I’ve now been blogging for five years. By the numbers, I am pleased to share my Serendipities.blog has now reached the giddy heights of 111 signed-up subscribers. Over five years, I have somehow managed to knock up 92 posts, written over 83,000 words, and last year the blog site was visited 28,900 times from readers […]
Ok, given the relatively few books I read each year, it’s statistically unlikely I have actually read the best books (for education folk) in 2025. But here’s the thing: it’s my blog post, my ball, and so I get to choose the teams! So what follows isn’t a definitive list, but a reflective one. These […]
A classic trilemma: When you build a tank you can make it faster, more armoured, or more lethal. You can’t do it all. The world feels increasingly binary these days. Everything is reduced to its simplest, sharpest form: You are either with us or against us. It’s black or white. You are right or wrong. […]
“If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck”. So said my dad, often (1947-2016) Today I’m writing about the proposed changes to the school curriculum and assessment in England from 2027. Obviously, it helps if you read the review itself, but I […]
“On October 3rd, he asked me what day it was,“ “It’s October 3rd“ Mean Girls, 2004 I had no idea 3rd October was “Mean Girls” Day. For many years, I have worn pink on Fridays to show my support for inclusion and LGBTQ+ inclusion – not that anyone has ever asked me. So it was a […]
When I left school, we weren’t told to find our purpose – we were told to get a job! I wasn’t sure that would go down too well as the central theme of my own Closing Address this year, so I tweaked it a little bit and ended up sharing the three hopes that I […]
I am trying to decide whether I have read a lot of books this year or not. Not that it matters, of course. I’m not counting. It’s just that I know that reading is a great place for me to “be well”, and that does matter. As much as I would love to have a […]
“Who’s doing the washing up?” The answer to this question might be significant. If it’s you, you might behave one way. If it’s not you, you might behave another way. Take, for example, my friend’s domestic predicament. He and his partner have a long-standing rule that when one cooks, the other will wash up. They […]
There’s an old English saying that I often mutter when I’m being worn thin by seemingly excessive demands: “Do you want the moon on a stick?” This week alone, the question has crossed my mind on at least five occasions in conversations I have shared. They (parents) say They (teachers) say They (parents, teachers, students, […]
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