Reflections as a Global Educator
“I see Earth! It is so beautiful” Yuri Gagarin. When the Puritans of England banned Christmas Day, theatre & dancing in the 1640s, a ballad appeared, half mocking, half fearful, that the World everyone once knew, was now upside down in Cromwell’s England. It’s alleged that this ballad was also played when Cornwallis surrendered to… Continue reading “The World turned upside down”
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?”
“Life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by so quick you hardly catch it going”. Tennessee Williams As the plane took off from Chisinau airport on a Saturday morning, to cross Europe and take me back to my family and the UK for the October break, my mind did take… Continue reading Making the moments matter
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.
We will lead not merely by the example of our power, but by the power of our examplePresident Biden, inauguration speech at The Capitol, 20th January 2021. There have been many surreal moments over the last year in the lifespan of this pandemic. Sometimes, it feels as if we are barely holding on with our… Continue reading Perspective and agency for now; any potential paradigm shifts are for later.
All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses Walt Whitman It took a very cold, wintery, foggy morning in early January, walking around an icy field and through a small woodland copse, near my home in Bristol with my dog Dylan, to finally allow my mind to wander and have real time to reflect over the… Continue reading Resolutions for 2021? Take a daily walk
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