and expertise. Our website continues to develop and we now have the means to set up Communities of Interest, for example: the Early Years Foundation Stage, or Design and Technology, or in ICT perhaps Social networking: friend or foe? These Communities or Forums are a great opportunity to engage online with colleagues, again to share best practice. We need Forum Leaders to develop areas of interest. This will compliment our excellent printed professional publications.

The third area I want to mention is debate, discussion and representation.
We should be confident about debating education policy and providing the school leadership view to influence future thinking and making strong representations on proposed legislation.

…..and that leads me to move to how having made the professional case, and winning the educational high ground with widespread support from Parents, Governors, and Researchers, and even the House of Commons Select Committee, it would be foolish of any Secretary of State to ignore our position on assessment. Last year, we offered to work with the Government to end the iniquity of SATs.

SATs which in particular humiliate school leaders through league tables, and leads directly to the disappeared: those Heads whose lose their job directly due to the use of SATs data as the basis for Inspection. I now have excellent former colleagues, in one case running a bed and breakfast guesthouse in the West Midlands, and many others sitting on imposed early retirements through the blandly termed, but professionally deadly ‘compromise agreement’.
We are also stuck on the moral dilemma of having booster classes for those on the margins of Level 4 or additional support for a ‘C’ at GCSE. Why aren’t all children in a booster class?
As parents know the stress for 10 and 11 year olds is palpable.
Why, if is it acceptable for 5 and 7 year olds to have their teacher assessment moderated, and SATs disappear for 14 year olds overnight and no-one notice,
is it acceptable for 11 year olds to have their final year in Primary distorted and disfigured.

As John Coe, from the National Association for Primary Education, reported to the NAHT Commission of Inquiry, the SATs testing and league table regime is unfit for purpose and deeply damaging to the quality of primary education. It is unfit for assessing children’s progress, for assessing schools, and for assessing national standards.

Despite exploring - and exhausting - every avenue to try and negotiate a way forward, we have met a brick wall. Secretary of State, we advised you last year not to test our resolve on this issue, well the NAHT membership has spoken, as it has the right to do so in a democratic and pluralist society, and has voted for the first time in decades, to end this iniquity for you.

Michael Rosen shares a poem with the sense of optimism in life starting with understanding the terrible experiences of children in the Lodz ghetto in the second world war.
Today
The rain has died
My shoes have died
The sun has died
My coat has died
The earth has died
Today

One day
The rain will flower
My shoes will laugh
The sun will sing
My coat will fly
The earth will dance
One day

We look forward to discussing a new approach to accountability, based upon the NAHT Charter, to be considered by Conference today, and underpinned by thoughtful work such as we heard from Professor Andy Hargreaves on the Fourth Way this morning. This accountability is not a soft-option instead it is an effective and professional one. One, which our children, and Country deserve.

Whoever is Secretary of State on 7th May we to invite you to engage and negotiate with us.

Let us have 24,000 flourishing Schools with children who we – that’s schools, parents and local communities - want to communicate the will to work and the desire to learn. Let us have real partnerships. To enable freedom to flourish continue to give the real front-line the resources we need, remove the blame culture, and trust School Leaders and teachers, the best ever school leaders and teachers, to enthuse, excite, and enable, our children to be the very best they can be.
Then the earth will dance.....

James

2009-12-15T23:11:00.003Z

...and just over a week later on 13th December 2008, Veronicah and I were blessed with a wonderful baby boy, James Mugo Michael Welsh.

Ted

2009-12-15T23:07:00.003Z

On 5th December 2008 Zoe and Sven had a lovely baby brother for Miles, Ted - my fifth grandchild.

Goddard Park and Ferndale TD Day

2009-12-15T23:06:00.000Z

Ferndale Christmas Fayre 2008

2009-12-15T23:04:00.000Z

Ferndale Senior Leadership Team

2009-12-15T22:59:00.000Z

2009-12-15T22:53:00.001Z

Ferndale OFSTED

2009-12-15T22:39:00.001Z

Along came OFSTED after 7 months and 3 days of being a Community Primary School. All the data was from the predecessor schools. The Inspectors tuned into the Can Do culture being developed and the positive improvements we were getting from the children. They said some very kind in the Report about the outstanding work of the Head and recognized the good work of the SLT and the staff. The Foundations were being laid. A school making positive strides with 327 children.

