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Book Review: Stop Talking About Wellbeing by Kat Howard

Reading Time: 3 minutes Stop Talking about Wellbeing: A Pragmatic Approach to Teacher Workload by Kat Howard. Published by John Catt Educational Ltd English teacher, Assistant Principal and LitDrive founder Kat Howard has entered the field of teacher wellbeing books with this provocatively titled work aimed at teachers at all stages of their careers. Unusually, the book opens with […]

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I’m still standing – just a little further back

Reading Time: 4 minutes A guest post from @MrHtheteacher. I’ve been taking some time recently to reflect on my career trajectory and the changes I’ve made over the last few years following some tough times. A year and a half ago I agreed to take on a role that meant I was stepping back from the level I was […]

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Empowering teachers: terrifying for some, amazing for others.

Reading Time: 6 minutes ‘I find this terrifying. We don’t want them too empowered; they’ll all leave!’ – A Secondary Head Teacher in response to the Teacher Empowerment Event. “After attending The Teacher Empowerment event a couple of weeks ago, and realising that alternatives exist, I started looking/applying for jobs. After putting myself “out there”, I was contacted by […]

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An Exclusive Interview with Andrew Cowley, Author of The Wellbeing Toolkit

Reading Time: 4 minutes We caught up with Andrew Cowley, author of The Wellbeing Toolkit: Sustaining, supporting and enabling school staff, who shared his thoughts on affordable wellbeing, and not being recognised in Sainsburys (yet). What sparked your interest in school staff wellbeing? I suppose I have always had a deeply ingrained sense of fairness, something my grandmother instilled […]

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Finding time, space and empowerment

Reading Time: 9 minutes A guest post by @TeacherEmpower Wondering whether I was having a heart attack or a panic attack on the way in to work should have been a wake-up call. The next wake-up call should have come from the relief I felt when I realised that it was my old friend panic attack. The relief came […]

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Teacher workload. We don’t all go home at 3pm

Reading Time: 8 minutes A guest post from @Framheadteacher The reason I get my hair cut at Jaff’s* on Gosforth High Street (other than the very reasonable £9 it costs me) is that the person cutting my hair doesn’t try to engage me in conversation.  It’s the same reason I let my wife sit next to the driver when […]

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The system for appraising teachers is totally broken

Reading Time: 3 minutes A guest post by Bruce Greig of SchoolStaffSurveys.com.  There’s something very wrong with the way teachers are appraised in England. On the one hand, every teacher reports receiving a formal appraisal. This is great. Especially compared to, say, Italy where nearly three-quarters of teachers say they have never been formally appraised. On the other hand, half […]

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Book Review: Ten Traits of Resilience by James Hilton

Reading Time: 2 minutes   James Hilton‘s new book takes a look at resilience and how school leaders can build theirs. It is built around James’s own personal experience, not only of a breakdown in his own resilience but also in the many successful years he spent in primary school leadership.  It is peppered with personal anecdotes and vignettes […]