A dot on the Raiseonline....

Imagine.

For the first 8 years of your life you were neglected and abused by everyone at home that was supposed to care for you.  This was normal life and you didn't know any different.  You didn't know that this wasn't how everyone lived.  You didn't even have any idea what birthdays and Christmas were.

When you reached school age you were supposed to be attending school but you didn't get taken there every day.  Sometimes there wasn't an adult sober enough or awake to take you.  You quite liked it when you were there but you didn't know how to please any of the adults and you sensed they weren't very pleased with some of the things you were used to doing at home.   Sometimes they seemed shocked.  Every time the professionals started digging into why your behaviours were different and your attendance poor you were enrolled at a different school.  Until your third one where a shining light of a Deputy/Senco got a gut feeling about you, and bravely acted upon it.  She didn't have much evidence, she took a risk.

Things moved fast as soon as the fragments of your life were joined together by the professionals. You were then whipped swiftly into care and placed in a temporary home.  You had no idea what was happening but it was really great not to have to forage in bins for food.  You still, even two years later, didn't really trust that there would be food.  You hid food and tended to spend any pocket money on food.  Sometimes even making yourself ill hiding and eating it all.  Your school at the time worked really hard on doing everything they could to support the changes and help you learn how to make friends.  You started to learn that you could trust adults but you didn't really trust that they liked you.  Sometimes you tested whether they did by shouting swear words and threatening them.  Sometimes they seemed a bit shocked and scared.  That made you feel sad and lost.  They always gave you a fresh start though and they told you that you were good at things.  You didn't think you were though.  You didn't really understand which things you were supposed to be good at anyway.

After the first 18 months you were moved to a permanent long term home.  You didn't understand that this made you one of the very lucky ones who had a wonderful family who wanted to do everything they could to care for you and commit to the long term.  You had your second ever Christmas.  You didn't understand and became angry and scared.  That seemed to make the adults sad and you didn't understand why.

You were placed at a local village school.  It was hard, you found the change confusing.  You were much taller than the other children but you were so very desperate to get into the role play area in the infant class.  Your level of learning was below that expected for a seven year old and you knew and could see how far behind you were.  But you started to learn that the adults at school would help you and work with you whenever you needed them to.  You started to get some lovely one to one sessions for learning and you really enjoyed those. You started to learn that it isn't a good idea to take a teddy bear everywhere.  You started to learn that whatever happened the adults around you at home and at school cared.  You started to learn that you were going to be fed, spoken to and cared about every day at home and at school.  No matter what you did.

You started doing some things to test whether this was going to stay true.  You started doing those things two weeks before SATs week, which you didn't know about of course.  The adults didn't find that very easy to deal with, especially the school ones, but they worked through it.  Because it did stay true.  The adults cared no matter what.

The first morning of SATs you felt worried and sad.  You got the idea something important was happening and it involved doing hard school work.  You couldn't do hard school work.  Your adults at home though supported you and fed you a good breakfast, made sure you had both pairs of glasses and allowed a small stuffed elephant.  Everyone was bringing a mascot that day.  You felt better.  At school you felt better again when your teacher explained that you were going to be sitting separately with two school adults you normally work with one to one so that you could think and not be disturbed. You wanted to give it the best go you could, and you did.  You felt proud that you only had to miss out four questions.  You told your teacher you were going to try hard tomorrow too.

                     ...................................................................................................

The child you have imagined joined a small cohort of year 6 pupils in November at a level 2C.  The child represents 14% of that cohort's results.  The headteacher knew that this would affect attainment results.  The headteacher decided that the child being in a small, nurturing environment was more important than attainment results and green Ofsted attainment data dashboards.

This is just one child.  Many schools have large groups of these children.  There isn't enough understanding by the floor target decision makers about what it takes to put a child like this back together.  And this child has a permanent long term home and so is one of the lucky ones compared to some children in care.  Most inspection teams now look at progress and look carefully about what is being done with children like this.  Ours certainly did.  But not all do.  The culture of fear that exists means that sometimes these children, who already have enough to cope with, are even further disadvantaged.

Wasted Investment? Why do so many teachers leave the profession in the first 5 years?

I have been wanting to get involved with #blogsync for awhile now and am glad to make my first contribution.  This month’s is a vital topic and one thatpushed me into getting involved in more than intention.

