Posts

Gunthorpe Curriculum

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Most of this post has been inspired from 2 sources- one being Curriculum Ed and Clare Sealy talk on boxset curriculum and the other being reading the book Legacy by James Kerr about the All Blacks.  I will start with Clare's talk which inspired me to think about how what we teach needs to be interlinked. This also reminded me of Tom Sherringham's the learning rainforest where we consider knowledge in schemas. I have always traditionally been more skills based as a teacher but this talk really challenged me to think about how when knowledge is clearly thought about and planned accordingly then children can make the links they need from previous learning to support them in their new learning. Rather than each topic being a one off episode (such as the simpsons) where you can 'drop in' at any point instead it is like a really good series (such as line of duty) where you need to know about the characters in order to fully understand what they say. Small, possibly seemi...

Leading millennials II

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Following on from my last post because the evening was in two halves it seemed to make sense to do the same with my reflections. We started this part looking at a model of leadership with relationships at the heart. It was made very clear that this model of leadership was not just specific to millennials but to all generations.  This reminded me of a conversation I had with another head about how she so valued the servant leadership model with love at the heart of all she did both with, alongside and for the staff and pupils within her school. Get those relationships right and the results come well. Underestimate or get relationships wrong and you may not even get to action let alone results. Because they look back...we move forward We discussed how anything that is considered static or institutional is not regarded positively by millennials and the impact of that on people’s perceptions on religion. Compared to perceptions and positive views on anything that seems dynam...

Leading millennials

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Last night St Luke’s church hosted an evening with Phil Knox who works for evangelical alliance looking at reaching young adults presented a conversation thinking about how to lead millennials and the changing landscape that businesses, churches and other settings find themselves working with and supporting millennials (those born between 1982-2000). In the church Phil referred to this generation often being the ‘missing generation’ who have never been involved in church as a child. I went along because, as a millennial myself I find myself leading those of an older generation but will also soon be a millennials leading other millennials and those who are post millennial. The opening comment around millennials being those who often find job satisfaction hard and look for instant gratification is something that I can certainly relate to with those who I know. Those who never seem satisfied with the job they have and are constantly on the look out for something different or better. We ...

Me as a leader

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in between the NPQH events are some webinars and the first of these was last week thinking about the topic ‘me as a leader’. It was really interesting to listen to somehow talk about their journey entering a school where they felt everything was against 5em. Where no one eBelieved in the children. Someone whose faith clearly made a big difference even though they were not in a faith school. The vision of living life to the full and all the Christian values that underpinned it was really inspiring. One of the things I keep realising are the differences I have experienced as a leader of a faith school compared to the community schools I’ve worked in previously. Experiences like my recent SIAMS inspection led me to wanting to remain in a church school for the foreseeable. However this webinar made me realise that perhaps it doesn’t have to be for me to take what I have learnt from being in a church school wherever I go in 5e future. It was obvious how working from the vision and values ...

Learning event day 2

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Romans 12:2 4-8 Be transformed by Gods renewing- God has placed me in this role not to hide my gifts away but to transform them. That being a leader is about stepping forward and showing others what God is doing. If your gift is to lead do it diligently- v8 what a challenge! My overnight reflections were mainly based on how: * People read me and know far more than I think.  * I need to take control of that and consider thoughtfully and prayerfully the change they will see when I return next week.  * To find ways to be a better servant leader.  * To focus on loving others, giving generously, to grow others. This led to me creating some Emerging leadership goals * to find ways to use key questions that I need to ask -to show vision is in practise and action within school * to feel more confident to answer those questions with gods help and to find different sources when needed * for both good teachers and great leaders questions are key!...

Learning event 1

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It is the morning after the first day of my first CofE NPQH module.  What a day yesterday was. It was jam packed full of fantastic thoughts, new ideas and information on the assignment. I am currently looking back through my notes after possibly the worst night sleep in a long time! So much for a good night away from the children, someone TV blaring until gone 1am, but never mind! So Jenny started with reflections on Psalm 23 and I loved the link to how it speaks of different aspects of leadership that we explored through the day. Andy Wolfe led us in a truly inspiring session on how vision can inspire passion and knowing SIAMs is coming up for us as a school I found this really helpful. Various documents that I hadn't seen were shared such as the ' Ethos Enhancing outcomes' and I will definitely be making use of the questions in these documents to make staff stop and reflect on new practise in light of the vision.  I also can see how it would be brilliant for gover...