The truly frustrating part about forks in roads is not the fork. We’re generally quite pleased by choice when presented with it and I usually have no problem deciding between two simple options. In my house this summer, my son and I have a clear preference for cricket on the tv while my wife and…
If you’re at all like most School Leaders you’re at least roughly back to work. So, what are you doing next Thursday and Friday? Timetables, email sweeps, meeting agendas? Well, we’ll be running an event that will change the way you work, focus and connect to your educative purpose in 2016. In other words, it’ll change…
In one of my previous career incarnations, I was given the opportunity to lead Behaviour & Wellbeing Coordination across all schools in the Northern Territory. It was a tough gig … and I was wildly unprepared. And so I read. I read all manner of books on various behaviourists’ theories from tough love and through…
It’s not easy to do – choosing to look at 2016 through the lens of the problems that were 2015. But that’s exactly what we asked many of our Partner and Member Schools to do. They told us about three key and persistent worries: Staff Wellbeing concerns – exactly how we manage and juggle issues…
I’m a bit of a sucker for the Rocky movies. Of course, their predictable plotlines and moments of wild, climactic triumph contribute to that. I just can’t wait for the “Yo Adrian!” moment at the end of each installment. One of my favourite parts of the movies are the training scenes. Each movie has one…
We listened a lot in 2015. And we found out there were three key things that School Leaders tell us are in the way of sustaining a strong, sustainable School Culture: Staff Wellbeing concerns – exactly how we manage and juggle issues of workload, focus, responsibility, celebration and support. Student Behaviour – proven as the…
We’re incredibly excited to announce that Ryan Martin will be joining the Real Schools team as a Director in 2016. Ryan comes as the 2014 NT Principal Of The Year and continues our commitment to provide critical friends to schools through partnership who have actually sat and succeeded “in the big chair”. Click on the preview…
When I was about 12 years old, I got my first job. It was a morning paper round. It required getting up at about 5am six mornings a week and riding the streets delivering newspapers, often in bitter rain and cold, before returning home to get ready for school. My first weekly pay packet was…
It continues to amaze me how intuitively we all know how much our School Culture matters – yet how little we focus on it. Despite the universal agreement that our programs and interventions will fail in a less than positive culture, most of us continue to allow our cultures to develop by osmosis. What if…
Ever heard the expression, “Don’t smile until Easter?” Most of us are uncomfortable with this idea because it’s awfully hard to build meaningful relationships without so much as the occasional grin. But still, many “old school” types swear by it. What’s that all about? The truth is that the intention may not be quite…
The passing of World Teachers’ Day this week had me reflecting a little on my time as a School Principal. It’s true that this is largely because I miss the special morning tea and the scrumptious cake that usually accompanied this event! I also pondered a little about the choice of date for World Teachers’…
There’s not much time until our only two public events for the rest of 2016. Restorative Practices Teacher Training 22nd October 2015 in Melbourne CBD And yes, you probably should FIRST click on the above link about the value in this amazing day! School Culture In Focus 29th October 2015 in Melbourne CBD Who should attend the RP…
We’re running a FREE webinar on Wednesday, 17th of September at 3.30pm (AEST). School Leadership sometimes feels like being all things to all people. That said, you can’t actually be all things, to all people … in all places and at all times! Leadership is about the trust we provide in others and the support we…
Only once a semester, we offer an opportunity for Teachers to experience our 1-Day Training in Restorative Practices. This semester – it’s in Melbourne on Thursday October 22nd. It’s an incredible day and one that inspires change and transforms practice. Of course, you shouldn’t take our word for that – why not click on the…
In education, we’re perhaps better at buzzwords than any other industry. One that has been enjoying significant limelight in the last few years is ‘disruption’. Clayton Christensen’s groundbreaking book “Disrupting Class” and then Michael Horn’s “Blended” are two must-reads for any School Leader or Teacher looking to explore flipped learning or the concept of incorporating…
We’re launching two new events for October in Melbourne designed to launch you and your school to a whole new level. 1) Restorative Practices Teacher Training (Melbourne – Thursday 22nd October). We’re continually being asked to run more of this training. Perhaps it’s because of the feedback that we get from Teachers who attend – click…
We’re running a FREE webinar on Wednesday, 19th of August at 3.30pm (AEST). A huge number of Australian Schools are discovering the benefits of Restorative Practices as a fundamental platform for: developing classroom climate resolving conflict focusing on relationship building maximising student engagement addressing bullying And while that all sounds fantastic – there’s an anxiety…
One of the reasons I built Real Schools was a very genuine frustration I had as a Principal. That frustration was the gradual decline in focus and implementation of my staff following Professional Learning ‘events’. Now don’t get me wrong, there are some incredible PL providers out there marrying some wonderful intellectual property with an…
All the literature on Teacher and School Leader focus, intention and activity tells us that Practice is what falls off the agenda as the year progresses and busy-ness envelopes us. Put simply, we don’t want that to happen in your school. Right now, we have Teachers enrolled in our Teacher FastTrack program who are benefiting…
How did Semester One end for you? I know that in my time as a Principal or Teacher, there were occasions (of course, not all of the time!) when I pulled into the mid-year break without another drop of fuel in the tank. Usually, when this happens it was the superfluous or operational tasks that…
One of the great buzzwords surrounding schools in recent times is sustainability. It seems that all decisions, programs and approaches must be underpinned or at least tarnished by the great sustainability brush. While it seems a reasonable, or indeed noble, aim that sustainable approaches be chosen for our schools, I always wondered if there are…
We are so excited to have Resilience Expert Michael Licenblat as Guest Presenter at our next FREE webinar on Thursday 16th July at 3.30pm (AEST) for current and aspiring School Leaders. We’ve talked a lot about Resilience in schools lately – but it always seems to be with a student focus. What about us? What…
We’re running a FREE webinar on Thursday, 18th of June at 3.30pm (AEST). I’ve been amazed at the number of Teachers who are lately talking to me about their concerns about student health. In particular, they are concerned about the food that parents are choosing to fuel their children’s brains and bodies. But how do…
For many School Leaders and Teachers we’re in the midst of one of the most challenging stretches on the school calendar. June is often when a combination of: Report writing. Exam/NAPLAN administration. Winter lurgies Wet day timetables … and just about anything else you can think of! … conspire to consume what feels like more…
As a School Principal, I remember saying this. Surely sitting down with somebody who has never been a Principal or perhaps even a School Leader at all, is just going to be a series of regular hours lost that I could actually use working. But what if you could sit down with somebody who knew…
