nikki able

I have attended #EducationFest for the last four years now.  Year 1 I went on my own.  Year 2 I took a friend.  Year 3 I gathered a few like-minded colleagues.  This year I met up with 9 former colleagues who had been released for a day each and made contact with three people I love to follow on twitter. Where am I going with this?  Every year I attend this event, I reap incredible benefits from the experience (more on that in a moment) but every year the event also grows and exceeds my expectations and with every year that passes I see more and more brilliant colleagues attend and feel inspired by their attendance.  If I had my way I would shut the school down for two days and just take everyone.  It will be interesting to see what the impact of the Thursday/Friday as opposed to Friday/Saturday scheduling was.  Honestly I think it is easier for teachers to go to events like these when they do not incur tremendous cover costs for schools but eit...

I have spent the last four days at two very different educational events. The first was the Inspiring Leadership Conference in Birmingham, the second Northern Rocks in Leeds. The two events were entirely different but completely brilliant and all credit needs to go to the organisers. I will blog in more detail about what I took from the events but the combined impact of them was a nagging thought. On Thursday, I heard Steve Munby speak on the subject of invitational leadership and it was nothing short of inspiring. He talked about inviting and embracing challenge, accepting robust and transparent reporting on schools and their performance (among many other brilliant things). I also heard Brian Lightman speak and he presented us with a list on Conservative manifesto pledges which we have been told will happen. Like it or don't like it, he said, but be glad for the certainty because when you have certainty you have action. Schools and school leaders know the challenges facing them a...