...and along came Ferndale.

2008-08-06T20:23:00.003Z

The phone call came out of the blue. It was mid-May and fifteen minutes later the LA Director was sat in my Office asking if I would consider becoming an Executive Head i.e. Headteacher of two Schools: Goddard Park, and now also Ferndale which is due to be a Primary in September on the amalgamation of the current Infants and Junior Schools. Ferndale just happened to be my own Junior School from 1959 to 1961, so it was no contest really, and after meeting with the Governors and the blessing of my own, a year's agreement was set up. My working week now reaches 80 hours and climbing. Brilliant support from the retiring Junior Acting Head, Judith. Thank you. There is an enormous difference between an amalgamation and a successful amalgamation. Creating a new School - in this case Ferndale Community Primary School - requires in depth work on staffing (especially a good set of drivers in the new Senior Leadership Team) and a new and positive culture, raising confidence and a level of excitement. This has also to pervade children and parents. A new school colour/uniform/learning environment helps establish a sense of identity. I'm very pleased with the response I'm getting from Staff (new and old)and Governors, and there's a palpable sense of positive progress from the Parents I'm meeting. Had a great awayday with the Staff. Still a lot to do and achieve before September, but we have momentum. Did someone mention a summer holiday?

Rovar, Norway

2008-04-16T21:09:00.000Z

Took a boat from Haugersund in western Norway to the island of Rovar. It was about 30 minutes, and then arriving on an island of 100 people. Rovar School has seventeen pupils aged 6-16 years. As it happens most are currently boys. The dedicated teachers enjoy the small numbers and can really personalise learning. The older children were engaged on a topic about WWII. Each of these five pupils took their own themes such as Anne Frank, or Norwegians who suffered in the occupation. The School is due to take part in a European Comenius project with up to 14 other schools.
The School had contributed a great deal of research in the island Museum which focuses on a tragedy. 30 islanders were lost when their boat sank on returning to the island from a funeral. This decimated the community for many years. Herring fishing had been a major industry, but tourism is now a significant earner. Local people are justifiably proud of the island and its heritage, but recognise that youngsters often want to spend time in Haugersund. Thank you to Marit and Marit and the rest of the staff for a compelling experience.

Time, time, time...

2008-01-31T21:11:00.000Z

Apologies for not posting recently, but time pressures remain intense. The last six months have been very busy with major changes at school including a new playground; the Adventure Zone. This was the result of the Schools Council finding out what the children enjoyed and thought could be improved in school. They tried out play areas in other schools, interviewed three companies, and made a presentation to Governors. The Zone is working well. It opened at the same time as the introduction of Huff and Puff sessions of small play equipment. With the Astro multi-use games area this makes for a rotation for each year group to access the Zones. Other areas include quiet seating areas. Now we are looking to develop further garden areas.

OFSTED

2007-07-12T15:49:00.000Z

Well we waited six years for our OFSTED and it arrived in June 2007. After being a 'good school' in 1997, and a 'very effective school' in 2001, together with outstanding for our extended services in 2006, we received the 'phone call and started the couple of days lead up to the latest forensic Inspection. We were absolutely delighted therefore to be identified as 'a good school with eleven Outstanding features'. This was an immense boost for our children, staff and parents. It reflects the commitment, professionalism and impact the school is having in its community.
The Governors - who were termed Outstanding - have organised a celebratory drink this Friday when staff can let their hair down.
.....and the Head, well he was termed 'inspirational' in the OFSTED Report, so he will be joining in with a glass of wine as well.

An amazing journey.

2007-06-13T08:50:00.000Z

Well from being in School on Tuesday of half-term i received a phone call about an emergency with our twin school in Nairobi and they wanted me there urgently. So Veronicah made all of the bookings on Tuesday night and on Wednesday morning I was on a BA flight to Jomo Kenyatta International. On Thursday I met with the Trustees and later in the day we appointed a new Headteacher and Deputy Headteacher to the Desai Memorial Primary School. This was key point in the school's history and I have been going to Nairobi for some nine years now as part of a lifetime commitment to 400 of the poorest children each year in the Kawangware slum of western Nairobi.

Whilst in Nairobi I met up with my wife's family and it was great to see everyone. I also met up with Deiter and his delightful partner, Lorna. We had a very pleasant lunch at his flat in Westlands on Saturday. I arrived back at Heathrow at 6am and was in School for 8.30am.

