Serendipities

According to ISC Research, there were about 8,000 international schools ten years ago. Today, that number stands close to 13,000. The growth is staggering. Indeed, a recent (illuminating and challenging) Bloomberg article postulates that two new international schools open each day on average. It has become an incredibly competitive market as more and more families […]

Be honest. You assumed the boy was stealing a cookie, didn’t you? You probably did it all the time when you were his age, and we all know it takes a thief to catch a thief! But what if….he’d been told he could take that cookie? Or if he was actually putting them out on […]

“Which came first: the chicken or the egg?” Who hasn’t explored this age-old debate with little kids?  I know I have.   Ask any other person you know how the discussion went. I am sure they will all agree that the kids loved the inquiry and the opportunity to explore theories and develop some spectacularly […]

This week, we kicked off Writers’ Fortnight in school. Incredible speakers, including many extraordinary parents, are being invited to speak to our students to share how particular books have inspired them or how they are involved in literature in some way. As a result, our students have been awed by poets, journalists, diplomats, artists, and […]

A school’s first and most important function is to create a sense of belonging for each student. Everything else (literally) is academic.   My first lesson on how to go about this (many years ago) came from my first teaching mentor, who believed it was all about “nailing the welcome” at the start of each […]

“Be curious, not judgmental”, quotes Ted Lasso in response to being underestimated in one of the TV series’ most iconic scenes. Do watch it if you have not done so already. As well as being incredibly funny, the understated and seemingly incompetent Ted Lasso has so much to teach us all about how to lead […]

I recently read No Rules Rules, which was by far the best book I have read this year. It was co-written by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer. The book is about how Netflix’s ‘no rules’ culture has helped to provide and sustain its competitive edge. Rules and top-down controls, it seems, just get […]

Rigour It is that time of year when schools ramp up their efforts to attract new families. I know this because those hidden algorithms on my social media have started spamming me with school admissions adverts for the next academic year. This AI intrusion always irritates me, but it has also allowed me to notice […]

Mitchel Resnick, LEGO Papert Professor of Learning Research at the MIT Media Lab, offers a helpful metaphor to use when designing learning: build “high ceilings, low floors and wide walls”. A colleague introduced me to this wonderful metaphor when working at the International Baccalaureate a couple of years ago. It has been playing on my mind […]