Reflections as a Global Educator
I cannot remember ever being on school front gate duty staring up and down Beachley Road half expecting tanks to appear from the A48 as I found myself in Chisinau, this February looking out at the relative calm of Dacia Boulevard. Will those in the future ever believe some of the stories we will pass… Continue reading Books not Bombs; The future has to belong to our children.
“Let us not return to what was normal but reach towards what is next.” Amanda Gorman The lesson of the 2020s so far has been not to look too far ahead, not to expect too much and to maybe stop using the word “normal” for the time being. The 2020s have also been about showing… Continue reading What comes next in 2022?
Time, time, time See what's become of me I am still thinking of those Alaskan bears from November, who were gorging on salmon from the rivers, getting ready for a longer winter sleep and hibernation until Spring. The glorious Autumn has given way to a much colder December in Chisinau and after I have seen… Continue reading “A hazy shade of Winter; was 2021 all bad?”
There are many moments in this role when nothing quite prepares you for the challenges a school leader faces daily. It really has been that kind of month and we know we cannot please all of the people, all of the time, nor should we try. There simply are not enough hours in the day… Continue reading Why leaders need the “shouty people out of our heads”. Moving on from labels and back to children and education.
“August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.” – Sylvia Plath Moldova celebrated its 30th anniversary as an independent country on the last weekend in August as it marked its declaration of independence from the collapsing USSR in 1991. It is always hard to… Continue reading “In search of lost treasure. A new academic year in an odd and uneven time”
“Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves” Henry David Thoreau. In his famous poem, a “Shropshire Lad”, AE Housman wrote the lines; “The happy highways where I went, And cannot come again”. This “Shropshire Lad” thought of those words as the car drove westwards over the River Severn into Wales this… Continue reading Where leaders find light when leadership gets lonely; their Hinterland.
“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men” Frederick Douglas. June’s anniversary of D-Day, also coincides with the anniversary of the death of my father in law, Peter Whittle. He took a brave decision: a leap of faith and an unexpected journey when he chose to make a new life and… Continue reading When children need to walk their own journey.
Children are the priority. Change is the reality. Collaboration is the strategy”. Judith Billings, Superintendent of Schools, Washngton State. “I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decision”.Stephen R Covey. There are two recent stand out moments for me this month regarding leadership, especially moral and values based leadership. The… Continue reading The leadership we need for our school communities now.
And indeed it could be said that once the faintest stirring of hope became possible, the dominion of plague was endedAlbert Camus I had hoped to read my book on the three hour journey back to the UK from Chisinau, but found myself on a very crowded plane, with various people still finding the concept… Continue reading What kind of World do we want?
The lowest ebb is the turn of the tideHenry Wadsworth Longfellow Since I returned to Moldova on the 16th August, starting in earnest the preparations for what we all knew would be like no other academic year, there have been two distinct moments of complete relaxation where my thinking switched only to time, moment, place.… Continue reading The myth of ‘Covid secure’ and other gobbledygook starting a new academic year.
Mail from Moldova 