In School at half term

2007-05-29T13:18:00.000Z

In school today with Mrs Mann, Mrs Chivers, Mrs Godfrey, and Mrs Millin together with several other staff. It would be good for the general public to know how much 'holiday' time staff actually spend in school working away to prepare for the next term and make it a successful one for our children.
Our Rainbow Garden is flourishing and is the first of several gardens in school which the children through the School Council are helping to develop.

The blackboard

2007-05-25T17:10:00.001Z

Children in our twin school, the Desai Memorial Primary, Nairobi, moved from one rented ste to another in 1998 taking anything they could carry with them. Peter James took this photograph, and then the boys walked straight into a stall scattering all and sundry. They were very excited about the school surviving.

4 + 4

2007-05-25T17:00:00.000Z

Moving into the term break we are fully staffed for September with four new teachers from a high quality field.

Rwanda and back

2007-05-25T16:46:00.000Z

Bev Mann, Deputy Head, is shortly on her way to work with a school in Rwanda. She will be there for twelve weeks as part of a NAHT/VSO national pilot: 'International Extended Placements for School Leaders'. The staff and children are looking forward to hearing about her experiences.

The FA Cup Final

2007-05-18T12:26:00.000Z

The one day of the year I have to be collected by my daughter, Zoe, after enjoying the annual tradition of a few drinks and a good lunch with football mates in a pub in Malmesbury, Wiltshire. Last year's Final was the best for many seasons so Man Utd and Chelsea have something to live up to.

Heidi and Andy commit again

2007-05-17T20:29:00.000Z

Heidi and Andy repeated their recent West Country wedding vows in Andy's local Dunfermline Abbey. It is always good to visit Fife and next day we went to Pittenweem and saw the trawlers in the harbour. These were back from unimaginable hardships during fishing trips around the Faroe Islands. I adore Cod, but we take for granted our fishing heritage. The demise of the fishing fleets also comes from coping with land-based hardships as in quotas and financial pressures. We live in fast-changing times.

The telephone call

2007-05-17T20:06:00.000Z

Telephoned by a colleague Head and NAHT member (this happens between 4-5 times a month). Having a real difficulty with over zealous and misguided Governors failing to support her. They should back the professional judgment of the Head. The Head has legal responsibility for the day-to-day organization and management of the school within strategic policies agreed by the Governors (not individual Governors!). A good relationship between Head and Governors is essential to the positive development of schools. Heads have an exposed position, yet are key to children's attainment and achievement. The Governors need to show a duty of care towards the Head.

Interviews

2007-05-17T19:49:00.000Z

Yesterday was the start of 'Interview season'. In a rare occurrence (even with a 430 pupil Primary) we have more than one vacancy as some staff are moving (New Zealand, Stoke-on-Trent, Bournemouth, Spain) mostly to live with partners. Their expressed sadness at leaving is quite genuine and we shall miss them. So its Job Specs, expensive adverts in the TES (Times Educational Supplement) and less expensive adverts online (e-teach).
Interviews include Governors as a key part of the process. Each short-listed candidate has to demonstrate the practical craft of teaching as well as an in-depth interview searching theoretical understanding, practical approach, and most importantly attitude and emotional literacy.
The last is vital in that we can teach people the skills and craft of teaching, but what is far more difficult is to change attitudes to the positive, to have team players, and to develop children’s attitudes in the same way: to encourage a love and thirst for learning, and being independent learners.
We have started to grow our own teachers now with a route of personal endeavour and fulfilment. Carmen’s journey included City and Guild's in English and Maths Level 2, NVQ2, NVQ3, Foundation Degree, B.Ed (Hons), and now Graduate Teacher Programme. Shortly, she will be a fully qualified teacher with several years experience as a teaching assistant, and higher-level teaching assistant. The girls football team she helps out with have just won the schools’ league. Her work with young children is electric, and the children in her class will make very good progress.
This illustrates what Goddard Park is all about: everybody learns, everybody cares.