 

BBC news recently reported that numbers of teachers in theUK leaving the profession is up by a fifth on the previous year.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-20585457   In2010 it was reported by The Guardian that 50% of newly qualified teachers hadleft the profession in the first five years. Teachers leaving the profession is a concerning issue.  The focus of Department for Education answersto the question of what to do about teachers leaving the profession alwaysseems to shift swiftly to how they are going to provide more teacher training.  How a range of professionals from military to financial can be trained in order to sortout this problem.  ‘Teachers are leavingthe profession?  Train some morethen!  Just keep training them!  They’re still leaving?  Train different ones!’  It’s almost a little ‘yes minister’ to mymind.  

This brings me to the idea of investment.  With ‘wasted investment’ as the title tothis; what, how and in whom is the investment? The initial investment is being made by the bright eyed aspirationalwannabe teacher.  Me 19 years ago,thousands of those that dream of teaching and of making a difference.  Thousands every year.  I dreamed of being a teacher.  I didn't go into the profession because of perceived job security, because my parents wanted me to or because I was unsure what else to do.  I count myself lucky there that my aspiration also turned out to be something I could do but it still took investment from me.  More than ever before for aspiring teachers that investment isfinancial, course fees, the cost of living and all of these factors weighheavily on that choice, on that aspiration. Then there is the investment of work. Getting the grades needed to embark on that journey toward thedream.  Clocking up some school hours andmaking sure you enjoy the education environment and the company of the dearyoung angels, and those not so angelic!  The investment of making sure your behaviour is appropriate out of university, the realisation and acceptance that there are certain social passtimes and behaviours that are off limits for aspiring teachers.  Particularly in the age of camera phones and social media.  Then there’s the investment of pouring your heart and soul into 3 or 4years of training, if not more.  Workload like you’venever known, being told that it’s only the tip of the iceberg as far asworkload goes!  I remember being unsureif I’d make it to the end of a 9 week teaching practice never mind a 14 weekterm as a teacher.  But the stamina beganto build.

Is that the way workload investment looks now?  Do students invest enough?  I hear far too many stories, and haveencountered situations myself, where students just don’t seem to understand oraccept the workload.  I have even beentold ‘But it’s my weekend!’ by a student on final placement.  Unless there is that level of realism and buyin then a young teacher can’t expect to build the type of stamina needed forthis profession.  Eventually they willhave to do all of that work and perhaps manage their own children and homes andeven endeavour to have a life!  They mayeven find they become a teaching Headteacher with two small children and thenstamina is most certainly needed!  One ofthe most common causes sighted by teachers leaving the profession in thearticles I read was ‘burn out.’  If youcan gradually build that stamina and be taught about workload management that ‘burnout’ can be prevented.

How do Initial Teacher Training Institutions give thismessage about workload?  In my experiencesometimes they are not fans of the tough conversation and that can tend to fallto the school.  On too many occasions Ihave seen students repeating and repeating teaching practices to get throughand pass where myself and other schools have raised concerns about whether thisperson has the level of skill and resilience to be part of this profession.  To be successful at the whole job of ateacher and therefore to be happy doing it.  ITT providers are up against it as studentscan take action against their ITT provider if they fail.  There is, as with so many situations now, a hugeamount of student right and far less student responsibility.  I have seen many successes related to ITTproviders but they tend to be where the student has some level ofprofessionalism, drive and work ethic.

To put it into the analogy of a building, if the foundationsare weak the building will eventually crumble and corrode.  Particularly if it is further buffeted by theweather.

Now to think about that ‘buffeting.’  I am not a person who thinks our job isharder than the job of other professionals. I don’t do the job of another professional but they all have pressure,workload and accountability.  Howeverthere is one key difference to our profession and that is this.  Most people have been to school.  This means that most people feel qualified tohave an opinion about school and education and therefore our job!  Further compounded by the media and the factthat we are paid public money.  It isn’tcomfortable to feel ‘owned’ and this feeling can quickly transfer to ‘hounded.’  If then there are other factors ‘buffeting’ anew teacher who is still building their resilience and stamina to the workload,the pupils (and the germs!) then no wonder that young teacher begins toconsider leaving the profession.

