Educator, dad, board game geek, book reader, magic: the gathering nerd, running enthusiast, and coffee lover
The advice I give to friends who are struggling to choose between schools for their kids is: …you can’t have your cake AND eat it too! There are so many good schools to choose from, but parents can still find themselves paralyzed, unable to make a choice. A friend of mine was recently in this […]
It’s the holidays in my house, so when we are not entertaining the kids there’s going to be a fair amount of Minecraft being played and watched on YouTube. Apparently, Grian is our house favourite (and with 41 million views per month, he’s got many other admirers contributing to his incredible annual 2M$ income!), and […]
This post started with an innocuous question for my kids: “Hey kids, do you think we should continue with our Easter egg-rolling competition this year?” My spring traditions The word ‘tradition’ always invokes mixed feelings for me. Growing up, I could never enjoy the cliche of spring cleaning on the first day of the Easter […]
Ask any high school student right now. Deadlines seem to be about as certain as death and taxes. In a conversation I had with a G11 student this week, he shared how surprised he was that he was struggling with his deadline-management skills. He was frustrated (perhaps a little angry?) that he was not more […]
“It sounds like a big self-licking lollipop” “What?” “A self-licking lollipop” “What on earth are you talking about?” I was talking to my brother over my Christmas break about my work and the world of international education. After patiently listening for some time, his paraphrasing went something like this: “So…rich folk pay to send their […]
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Noticeship /ˈnəʊtɪs/ʃɪp/ n.informal. The quality or ability that elevates a person or leader to intentionally see something or someone. Resolutions As is my way this time of year, I sat down with my thoughts this morning to contemplate the new year ahead. For much of my early life, this involved me finding somewhere to sit […]
“To be noticed is to be loved.” ― Ali Smith, There but for the It starts with a belief system Making children feel noticed is arguably the most important thing we can do in schools. Why? Because my belief system is this: Noticing is the root of belonging. And belonging is the root of happy and […]
In preparation for our recent CIS and WASC (joint) preparatory evaluation visitors, I felt our school adopted a “just right” Goldilocks approach to proceedings – a lot of hard work, paced calmly and thoughtfully by a core team who distributed much of the preparatory work in a meaningful and purposeful way with a high degree […]
I’m convinced that the question of “what can we take away” has been a priority for school leaders since (at least) the Industrial Age. It has been a central theme in all my time in education, and I imagine it transcends many other work sectors too. How do we find ourselves constantly in this situation? […]
Only when I started my holiday did I realise how much I needed it. “Not cool, dad” Waiting patiently for a ride on the bumper cars with the kids, I noticed a group of young teenagers jumping the queue ahead of us and then being allowed to get away with it by the clearly intimidated […]
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