Choir

2007-05-15T22:48:00.000Z

Miss Davis and Miss Biston were working with the school choir after school. Just as I entered the Hall to see what they were singing I heard the dulcet tones of 'Oh Shenandoah'. The children were surprised to see me joining in. I first sang this as a fifteen year old in the legendary David Shepherd inspired pantomimes at Kingsdown Comprehensive, Stratton St Margaret in the mid-1960's. The choir followed this with 'What shall we do with a drunken sailor,' another timeless sea shanty and one which they clearly enjoyed.

Superstars

2007-05-15T22:44:00.000Z

A brilliant set of letters from some children in Years 5 and 6 to tell me how much they are enjoying using and being challenged by a new computer program: educationcity.com A collegue Head in Wigan put me on to this and the pupils agree.

Gay Meadow

2007-05-15T20:17:00.000Z

Last night's Shrewsbury v Milton Keynes Dons League Two play off game was the final match to be played at Gay Meadow before a move to their new stadium. I remember travelling with my family when Swindon Town played there in the 1950's. We went by Rimes Coaches with the other fans including a refreshment stop in each direction. When the ball went over one stand it landed in the River Severn and a man went out in a coracle to collect it.
I went there this season with my wife, Veronicah, and we were pleased to come away with a 2-1 win. Although I am sure the facilities, access, seating and sightlines will be much improved, the working-class heritage of the Gay Meadows of English football are often missed, in the move to slightly soulless 21st Century arenas. Perhaps in time they will develop their own style and character.

The first three hours

2007-05-14T19:57:00.000Z

6.00-6.30am Watch BBC Breakfast to check on the school issue of the day (sadly, its child cancer today)

*7.45am Arrive at School
Say ‘Hello’ to Breakfast Club
Switch on computer and connect new printer lead
Find 27 e-mails and deal with six most pressing ones
Speak to three Class teachers
Receive breakfast of All Bran and raisins
See Site Supervisor to check on any weekend concerns and arrange setting up of new television
Check SAT papers are intact
Go to coffee bar and see Family Support Worker
8.40 children start school. Greet Year 1 and 2 children.
8.45 See Parent and friend about alleged playground issue
9.00 Go to Year 6 and give pep talk to our 60 pupils before first of
KS2 SATS tests with Science Papers A and B
9.30 Meet with Deputy Head, Assistant Head (Extended Services),
and Bursar to go through the week’s school business
10.00 Go to each of the four early years education and daycare rooms.
Real confusion in the Butterflies room as some children say, ‘Hello Mr Welsh’, but as my grandson, Miles, is in the room he calls me ‘Bampy’ as now do some of the other three year olds – goodness knows what will happen with this increasingly clever lot when they get to Nursery and Reception. One child went as far as ‘Mr Bampy Welsh’ last week! Staff could hardly contain themselves.
Congratulate member of staff on brilliant ‘sea’ display.
10.20 Check and sign twenty two authorisations for curriculum,
premises, catering and extended services expenditure and invoice payments
10.30 Coffee while writing letter to Parent about premises concern
*10.45 Observe breaktime.
Many short conversations and telephone calls along the way.

Left school at 6pm
Read and write for two hours.

Mother's Day

2007-05-12T21:00:00.000Z

Florence Lilian Edith Welsh was born in August 1909 in Swindon, daughter of George Wiiliam Price and Florence Agnes Price. She was second oldest of eleven surviving children. My Mum went to Clarence Street School. As a child she was both clever and adventurous, coming down the steep Victoria Road on a bicycle with no brakes. She left school on a Friday and on the Saturday became the under under Chambermaid in the Gloucester Hotel on the front at Weymouth. In the early 1930's she met my Dad, Arthur James (Jim) Welsh when he was in the Royal Navy in Portland. They married, and after Dad went off to serve in WW11 she eventually moved back to swindon with my brother Jimmy. As the men were absent from many posts in the Great Western Railway, women took over several rail jobs. My Mum became part of a team cleaning engine boilers. At another stage the family took in evacuees. After the War and having had me as part of the baby-boomer generation Mum continued with her career as a Cook with long-term work in Swindon's Isolation Hospital and later The Crown, a Berni Inn. She brought up my niece Carol as my sister from the age of four days old. I remember Mum had beautiful 'copperplate' handwriting. She also enjoyed snooker and darts on the tv having herself been a Swindon Ladies Team Darts Champion. She was a great supporter of Swindon Town Football Club. As a grandmother she loved seeing her grandchildren. Mum died in 1988. She is much missed, but never forgotten. Keep cycling Mum!