Pupil behaviour is a commonly cited cause for youngteachers leaving.  I read some realhorror stories researching this blog.  Ididn’t enter this profession with the confidence and presence I have now.  I was pretty shy, I barely spoke.  (Yes really!) A young teacher needs to know that if a pupil swears at or threatensthem then they are doing that to every single adult in the organisation atonce.  And that the pupil will then betreated as though that’s what they have done! I started with 4 year olds so I had a raft of different difficulties tobeing threatened but in my first school, and in fact in every school I haveworked in since including the one I’m Headteacher of, every child is ALL of ourchildren.  All of the time.  This same approach also works with difficultparents.

I’m deliberately not going into our inspectorate in thisblog.  I know it is sighted as a factorin teachers leaving the profession, but I believe it is the way theorganisation deals with the accountability system that is key, not theaccountability system itself.

Difficulty with colleagues is another commonly mentioned ‘buffetingfactor.’  It’s important to remember thatyoung teachers are also young adults. Their social skills are not yet honed and polished.  To put it simply they sometimes lack tact orthey ask dozens of irritating questions! The solution comes down to the same thing.  School ethos. This is set and constantly maintained by the Head and senior team.  This must be chosen, value based andconstantly adhered to.  If you unwittinglyengage in negative behaviours at the top they will bleed all the way throughyour organisation until it becomes a very unpleasant place to work.  When I say negative behaviours I mean thingslike unhealthy work life balance, gossiping, blaming people for mistakes andseeming panicky for example.  Ouryoungest and newest teachers, by the way, will emulate those behaviours themost quickly as they are looking to their leaders for how to be.  It’s not always easy as we are all humanbeings too but our behaviours must be chosen and positive.  As Headteachers we are the Grand Old Duke ofYork ‘when we are up they are up, and when we are down they are down!’

This blog is entitled ‘wasted investment’ but I also seehuge numbers of teachers leaving the profession as a wasted resource.  As a profession we are potentially wastingthe opportunity for a pupil to have a teacher whose personality reallyresonates with theirs.  I would beinterested in a psychometric study looking at the personality traits ofteachers leaving the profession to see if there are any common threads.  I would then be interested to see if thosesame threads are there in disengaged pupils. If our system is getting it wrong for so many young teachers then is oursystem getting it wrong for pupils with the same traits?  If so, then we are wasting the solution tothe problem for some of our disaffected youngsters.  And that really is a waste.

What if...

I don't think this blog will anywhere near do justice to how inspired I am nor to how much I have learned today but I'm going to give it a go!  The train is delayed so there's time!  It's tempting to feel cross about being delayed but am I not always hankering for more time to be still?  Well, here I am.  Still.  Looking at the beautiful Yorkshire countryside from the train window.

I have been to three inspiring places today.  The first was Springwell Community School in Barnsley.  I deliberately arrived early as I wanted the chance to look around and learn.  I want to provide, within mainstream school, as close to that which a special provision gives as I possible can so that we can remove barriers for our children.  I suspected, having met Dave Whitaker the head at Headsroundtable, that I would find gold in terms of ideas at Springwell and I was not at all disappointed.  It is a calm, quiet learning environment.  Soft music is piped around the building.  It is also colourful and vibrant.  There are wonderful break out spaces.  The learning is enthralling and all based on the needs of the pupils.  It has KS1-4 all in a wonderful cube shaped building with some truly amazing areas for learning.

Of course, I can't emulate the learning spaces, my school was built in 1857, but the ethos is after my own heart.  The staff are bright eyed with passion.  They are astute, articulate and very knowledgeable about removing barriers and enabling success for these children, and for one another as a team.  They are clear about personal strength, resilience and moral purpose.  There is fun and banter.  The curriculum is engaging and vibrant.  Staff are keen to chat and answer questions about their school. I have pages of notes!  When I have digested them all I shall write another blog about the potential to remove barriers and do as much as we can in mainstream to give our children that type of opportunity.

The second inspiring place was within my own mind.  It was that state one is in when really exciting learning is taking place.  There were so many links, and they were almost seamless.  From what Springwell do, to laughter, banter and engagement, to being read to by one of the best storytellers I have heard in a while, to early years creating an exciting and messy world of learning to music waves and brainwaves.  There was movement, emotion, laughter, music.

Sadly I had to leave early as my husband had a rather important phone call announcing visitors at his school first thing tomorrow morning.  He was an absolute brick when I had my inspection in October and I need to be there for him. Plus the kids are a little young to fend for themselves!

