Day 1: All Mouth and No Trousers

I’m sat in ‘my’ office. It’s day one. I’m in charge. The sounds of children, parents and teachers reverberate through the solid wooden door emblazoned with engraved plaque: ‘HEADTEACHER’. Why haven’t I got any bloody trousers on?

“I need a #Shero, I’m holding out for a #Shero ’til the end of… erm… term..”

My #sheroes are the wonderfully candid, supportive, non-pretentious, working women at my school (and elsewhere) who make me LOL on a daily basis. The kind of women who you walk a bit faster for to catch them on the car park at the start or end of the day.

‘No darling, Mummy isn’t Wonder-Woman’

In the run up to Christmas this year, I was perusing the children’s wear department of a well-known high street fashion store, when my 7 year old daughter pointed excitedly at a t-shirt with the words ‘My Mum is Wonder-Woman’ emblazoned in sequins. Now on any other given day of the week (and possible not during the week before Christmas), I might have yelled ‘Hell Yeah!’ and marched to the till, credit card in hand, but on that particular day, I don’t mind admitting that it really ground my gears.

Having it all. (The guilt that is)

Having young children is (mostly) ace, but it’s hard. Teaching is (mostly) ace, but it’s hard. Both together, hard squared.

‘Professional failures and what we can learn from them’ by Dr Jill Berry

Failure lies not in falling down, but in not getting up.

‘Great schools will find ways to teach key content that is relevant to the school’ by Lee Card

That reality to me, as far as the curriculum is concerned, is that great teachers in great relationships with their pupils and their colleagues will find great ways to teach key content. The great school in this picture will have established that the content will be packaged up in a curriculum that is centred on developing the personal skills and qualities of the learners and is relevant to the pupils themselves (I think that this has become known as ‘personalised education’ for some reason in the past ten years…I prefer the term ‘knowing the kids’).

‘Following The Rules Will Stop Your Career in its Tracks’ by Susan Ritchie

Have you ever watched as a colleague, or business acquaintance walks away with something that you had set your heart on? Maybe they’ve been offered an opportunity that you would have loved to say yes to, or they’ve spoken up, taken a chance and landed on their feet? Maybe you’ve felt that they always get what they want?