'Fracture'

2007-05-12T20:47:00.000Z

Anthony Hopkins is always a good performer, and in his latest film, 'Fracture', he doesn't disappont. It is though that rather intelligent, clever personna, of a driven 'Lecter-style' character. The plot is in itself clever, with only a small fall in pace in a couple of places. Josh and his Dad were on their way to 'Spiderman', so it was, "Hello, Mr Welsh" and a big smile, which I always find pleasing. They joined a very long queue!

Teachers TV

2007-05-12T19:07:00.000Z

Teachers TV were filming in Goddard Park this week. They interviewed children, staff and parents trying to gain a view on whether Every Child Matters and our Extended Services had measurable impact on our children's attainment. The outcome was that there was no simplistic relationship with say SAT results. The most encouraging material was based around individual case studies of where progress by children had been directly related to either high quality early years education and daycare or engagement by parents with family learning programmes. Other positive work is attached to the work of specific staff as with speech and language therapy and the removal of obstacles to learning. A whole day's filming will probably result in 10 minutes programme content. As usual the children simply cotinued with their work. They are very used to visitors! Channel 4 are coming later in the month.

Official opening of the Year 5/6 Suite by the Mayor

2007-05-12T09:48:00.000Z

Speech to NAHT National Conference May 2007

2007-05-12T08:16:00.000Z

The NAHT calls upon the Government to reword its priority for the next Comprehensive Spending Review as ‘Schools, Schools, Schools’.
To achieve this it needs to:
1. See standards now rise even further through a reduction in the
command and control of central prescription and structural change.
2. Reduce the amount of wasted expenditure in the failed regimes of major consultancies and ‘quangos’.
3. Lever up school-based expenditure, and reduce disparities amongst schools throughout the country. Enable school leaders to ensure that every child has the opportunity of attending a good school. That is real parental choice.

SATs SIPs Early Years Foundation Stage Trust Schools Performance Management 14-19 Curriculum 21 Education Acts in 21 years Extended Schools Modern Foreign Languages
Academies New Primary Strategies Schools Sports Partnerships FMSIS
RAISE online new OFSTED, and 47 new Initiatives facing Primary Schools, and 54 facing Secondaries. The command and control of central prescription is ever present and increasing. It is now causing many schools and children untold harm. High-stakes testing is one example. It doesn’t have to be this way.

In her address to the International Confederation of Principals in Auckland in April, Helen Clark, the Prime Minister of New Zealand ruled out national assessments and consequent ‘teaching to the tests’ as derogatory to good educational practice. Not many DfES Ministers or senior civil servants were around to listen.

This command and control mentality affects local authority services as well. One of countless recent examples is where some auditors are now expecting Governing bodies to produce minutes that record which individual Governor said what in order to prove financial probity.
Where is the Trust?

There is no doubt that we have to congratulate the Government for the resources they have put into the education system and that schools have had real rises.

It is also true that we as a Country expect much from our schools. It is a pity we do not expect more from our parents.

On the debit side of Government, lack of transparency, double counting, and new initiatives poorly thought out and ill-resourced, and even more structural change continue unabated. This is no longer acceptable.

It could be persuasively argued that in its first phase central prescription through the production of national curricular and standards was of significant assistance to the education of our children. This is now no longer the case. Sir Ken Robinson has spoken of the great need to allow schools to be creative. True personalization cannot be introduced by decree. Isn’t it amazing that we have to have a national Implementation Review Unit at all? Schools have become the testing ground for the latest wheezes of Ministers/senior civil servants/and of the major consultancies.

In his Easter address, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor criticized modern Britain’s ‘now generation’ culture. Too often people expected everything ‘almost instantaneously’, he told an Easter vigil at Westminster Cathedral. It was noticed that not many DfES Ministers or senior civil servants were found to have taken part in the vigil.

There is now the prospect of businessmen and women being fast-tracked into school leadership. What is the first thing they will do?
Surround themselves with PA’s rather than TA’s. We must strive to
win control back so that the education of our children is a partnership of teaching and learning.

Government is now wasting substantial resources in centralized prescription. As the rate of educational spending is due to slow significantly from 2008 it is vital that they recognize that schools raise standards not sanctuary buildings – a very apt address for the DfES.

Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Let us now look at those who have plundered educational expenditure to date. Over half of such expenditure fails to find its way into schools. Why? Well what does the data tell us?

Examples include a culture of not trusting schools, so for Extended
Schools we have the former NRT - now TDA Development Group requiring local authorities to employ people to send back compliance traffic lights on how many schools are signed up and working on the
Extended Schools agenda.
Or the £12 million given to SERCO those well-known prisons to military hardware group to lead a consortium to raise capacity in local authorities to support Extended Services. Talk about the unspeakable leading the unknowable. Place your trust in schools.

According to data I gained through the Freedom of Information Act,
the DfES has 43 Centrally Managed Consultancy Frameworks and it just so happens that between April and December 2003 43 major contracts were issued.
However, in 2005 this had increased to 124,
and in the financial year just finished there were 181.

If it was Desert Island discs the major consultancies might choose the following as their favourite song:
‘You’re just too good to be true’.

Price Waterhouse Coopers, KPMG, Ernst and Young and the others must be rubbing their hands with glee.
I am not saying that perhaps some of those working in the consultancies used to work in the DfES.
I’m not saying that some of those who work in the DfES used to work in the major consultancies.
I’m not even saying that they went to the same school or belong to the same club.
I am just saying our children deserve those resources.

Less central prescription and less reliance on the major quangos and consultancies would enable school-based expenditure to be levered up.

This would in turn assist in addressing the need to reduce the significant disparities of how schools are funded between different authorities and within those authorities themselves.
Why is a child worth so much less in some areas than others?
Clearly, there are particular needs in London and the major conurbations, and also to address special educational needs and social deprivation, but why so many other disparities?

The following examples are from George Phipson’s Section 52 analysis (for the year to March 2005) are for Primary pupils, but a similar picture is present for Secondaries.
Lincolnshire £2527
Swindon £2593
Dorset £2690
against a National Average of
£2823.
A 250-pupil school in Dorset would receive an extra £34,000 if funded at the National Average. In Swindon this would be an extra £57,000. In Lincolnshire, this would rise to £75,000. There are many similar examples.
Why so great a disparity across the Country. Doesn’t Every Child Matter?

We need creativity not control.
We need quality not quangos.
‘It is time to trust schools.’
Mike Welsh

Swindon Town get promotion

2007-05-12T06:50:00.000Z

As fans of teams in the playoffs nervously watch each 90 minutes (and sometimes extra time and penalties) there is a sense of accomplishment in Swindon gaining automatic promotion back to League One. This was not one of the great seasons for the Town, but we made it at the last. For once it was our defence, with Jerel Ifil outstanding, who brought us through.

It is interesting to see that the previous season's relegated teams filled the first four places in the league. Is there a new gulf opening? I feel for the supporters of Boston and especially Torquay who have drifted into an ever-competitive Conference. Great to see the almost village-supported side of Forest Green staying in the Conference. A good new ground as well.
The Premiership may have the money, but we have real football and usually much more penalty area incidents. Still with Liverpool in the Champions League Final - and the last occasion was one of the best games of all time - the FA Cup Final, and the play-off Finals still to come I'm looking forward to some good action and exciting matches. Paul my son-in-law, a Notiingham Forest fan - home and away - will be following the play-offs to se if they can make it to the Championship: good luck Paul! Forest's manager, Colin Calderwood, a former Swindon Captain, has taken them to the brink. Some tough matches to navigate.

With Oxford losing in the semi-final of the Conference play-offs (apologies to my friend Ian Foster) it is sobering to think of the days of Robert Maxwell's crass idea for a Thames Valley Royals outfit. Look at Reading's astounding progress in comparison to Oxford.
Well it will be interesting to see how Paul Sturrock remodels Swindon to take on League One opposition.

2007-05-11T21:29:00.000Z

Teaching Applicants

2007-05-11T21:12:00.000Z

Reading Goddard Park teaching applications in preparation for shortlisting.

Brown begins campaigning

2007-05-11T21:11:00.000Z

'Education is a passion'. The NHS is a priority over coming months.

South West NAHT

2007-05-11T21:08:00.000Z

I gave reports from last weekend’s National Conference in Bournemouth, and Swindon Branch. Skipton Financial Services made a presentation. The meeting took place at The Tiverton Hotel. Colleagues come from as far as Cornwall, Bournemouth, Dorset and Gloucestershire.