As I changed train in Sheffield I stepped outside the station for some fresh air.  And there I found the third inspiring place.  Sheffield Hallam university was bathed in bright sunshine and the words of the Andrew Motion poem 'What if...' were literally emblazoned on the side of the building.  The sight of it in sunlight is even more inspiring than the words alone.  I shall add pictures to this blog post when I have had chance to download them from my camera.  Here is the poem, really sums up the day for me.

What If..? by Andrew Motion

O travellers from somewhere else to here
Rising from Sheffield Station and Sheaf Square
To wander through the labyrinths of air,

Pause now, and let the sight of this sheer cliff
Become a priming-place which lifts you off
To speculate
What if..?
What if..?
What if..?

Cloud shadows drag their hands across the white;
Rain prints the sudden darkness of its weight;
Sun falls and leaves the bleaching evidence of light.

Your thoughts are like this too: as fixed as words
Set down to decorate a blank facade
And yet, as words are too, all soon transferred

To greet and understand what lies ahead -
The city where your dreaming is re-paid,
The lives which wait unseen as yet, unread.

Beautiful story

I love you little Monster by Giles Andreae

One evening, long after my sleep time Big softly crept to my bed and stretched out warm fingers to ruffle my hair 'I love you my darling' Big said. Now, Big must have thought I was sleeping and I didn't open an eye. Instead I just let the words float through my mind like balloons floating up through the sky. 'I love you my small,' Big continued 'But there's so much to do in the day that it's hard to sit down and make enough time to say all of the things I should say, and it's funny but now that you're sleeping and everything's quiet and calm the words seem to be much more easy to speak.' And Big laid a hand on my arm.

'You're everything I always dreamed of, you've got so much beauty inside, the way that you smile, that you laugh, that you dance makes my heart want to sing out with pride. You live as though life's one huge present, unwrapping a bit every day that's just how we all should be living, my love and look at you showing the way! And sometimes I know when I scold you, you feel that I'm being unfair. But please understand that is just out of love' Big swept back a strand of my hair.

'There are things in this life that can hurt you. They come to us all, that I know. But they give us chances to learn, darling small, and they give us chances to grow. So when you get knocked down my sweetheart look up at the sky without fear, for sometimes we need to be flat on our backs before starlight begins to appear. And please, above all else remember keep love in your heart little one. Reach out to the world like a beautiful flower stretches out to the warmth of the sun. It's the only sure way to be happy, the only sure way to be free. Believe in yourself and believe in your dreams and you'll be all you dream you can be. '

With that Big lay down on my pillow and planted a kiss on my head. 'My beautiful, wonderful, glorious child, you light up my world' Big then said.

With that Big crept out of my bedroom, turning round for one last little peep, I hugged my small pillow and smiled a big smile and then slowly I drifted to sleep.

Christmas miracles

I had some of the most wonderful moments of my career so far this afternoon.  Thought I'd share.  As we are such a very little school I am always conscious of not writing in a way that might identify a pupil.  Therefore I will refer to 'the child' rather than gender specific terms.  This might make things read a little oddly at first but is important.

It was our Christmas carol service this afternoon.  One of my favourite occasions of the school year as our whole school family and the community come together to sing and celebrate.  I always open it with a very short poem, usually one I have found about half an hour before and this year was no exception!  I then hand over to the children as it's all about them.

The first brilliant moment came early on, during Silent Night.  Two new children, who were too nervous to even stand up in last week's nativity, not only stood up with their class but sang too.  One child had hands over face but I could see the little jaw moving so there was definitely singing going on.  That was a massive step forward in a week. 

I then saw one of the best bits of positive behaviour management I have ever seen in my life from one of my staff.  We have a child who sometimes becomes very angry, the child isn't able to express feelings in words very well and tends to express with violent actions and curses.  Fortunately it happened during a carol so no one could hear the swearing!  The member of staff got right down to the child's level and quietly and calmly reminded the child to use words to explain the feelings of anger.  The member of staff then supported the child to do so and the whole situation was positively resolved before we even finished Calypso Carol.  No one other than the staff even noticed the blip.

