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What fatherhood has taught me about education (so far)

I'm not pretending to have been totally transformed (yet), but as Henry approaches his first birthday I have a few reflections on what I get up to as a result. Most are niggles that have been at the back of my mind for a while. These reflections are gathered from a wide range of schools. Also - I don't pretend that education is unique.

1. I have become less tolerant of people who waste my professional time. The lovely young people I teach every day never waste my time, however, meetings, Inset and people out to climb the ladder rather than improve learning. For example, when I'm in a meeting after school I know that I'd rather be at home. This is especially the case when the meeting isn't achieving anything. Some solutions:
  • If a meeting is for information only, email it out.
  • I find that speaking little and often is far better than long, after school meetings
  • Meetings should have a clear purpose, for example to discuss how a new unit should be tackled. Then, stick to it.
  • It's much better to be providing enrichment opportunities for young people and good quality, proactive CPD opportunities after school than hold meetings.
2. I have become more tolerant of people who have family issues. That's young people and staff. I get it now. There are more important places than school.

3. I have found that my core principles are more important than ever (if a little harder to stick to). However, one that is clearer to me now is that teaching is just a job. This upsets some people, but I grew up with an absentee dad. This means that I don't mond that I haven;t spoken to him much in the past 17 years. I'm not going there. I've also started to prioritize again with mad challenges with my closest friends. This also means that my responsibility as a subject leader is to learning first, but also my team's well being and work-life balance.

4. Most 'CPD' opportunities are rubbish. This is a wider comment aimed at most LA's, CPD providers etc. There is very little great quality face-to-face CPD out there. Since Henry came along I have change the opportunities that take part in.

5. Getting learning right beyond my school is more important than ever.
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