I spoke with a school recently who had an admirable ambition – consistency. In order to achieve this, they were trying to categorise the likely behaviours into four categories. Level 1 was for minor infractions like calling out in class or teasing and are to be dealt with according to minor consequences, like missing a…
I’ve been so fortunate to have just completed a holiday with my family in France. It was something of a ‘bucket list’ trip for my wife, Anthea – but we’ve all enjoyed it immensely. However, across the trips amazing sights (and tastes!) I couldn’t help my thoughts from wandering occasionally to schools. Oddly, it…
Behavioural scientists tell us that every emotion we experience is felt for a reason … even the ones that feel awful. Fear, for instance, is a rotten emotion to experience. Yet, we need it – for its role is to keep us safe. Could you imagine driving to work today if nobody felt any fear?…
There’s no plausible rhyme or reason for some of the rules that I live by. I always put my left sock on first, I always eat my vegetables before my meat and I NEVER stand up to take photos of a slide when a speaker is presenting. Yet here I was watching James Clear, the…
We have some incredibly exciting news. Simon Dewar has just joined the Real Schools Team as our new Associate Director, responsible for School Partnerships. Simon brings extensive experience from a range of different schools stretching from Western Metropolitan Victoria, the Geelong region and then the last 11 years in a rural setting in South West…
The moment of truth has arrived. After an exhaustively negative period of debate that has felt more ideological cage-match than a contest of ideas, we stand now on the precipice of a new future for our entire country. Of course, you might be tempted to think that I’m talking about the federal election on Saturday.…
I’ve got a theory that Teachers waste an enormous amount of time, blood, sweat, tears and effort in their work if they fail to match their pedagogy to their purpose. This was highlighted again for me recently in a discussion with a colleague and friend called Rhonda who asked me “Why doesn’t anybody talk to…
I was recently discussing with some educators in a Partner school the challenge of persuading students to move forward when there’s conflict, rather than retreating into all the details of the past about why s/he is right and why hating the other is fully justified. Our tendency to allow this backwards creep is often driven…
In his acclaimed book Atomic Habits, author James Clear unpacks the career of famed American comedian and actor Steve Martin. (We’ve just mailed Atomic Habitsour to our Partner school Principals – it’s a ‘must read’). It all began in 1955 when Martin, 10 years old at the time, landed a job selling guide books at Disneyland for…
Without wanting to transcribe the short video below there are two key benefits I’ve taken from becoming a Restorative educator: Firstly, I sleep better! Yep – the art of practicing restoratively means that the gap between my purpose and my practice is narrower. This means that I go home every day feeling aligned and ethically safe.…
If I randomly appeared in your classroom and asked your students “How does your teacher deal with poor student choices and conflict?” what would they say? Actually, scratch that. What word would be more likely to appear in their reply –Might or Would? If they say s/he “might” do this or “might” do that, then…
When I train School Leaders around Educational Change Management, I’m always keen to address the elephant in the room. Let’s call that elephant Barry. “This is all well and good.” they tell me “But what about Barry? Barry is stuck in his ways and just wrecks everything we try to change as soon as we…
Tickets are continuing to sell rapidly for “Restorative Classrooms, Strong Classrooms” for both our Sydney (April 26th) and Melbourne (July 12th) events. What’s also a bit exciting is the plans we have “in the pipe” for Perth. So stick around for that news WA folk. We thought some people might want to know if they’ll…
Ever had conflicts occur in your classroom and then some significant difficulty in knowing who to believe about whose fault it was? One party seems highly emotional to the point of exaggeration while the other just flatly denies all involvement. Careful not to assume, we adopt the judicial process of “investigating” – because somehow we’ve…
This week, thousands of students around Australia will strike against government inactivity in regard to climate change. As a lifelong educator, it’s a wonderful thing to see. Despite being one of the vast majority of Australians who would support our governments taking more meaningful action about climactic demise, this isn’t the part that excites me…
Real Schools has undergone a period of rapid and sustained growth. It’s been so genuinely exciting to help so many schools transform through a focus on what really matters. We need some help with that. If you have Principal level experience and think you might like to put your hand up for the chance…
People often ask me why we can’t follow the lead of conservative politicians and just lead our education policy from a “get back to basics” point of view. “You know what’s wrong with education/kids these days,” they tell me, “they can’t read and write and they have no respect”. They belittle the so-called soft skills…
Bill Shorten is this week seeking to promote a voter friendly image when it comes to schools by announcing that under their governance $46million will be spent over four years to ensure that every Australian kid gets swimming lessons while at school. We can expect the Morrison government to announce a similar policy announcement in…
I second guess myself quite a bit. I find myself fretting over what I’m thinking about doing and whether it will work. And what it doesn’t? What will happen then? Since commencing Real Schools, I’ve come to learn that this thinking was actually engrained within me across my time as a Teacher and Principal. Doesn’t…
I went to my own kids’ annual school presentation ceremony last night. I love both of them dearly and I also value the wonderful contribution that their school makes to their growth. But here’s the truth – it isn’t exactly a riveting evening. And so, I kept myself occupied scoring the gender split when it…
I had the privilege of being in the audience for some staff presentations at Albanvale PS last week. These four PLCs have made commitments to challenge their practice through the work of our Real Schools Partnership in a variety of different ways in the first year of our collaboration. The Prep PLC looked at the…
I was speaking to a roomful of School Leaders in Sydney a couple of weeks ago and I said something that I hadn’t planned to. I like to be prepared for such keynote presentations but part of that planning is always to leave just a little room for ad libbing. Some would call it flexibility and creativity.…
Register here for this “don’t miss and completely FREE” opportunity on Tuesday 13th November at 3.30pm AEDT We know authentic collaboration within our schools makes massive impact on students…. and yet creating a culture where everyone is open to learning together and shifting practice is tricky! What are the elements of a staff learning culture that is…
The city of Boston has no law for jaywalking. You can just cross the road wherever you like and the expectation is that you’ll just have a good look around first and try not to cause a bingle (I’m quite sure use of the word ‘bingle’ in the US is somewhat limited though). You’d be…
Register here for this “don’t miss and completely FREE” opportunity on Thursday 18th October at 3.30pm AEDT There are dangers and perils to your school’s improvement agenda at every turn.I’d suggest that one of the most dangerous, and perhaps least spoken about, is what I refer to as Practice-Policy Gaps. Effectively, this is where you have…
