During any day of Restorative Practices training, I regularly open up the floor for questions. Learning the RP Framework always requires some sense-making and contextualising of the key concepts … so we need to talk about that. Occasionally, somebody asks a question along the lines of “Well, this might work for some kids but there…
I’ve read and written a fair bit lately about Student Engagement. Being easily seduced by simplicity, I was determined to distil the volume of information about this subject down to something accessible and practical for educators. And so, my definition of engagement is just four visible pursuits. It’s students who are: Listening Speaking Thinking Doing…
I’m exceedingly proud of Monmia Primary School in Melbourne as one of our Real Schools Partners over the last 3-4 years. My pride comes partly through their determination to embed Restorative Practices as the fundamental underpinning of their School Culture. In a recent visit, I was able to present them with a variety of genuine,…
I’ll admit to a little frustration with the Australian vernacular since I returned from a wonderful 9-day ordeal traversing the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guniea last week. You see, people keep annoyingly asking me “How was the Track?”. It’s actually a very reasonable question and my frustration is borne mostly of just not having…
Whenever I finish a day of training with a school, I point them to the Real Schools Member Resources that they all have access to. I’ve established a healthy bias for implementation in my work and these serve as a genuine resource for so many educators as they look to embed the principles we’ve learned…
You may have noticed that this is my first Real Schools newsletter in a wee while. It’s been some time since my family and I took a ‘real’ holiday and the last couple of weeks that we spent exploring London have been filled with bucket list moments that will entwine our conversations for years. As…
As a Principal, I occassionally deployed the strategy of a Business Lunch. It wasn’t a reward. Luke knew that if he was called to share a sausage roll with me that there was something serious, something behavioural, on the agenda for that lunch. So was this an appropriate, or even effective, strategy? In the Restorative…
It always amazes me how early in the school year that schools commence to plan for the following year. I’ve spoken to several School Leaders lately who have fervently begun their 2019 strategic preparations. It really is a credit to their dedication and commitment to not only the students they teach now, but also the…
It’s a well know and ancient aphorism that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”. It’s a proverbial warning that our intentions might be sound, virtuous and even admirable but that they also represent the first steps on a path or journey. We need to make those first steps the right ones. So,…
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Thomas Edison Thomas Edison’s successful inventions have changed the way we live, but it is in his failures that he learnt the big lessons of life. If those first failures were allowed to define him, I wonder what this extraordinary man might have…
I worry sometimes about grown-ups and our collective level of distraction from principle when it comes to making smart decisions on behalf of our kids. In schools and also across the community, we’re seduced by a well articulated notion that “sounds like a nice idea” far too often. Many of these ideas, when removed from…
‘Kids don’t learn from people they don’t like.’ Rita Pierson A number of weeks back, my son’s teachers asked if I would like to come on the Year 6 Camp. Normally, I would politely decline the invitation but for some reason, I said yes. They must have caught me at a weak moment. So reluctantly,…
Now I am not the type of person that puts inspirational quotes up around my office but as an educator, ‘it takes a whole village to raise a child’ resonates loud and clear to me. But what if the whole village was lowering the bar to such an extent, that your village was not living…
I have two competing views about educational research: that we spend far too much time and money researching aspects of the educative pursuit that have little or no impact or meaning. No more studies about homework please – the truth is already known. that when we find relevant and confronting truths within our research, that…
Albert Einstein is universally recognised as one of the greatest minds of our time and amidst his incredible contribution to science, he also shone a very bright torch on education. Albert is quoted as saying, very eloquently, a ‘student is not a container you have to fill but a torch you need to light up’.…
Thursday night after school, whenever possible, my daughter Evie and I stop at a little bakery in Melbourne and sit down and have a hot chocolate and a cookie and talk about the day’s events. It is time that I treasure greatly. This week we got talking about books and what she is reading at…
At Real Schools, we’re immensely proud of the progress and achievements made by all of our Partner Schools. We were also very proud that our friend Suzy Barry at SchoolNews decided to so articulately detail the journey we’ve walked with Leopold PS. You can check read Suzy’s article by clicking here. The Leopold PS journey…
‘Hanging tough, staying hungry They stack the odds still we take to the street’ Survivor 1982 Last night I sat with the very talented and passionate Principal John Cleary of Casuarina Street Primary School in Katherine, Northern Territory. John and I were in the heart of Tiger land and even a few days out from…
A friend, colleague, respected educator, entrepreneur and rabid Richmond Football Club fan is Clare Weare. Clare has recently founded the incredibly clever Start Smart Tasmania and her work in providing speech, language, feeding and education services including speech pathology, orofacial myology and SLN support for schools and families is going to be making a huge difference. Clare…
After recently relocating to Melbourne with the family following a wonderful 4-year experience in the Northern Territory I have been horrified by the traffic in Melbourne and how poorly Google Maps directs me to my destination. An hour or so on the roads at the wrong time is enough to crush your spirit and ruin…
Schools all around Australia are grappling with the best ways to have their relationship with Parents look a lot more like a partnership than a conflict. It certainly isn’t for lack of effort that it sometimes seems that schools and parents just aren’t on the same page any more. We know you’ve heard the cliché before,…
Last week, I had the chance to share the stage with the incredible Dan Gregory (of “The Gruen Transfer” fame) at the Future Of Leadership Conferences in Brisbane and Sydney. Dan is one of those almost intimidatingly clever people who says it like it is (or even more bluntly than it really is!) and he told two…
Mindful as I am of the miniscule amount of content that any human is willing or capable of absorbing, then storing in long-term memory and then committing to a practice change from any PL day, I strive to maximise my limited opportunity. The temptation is to cover more content, to design better PowerPoint slides and to…
I’m really excited about this month’s Real Schools Webinar because it’s the opposite of almost every other webinar you’ll attend. You see, other webinars are looking to add to your workload via asking you to both do and be more. Not this one! It’s time to disrupt this pattern of adding to your workload by…
I’m a keen observer of people and their foibles. Even the word “foible” is kind of hard not to spend a little time observing. But what I notice even more than individual foibles is when these habits and rituals become the traits of whole staffs, and even of industries. One such foible that educators have…
