Author Archives: mrmchatley

Respect is an interesting term – one that I think is misunderstood. Certainly over my time as a teacher, and now leader, my view on respect has changed. What hasn’t changed is the importance that I place on it. I’ll try to break it down. Respect has many phrases linked to it. Respect your elders.Continue reading “Respect – #DailyWritingChallenge”

On Saturday, after another poor showing in the staff quiz, my wife and I sat down and watched Yesterday. The film is fairly average (although the soundtrack is awesome) but we sat down, glass of wine in hand with one too many snacks on the table. In moments such as these, you can almost forgetContinue reading “All you need is love”

I am always fascinated by creativity. How do we define it? What does it look like? Is it an innate skill or something that can be learned? Can you teach it or is it just something that be nurtured? If I had to describe myself, creative would be very low on the list. I’m notContinue reading “Creativity – #DailyWritingChallenge”

Community is an interesting concept when it comes to schools. A quick look around school websites and you will find it somewhere – whether it be in the values, the information about the school or even, like my own school, in the vision statement. But what does this all even mean. Is it just whiteContinue reading “Community – #DailyWritingChallenge”

Wellbeing must be one of the most frequently used words in education recently, and not just as a result of Coronavirus. It’s hard to know whether it is because it has now appeared in the current Ofsted framework (the irony!) or because teachers have realised that a previous way of working was simply not sustainable.Continue reading “What about wellbeing #DailyWritingChallenge”

I became a Head in 2015 after 5 years of being a deputy head. I was reasonably young but was fortunate to have worked under an amazing Head who knew how to support and develop people and was relentless in her pursuit for the very best for the children in her school. The school IContinue reading “It’s all about Trust”

I thought a lot about this blog before writing it. There are so many ways that you could go with it. I also wanted to keep it in the positive. In December 2016, I organised a days training on Growth Mindset. It was something I had done some light reading on and wanted to explore.Continue reading “Growth #DailyWritingChallenge”

Loyalty Cards, Loyalty schemes, loyalty benefits, loyal customers – the list goes on and on. For every business there is a sound bite that goes alongside it about loyalty. But so what? Is it just white noise or does it really mean anything. One of my first jobs was working in a sports shop. LikeContinue reading “Loyalty #DailyWritingChallenge”

I recently wrote a blog here https://learningheadteacher.school.blog/2020/02/08/choose-the-right-lens-bringing-things-into-focus/ about choosing the right lens. I started by talking about looking at the glass and deciding if it was half full or half empty. In any given situation, you have the opportunity to look at things and try to find the positives, or see the negatives. It isn’tContinue reading “Glass half full”

The start of many a well known saying. But like so many sayings, what is the substance behind it. We’ve all no doubt been told at some point to ‘take an opportunity’ to do something, or that we ‘don’t want to miss an opportunity’. How do we go about turning these phrases into something moreContinue reading “Opportunity knocks”