There's something optimistic about a large city early in the morning, particularly on a Summer Sunday when the streets are almost empty, everything smells fresh and the whole day is spread out before you. We left our Paris hotel just before nine o clock and made our way towards the Louvre, walking past cafes and brasseries just opening for business and adding the aroma of coffee and fresh baking to the atmosphere. Read More...

Living in Northern Ireland, I was acutely aware of the few job opportunities there was for NQT’s. However my drive and passion to teach forced me to ignore the critics and complete my initial teacher training. My time in university was indeed four of the most memorable years of my life during which I grew both as a teacher and as a person. Read More...

Obviously, there are teachers out there who are very angry about what Chris Keates terms the 'relentless attack on the teaching profession.' After all, 82% of the 40% turnout voted for industrial action (for the non-Maths specialists amongst you, this equates to 32.8% of the NASUWT membership) - not an insignificant minority. Read More...

Why is it that however organised we all seem, for some reason there never feels enough time in the day to do everything we want to? For those that know me this might come as a bit of a shock as on the exterior I am a cool, calm, collected sort of person, but on the inside I have moments of panic. Read More...

I have visited hundreds of schools in the last four years, which has given me an incredible insight into the way they work. Having been a Headteacher myself, I had years looking at the school system from the inside, but now look back and realised that to a certain extent I had become institutionalised following the ‘Ofsted agenda’ just like everyone else. Read More...

Rejoice fellow Tweeters and advocates of social media; this question is now officially grammatically correct. As of June 2013, the verb 'to tweet' now appears in the Oxford English Dictionary. Read More...

Starting a new school as the Headteacher can be daunting. Starting at a school that actually doesn’t exist yet is very daunting – and strange too. Read More...

Having started my first headship in January after a rather jam-packed nine years of teaching, the realisation of the responsibilities of the job are truly sinking in. No longer do colleagues stop to talk, albeit briefly, as teachers are far too busy to chat about the weekend, husband, children etc. Read More...

Last academic year I remember coming to the end of term 5 with my year one class, saying to my TA that I was looking forward to another year in KS1. Little did I know at the time that I had been given a career changing opportunity that I hadn’t seen coming. Read More...

You can learn a lot about people over a lunch table. "The Headteacher and I regularly eat lunch together in our school hall with the children. Not only does it give us the chance to catch up, it allows us to get to know the pupils in a different context." Read More...