Jeremy Hannay

Really great day meeting with the Well Schools Collective. Amazing to be surrounded by likeminded school and community leaders from across the country

As a founding school & deep believer in the movement, I’m excited to present tomorrow morning on ‘how to f*ck the system and still be outstanding’ 😉

Things are wonderful - even better now reconnected :) Next time you’re in my neck of the woods, pop in!

Thank you @teachwellall.bsky.social for this :)

Truer today than ever

Thanks for pulling that out Jill :)

We must have a fully funded pay award this year.
After years of cuts there is nothing left and we will see a serious reduction in provision, standards and our duty of care unless money is made available to schools.
We cannot wait.

That is unbelievable. How on earth in 2025 is there no plan in place for this?! If this is the case, the rule should be ‘Ofsted gets to pick the date of inspection - if the lead becomes ill and inspection pauses, the school chooses the next inspection dates.’

Something to chat about @emmavalerio.bsky.social

YouTube video by Arianators gang Oscars performance Ariana grande and Cynthia Erivo defying gravity

Whether you like musical theatre or not, this will make you smile. She sings the roof off the place.

Giant moment. Millions of viewers worldwide. One shot. And she absolutely nails it.

When the pressure is on, how do you make sure you (and your team) absolutely nail it?

youtu.be/51DdlmM_d6w

Thank you Rae :) Lots of love coming your way!

You’re always welcome!

Thank you so much! That’s incredibly kind :)

Jens! You were on site for the last one! Missed ya this time round! Haha

There is another way.

I don’t give Ofsted or judgements from them much value - but I share this because in a world where fear is king and change from the norm is really bloody hard, maybe this will help one more school make the change from high threat to low, from low trust to high, and from compliant to compelling.

And for the second time in a row (and the only primary school in my area that's managed this!), in a school with every excuse under the sun not to be, we’ve maintained Outstanding.

A meaningful, challenging, low threat experience focussed on learners and learning.  A professional, social, structured series looking at what we do and what it’s doing.  One that supports teachers to look inward, look outward, look all around and up to the sky.

Growing an incredible school with sustainable, deep and impactful standards cannot be done to someone.  It can’t come in the form of feedback or bullet points or performance management targets.  It has to come from a lived experience.

where they can be in control of their own learning and help each other to learn, ask big questions and find answers that lead to more questions - that we intentionally create the same conditions for the adults first.

It is to develop and build-in meaningful learning opportunities - and ensure that if we want classrooms where children are engaged and collaborating, have a voice, and feel safe to make mistakes;

It is to create the conditions under which professionals can learn, grow, challenge themselves, and change - on their own and with one another.

We haven’t done an observation in a decade.  Haven’t scrutinised anyone’s work.  Never had a pupil progress or performance management meeting.

Our job isn’t to observe, critique, criticize and judge.  It is not to feedback and check.

We chose to get rid of all of the things that screamed low trust and replaced them with empowerment and agency: teacher-led growth and development, teacher-led instructional improvement and close to practice, collaborative learning in fellowship.

Research and trust over fear and judgement.
Collaboration and connected learning over competition and isolation.
Systems and structures over ambiguity and obscurity.
Kindness and warmth over ego and strength.

It wasn’t the most encouraging start.

Despite all of that, we chose a different path.

I was told that you could either have a happy school or a successful one—not both. Robust and regular QA - that if I didn’t regularly observe, monitor, and scrutinize, I would fail and be fired.

I was told my way of thinking was wrong, stupid, and dangerous. I was told that I couldn’t lead a school that way here—that it wasn’t how things were done. If I didn’t like it, I should go back to Canada.

That is me!

We used this as a prompt when beginning conversations about the removal of this kind of grouping in 2014. We haven’t had ‘ability’ grouping ever since and every-thing-is-better.

Congrats mate!

Sonya!!! 😐