This week, I was interviewed in several media outlets regarding comments made by our Federal Education Minister, Alan Tudge. Essentially, I was responding to the usual ‘doom and gloom’ rhetoric about how we need to focus on our glaring teacher quality problem, have them learning how to teach reading/spelling/grammar at university (as though we don’t)…
Walking through a primary school playground with a fantastic Assistant Principal last week proved to be more instructional than I could have imagined. I’d been asked to observe the way the kids moved and interacted with a view to diagnosing just why so many student behaviour problems happen in the yard. Yep – it’s…
I grew up in a working class family of four kids without a lot of excess. Sometimes that meant sharing and sometimes that meant fighting for competitive advantage. On the rare occasion of there being a leftover Eskimo Pie dessert, my sister Donna and I would immediately default into argument about who the spoils…
Welcome to the first of a new weekly approach I’m taking to provide you with some thought, some provocation and some support when it comes to leading School Culture. I have to admit, when “Home Truths” was suggested to me as a title for these messages, a grin crept across my face. I think I’ve come…
I’ve been thinking a fair bit over the break about how we can all contribute to the recovery of our school system in 2021. In the end, my key reflections are a small number of things that we need to stop doing and then some stuff to start doing. Stop: Obsessing over perfection and comparing…
This Wednesday morning just gone I stepped into my typical role as the oldest and least fit person in the absurdly early 5.15am class at Gym One22. They’ve commenced a specific fitness challenge where you attempt to complete 1km in under four minutes on four different exercise machines. The first week, I succeeded on only…
The Victorian Government has released a wonderful grant opportunity for schools. We reckon this is a fantastic initiative that responds to a current and genuine need. And who knows … perhaps there are similar opportunities emerging in other states too. Quite a few schools are already working with us around an application that would incorporate high…
This week, I’ve been to the dentist … too often. I’ve discovered that there’s a word for the phobia associated with dentists and it’s odontophobia. I identify as somebody with mild odontophobia. It stemmed from an accident when I was eleven years old. Running around the backyard with a golf club in hand, I slipped on…
Alannah was always so supportive – a School Council Member, an enthusiastic volunteer and an advocate in the community. And yet, here she was banging my desk and almost frothing at the mouth whilst shouting at me about the “treatment” her son had received after involving himself in a playground stoush. I remember it well…
Tonight, the AFL Finals Series begins – but before we descend into the grip on ‘finals fever’ I’d like to take a quick look at the last match of the home and away season between Port Adelaide and Collingwood for an important lesson about schooling. As a fervent Richmond supporter, I’m genetically predisposed to disliking…