The challenges

I think schools are facing more challenges than ever before and certainly from a broader base too. The most obvious is the way pupil attainment is measured in raw terms by the very explicit reporting mechanism of 5 A-C including English and Maths. I question whether the National Challenge initiative helps. Other challenges include: the recruitment challenge and the incompetence challenge in a system that seldom calls anyone incompetent; the financial constraints, unlikely to let up anytime soon in the current climate; community cohesion; attending to emotional wellbeing, promoting healthy living, tackling parenting weaknesses etc etc. However, these challenges must be seen as fruitful opportunities as we lead beyond our authority...

Beyond authority continued...

Schools cannot and should not operate in silos, but need to increasingly look across and outwards. I recently came across Albert Schweitzer’s book Memoirs of Childhood and Youth. In this he has written:
‘We must not mix ourselves up uninvited in other people’s business. On the other hand, we must ot forget the danger lurking in the reverse which our practical daily life forces upon us. We cannot possibly let ourselves get frozen into regarding everyone we do not know as an absolute stranger.’
Schools cannot be ‘hot houses’ but places where ‘melting’ goes on—of dogmatic attitudes, of stubborn wills and of iron fists.

Leading beyond authority

Julia Middleton and Common Purpose have coined the above phrase and it has really resonated with me; it is about seeing the bigger picture, about taking responsibility for problems other than our own within society at large and sharing emerging effective practices. From my very little experience, I also believe that the community need to do more to instil better behaviour in students. I’m an advocate of members of the public picking people up on anti-social behaviour.
Julia Middleton talks of leaders who can create their own legitimacy, that see further, wider, deeper. It is crucial for our leaders to know how things work in different worlds and bring them closer together. Boundaries are blurring all the time—why can’t independent schools team up with challenging inner-city schools? It is not about right and wrong or about individuals but about making the world around us better.

January

It was drizzly, the wind howled; hail happened now and then and Thursdays dragged their heels: time crept and no light came, the air was full of water. Journalists bashed out their tired articles about the grimmest month—even day—of the year. The snowy chaos of early January just prolonged the agony when it came. Does anybody truly love anybody in January?!

Back to blogging...