The next brilliant moment came when another new child, who has come from some tough circumstance and changed school in a crucial year, stood up and sang too.  There was an obvious pride in the singing and I glowed with that pride too.  The same child had also been chosen to do a reading.  This is where I glow with pride for my staff too as the brilliant class teacher had taken calculated risk taking to it's limit here!  This was the first time, ever in the child's school life, that this child had ever been chosen to stand up and read.  At anything.  Thinking that one through a little further there have probably been many occasions where that child has seen others chosen and not been trusted to read.  I can understand why.  At an occasion so public the idea that nerves, pressure and a number of other factors might make a child suddenly shout or swear or both is a pressure on staff.  But my staff know that the sense of achievement and pride for that child when they manage it is worth every bit of that pressure.  The child did stand up and manage it, and very well indeed.  The sense of accomplishment and pride from the child, and the family, were obvious. 

When we are taking on a difficult to place child there is always a pressure because of the impact on results.  We have very small cohorts and floor targets are the same for us as they are for everyone.  I can understand the fact that some headteachers worry about taking these children on but that will never be a consideration for me, nor my staff when we are thinking about taking on a child.  Safety and the impact on learning for other children sometimes are, but never results.  Headteachers that avoid that impact on results though, will also miss out on that feeling I had this afternoon.  Knowing that your ethos and staff have created an opportunity and feeling of pride for a child where it hasn't been there before.  Knowing that child may well remember that feeling for years, maybe for ever. 

Happy Christmas.

Brave leadership

It seems I have volunteered myself to speak on this topic at the upcoming teach meet London event on 11th December at Greig City Academy. So I suppose I had better give some thought to it. I have lots of thoughts but stringing them into something coherent that only takes 7 minutes to say is going to take some preparation! The idea of me speaking for 7 minutes and being succinct produced what can only be described as a guffaw from husband! He has a point. I am not naturally succinct.

This is a point I need to get in somehow, read your audience. The lead inspector in our very recent Ofsted was a neat, methodical, succinct person. This was obvious in the first ten minutes. My anecdotal, passionate, heart on sleeve default style would have been disastrous! I had to stick to point and stay on message. It was essential to be sharp and clear.

Apologies at this point, this is not going to be a succinct, sharp blog post! I am gathering my thoughts in a foggy/bloggy cloud so that I can sift through them. Constructive feedback would be much appreciated!

I suppose that sharpness was brave, I know I'm not very good at it and it would have been more my comfort zone to be anecdotal. But it's essential to sell your school and there is a narrow window sometimes.

To speak at all at a large event would have been literally inconceivable to any of my friends and family when I was very young. I was elective mute until around the age of 5 although I could speak very well from the age of 2. I wold only speak to my mum and then only behind closed doors. At one point my dad used to go down the road to the phone box and ring me to say goodnight. I would speak to him on the phone!

I continued to be painfully shy throughout my school life. I had great friends, many of whom are still a part of my life and was never bullied. My school days, particularly my time at Dover Girls Grammar were a really wonderful time in my life. But I hardly ever spoke! Maybe that's why I got on ok with my peers, they could talk and they thought I was listening. I wasn't by the way, I was in my own world most of the time!

I chose to study at my local university and stay at home. Mainly because my dad was very ill by then. I didn't go out but made some good friends with other students who stayed at home. Mainly mature students, which I like to think gave me more perspective than I had before on careers other than education.

Things changed bravery wise when my dad lost his battle with cancer in my final year of university. I decided over the course of the three most hellish weeks of my life that the only thing to do was get on and do what I had always wanted to. Teach, make a difference, change the world in whatever small way I could. It wasn't the time for losing the plot, for falling apart. It was time to be brave. So I decided I would also speak at his funeral. I had just turned 21 and there were several concerns from my close family about whether it would be awful to allow me to put myself in that position. I was the girl who never spoke. It was unimaginable to them that I could ever do it. Mum knew I could though.

I read this:

http://www.deltaweb.co.uk/spitfire/hiflight.htm

Dad had his private pilot's licence and loved to fly. Reading it was a blur but apparently I read it clearly. Any time I have to stand up now and speak I know I can do it.

The appearance of confidence, not arrogance but confidence, is one of the essential skills of leadership. The rest of the organisation need to know that you are their figurehead. That nothing phases you. They also need to know you are human though, it's how we deal with mistakes that most often shows our true colours.

