I Don’t Have Time

One of the reasons some School Leaders put off the first steps in transforming their school culture into a restorative one is that they think it will overwhelm their Teachers. I get that. So many of the changes that schools have made in the relentless pursuit of school improvement manifest for Teachers as additional work.…

The Conversation That Never Happened

I’ve noticed something lately that I think your staff might need to have a conversation about. That said, it’s sometimes a little like a conversation is assumed to have already happened … but it hasn’t. You see, I’ve spoken to countless teachers about restorative methods, models and strategies for engaging students more effectively in the…

Useless Sentences 

Some things just get under my skin that I probably shouldn’t allow to annoy me so much. Perhaps it’s because I watch a fair bit of sports, but gambling ads are one such irritant. As a sports lover, it bugs me that gambling companies are so allowed to target young people and addict them to…

Habitualised Resilience

My daughter, Ebony, is 22 years old, and I love her to bits. She’d also kill me if she knew she was the subject of this week’s Home Truth. So, let’s keep this between us, eh? Thanks. Eb had a difficult birth and, as such, was a little delayed in fine and gross motor skill…

The Retreat

A little war analogy to make a point for School Leaders today. Wars have battles. And in most battles, there are only two possible results – you win or lose. Winning is preferred, but it can still come at a cost. Losing is worse, comes at a cost, and sometimes the battle is so badly…

The Myth of Self-Esteem

There’s a disturbing trend emerging from our school system colleagues in the US that I think we should be attentive to. To summarise we’re seeing a first-in-history decline in broad academic standards and test scores. But we’re also seeing a steady improvement in student self-esteem scales. In essence, American kids think they’re awesome … but…

Undeserved respect and kindness

I’ve had that call from a school to tell me that my child has done the wrong thing. And when you’re a Principal receiving that message from another Principal who you thought was ringing to tell you about ‘Principally’ things … only to find out that it wasn’t that kind of call, it’s especially confronting.…

Which Button to Press

Over the last few Home Truths, I’ve looked at the student behaviour battle in Australian schools. This is the last in a four-week effort to unpick where we went wrong, who today’s young people are and what kind of design we’ll need for success with them. Along the trip, we’ve landed on the need for…

So what? Now what?

Over the last couple of Home Truths, I’ve examined the current student behaviour challenge in schools through several lenses. Firstly, we looked at the mistakes we’ve made in our efforts so far and then examined the composition of today’s students. But now, what do we do? Today, let’s make some progress. Let’s discuss how we…

Who are these people?

Kids are kids. In fact, never in the history of the human race has this been less true. These days, kids are more different from the previous generation of kids than any generation since time began. And we need to get our heads around that. Last week, I wrote about our mistakes in responding to…