Author Archives: Joe Kirby

About Joe Kirby

School leader, education writer, Director of Education and co-founder, Athena Learning Trust, Deputy head and co-founder, Michaela Community School, English teacher

Go Upstream

When under pressure, go upstream. Work out what to preempt. “We need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they are falling in” Desmond Tutu The parable of the … Continue reading

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QA must die

QA warps time, trust, thinking, teaching, leadership and learning. Dismantle it. Beloved of bureaucrats, the central problem with Quality Assurance (QA) in schools is that it is for top-down management and overrated compliance, and not for frontline teachers or staff.  … Continue reading

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Athena dreams 

  At Athena, we dream of becoming a leading champion for teachers, headteachers and school support staff.  We dream of creating a world where… All kids get to go to a great school All trusts work together for all children … Continue reading

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No More Meetings

Scrap meeting misery. Let’s turn our get-togethers into great conversations.  *** Time is a school’s scarcest – and most often squandered – resource. One of the biggest gripes from teachers and school leaders is they spend too much time in … Continue reading

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How Athena sees the world

How can schools best work together? A question on the minds of the best school and trust leaders I know. And it’s part of the reason we started Athena. Athena is a learning trust, a family of schools, that we … Continue reading

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Snowball Uplands: where do we want to get to in our student and staff experience?

Knowing where we’re going in school improvement – heading for great learning, great knowledge, and a great student and staff experience – lets us light the way for those around us.  Millions of teachers, headteachers and school staff all round … Continue reading

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The Crucible: Hearing our Headteachers

‘We burn a hot fire here; it melts down all concealment.’ The Crucible Asking and listening to our headteachers, and sharing our questions and thoughts with each other as heads, could help us help our schools.  There are over 2 … Continue reading

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Hornets, Slugs, Bees and Butterflies: not-to-do lists and the workload relief revolution

How can we as school leaders support teachers and staff? How can we as teachers and staff best support each other as colleagues and allies?  Nothing matters more than people in schools, and each other. One of the most scarce … Continue reading

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The great brain battles in learning

Knowing our brains’ struggles can help us learn, and help others learn.  Classrooms: ‘It’s only a wasp! Ignore it!’ [uproar] ‘Got it, everyone? All clear?’ [tumbleweed] “Great!”  ‘You should know this! We only did it last week!!’ [blank looks] Staffrooms: … Continue reading

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Seeing blind spots: how can we know our school well? 

You start in a new school. What do you most need to know?  Schools are fiercely complex: a hundred staff and a thousand students have millions of interactions every day.  Some schools feel friendly: there are smiles, chats, jokes, fun, … Continue reading

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