I have heard it said a lot recently that selling yourself and your school with your confidence in the first ten minutes is vital. Whether it be parent, community member, adviser or inspector. People said after our Ofsted 'You were so confident.' I know I appeared to be and also, lets not forget the confidence an amazing team of staff gives. Their work and dedication meant I knew what I said would be seen in practice. However, under the surface I felt like an athlete that had prepared for years for a performance and only the performance counted. Bravery was needed to override the fear of failure. To know and communicate through every pore how amazing our school is.

I don't want to make any of this about Ofsted really as it isn't. It's about me having a vision for making a difference 16 years ago. Then working, learning always, reading, meeting and knowing people, thinking...to build that vision into more. Into a school ethos, that is sustainable.

I had a great conversation last week with an artist and coffee shop owner about art as a state of being. Great school ethos is a piece of beautiful art. It's inspiring, it changes everyone for the better and it evolves. You have to be brave to create that and keep going when it feels like you're slogging away and getting nowhere. I read this at prize giving in summer 2 years ago when I was feeling like that.

http://brownbagchats.com/archives/14

What Ofsted has given is validation for that bravery. I am going along the right lines. Humility is also very important and brave leadership certainly isn't hero leadership. Anyway, here's the link to the report which I am very proud of everyone for.

http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspection-report/provider/ELS/118404

If you stuck with this blog to the end thank you! Be brave. Never be arrogant. Deal with mistakes proactively and honestly. Be yourself. Enjoy making a difference. It's the best job in the world.

Different strokes

I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to hear the swimmer Chris Cook speak recently. This was part of the build up to the Olympics for the children of our area as they had been part of a successful project called 'pass the passion' to get the Olympic torch to arrive in Dover.  He also met with the district school council.  His motivational work is based on something very close to my heart, keeping it simple. 

He tells a story about being referred to a sport psychologist in the lead up to the commonwealth games in 2006.  He was feeling overwhelmed at the time by the many different elements to training and nutrition and felt rather aggrieved when the psychologist told him he had an easy task.  When he argued about how difficult it actually was the reply he got was 'No, it's simple.  All you have to do is swim two lengths of the baths faster than everyone else.' 

This really struck a chord with me in relation to keeping school improvement simple.  It also took me back to my own amateur sporting days.  When rowing for our local senior four we had two basic adages.  'Don't pay any attention to what any other crew can alledgedly do, we can only do something about what we do' and 'start as fast as you can and then hang on by the skin of your teeth until we cross the line!'  In other words, in the famous words of my mother when we lost our first race of the season 'well, just row faster than everyone else!'  We did, and won the next 12 races becoming coastal amateur rowing association south coast champions. 

Chris Cook also told a fabulous story about winning gold in Melbourne in 2006.  His foot slipped off the start and it would have been the perfect excuse not to do well.  However he came back from far behind to win.  It doesn't matter where you start and what hampers your progress, it's determination and hard work that's the key.  Thinking about swimming then led me to compare the various swimming strokes to types of leadership.

In my first four years as a headteacher I have spent a fair bit of time trying out lots of different 'swimming strokes' of leadership.  Front crawl - where you can get up quite a bit of speed but your head is down apart from the occasional breath.  By the time you properly look up you find everyone else is floundering behind a bit in your wake.  Breast stroke - ok for the very experienced but I found my arms and legs got all out of time with one another causing clumsiness and confusion.  This stroke badly done as a leadership style commonly leads to muttered comments among staff about the right and left hands not knowing what one another are doing.  Butterfly - fine for the natural born swimmer but when most normal mortals try it we just look totally ridiculous.  Back stroke - relaxing but absolutely no idea what is going on ahead until you bump your head on something. Doggy paddle - hard work...and looks it!  As a child my favourite stroke was a sort of mixture of two.  Breastroke arms with front crawl legs.  Then as I became an experienced swimmer and practised more I found breastroke was fine and not so clumsy, and that sometimes I could do a length or so of front crawl if more speed and purpose were required.  Of course the stroke must be adapted to times where the waters are rough, or when the government switches on the wave machine.

It's well worth remembering though, of course, that swimming is fun and makes us feel good.  So does leadership.  Achievement in sporting terms is the best feeling ever, and so well worth the hours of training , the commitment and the sacrifices made.  Achieving the best we can as an organisation and pushing ourselves to the limit feels tough and too much sometimes.  However, it is also full of a sense of purpose and pride in the children we are doing it for.

Many thanks to Chris Cook for the inspiration and I will look forward to seeing him again at the Kent Headteacher conference in July.