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“Show up on time, know the text and have an idea.“ - Tom Hanks

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"Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt." William Shakespeare - Measure for Measure.

26 June 2025 As we reach the conclusion of this academic year, I’m writing 3 blogs to summarise all the joys, fears, pains and hopes that have populated  my world of work as Academic Principal. This first is largely a wrapper around an email I wrote this week to our 3 local MPs in M Maidenhead (Lib Dem), High Wycombe (Labour) and Beaconsfield. As you can read here – https://schl.cc:443/gZ – I’ve…

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The High Court decision on the TAX change by the Government (part 2)

Claires Court is one of over 1400 private schools who form part of the Independent Schools Council. The ISC Board met on Wednesday, 18 June. Below is the statement that was issued by ISC to all schools at 12 noon the next day. As you can see, the ISC Board has voted not to appeal against the judgment. You can find their explanation below my next 4 paragraphs of commentary. My view is that the…

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The High Court decision on the government's decision to impose VAT on Independent School tuition fees is to be published at 10am on Friday 12 June 2025

As a consequence this blog will be updated once analysts have viewed the papers and provided commentary to our sector.

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“Time passes, Lives change, but Memories last forever.”  Reflections on Thank a Teacher day.

National Thank a Teacher Day is an annual celebration of teachers and support staff across early years settings, schools and colleges. This year it will take place on Wednesday 18th June 2025. Last year over 82,000 Thank a Teacher Day personalised e-cards were sent​ and we had a media reach of 60,000,000 including national coverage on BBC, ITV, The Sunday Times, The Daily Express and The…

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"Conversation is a catalyst for innovation." – John Seely Brown*

Our annual Parent survey assists us – Principals and Heads – in hearing the voices of our customers, celebrating the successes and noting the ‘pointers for improvement’ as appropriate. All our staff met at the start of this term with me to check through the Summer weeks ahead; in addition to their academic and pastoral roles, they were asked to focus even more clearly on collaboration, not just…

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Lamplight of Peace - lessons from VE Day

80 years ago, over 5 million British men and women were recruited into the armed forces and deployed across the world. Thursday, 8 May 1945, saw Germany’s formal unconditional surrender, marking the end of World War 2 in Europe. While street parties were organised across the UK, publicity outside of the country had to be curtailed, because so many were still serving to keep order in Europe,…

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Academic Principal's Blog 25 April 2025

Firstly, may I give all of our parents, guardians and supporters a warm welcome back to school for the Summer Term. To those 14 new children and their families joining Claires Court this week, I can assure you of the sincerity behind this introduction, and I look forward to meeting with you somewhere on campus sometime soon. Whilst the world outside remains fraught with complexity and confusion,…

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The best teacher I ever had - Professor James Tootle Reason RIP 4 February 2025

The very nature of Humans is that we make mistakes, and most of the time, not deliberately. During the early introduction of ejector seats, the list of instructions to the pilot was firmly glued to the canopy. When identifying why pilots were involved in too many errors when using the said emergency escape, the accident investigators pointed out that Step 1 of the instructions, “Release Canopy”…

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In an era of 'fake news' the role of trained and professional journalists has never been more important. 

Wes Streeting Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, MP Ilford I will have been one of many millions this week who chose to watch and listen carefully to the Chancellor’s Spring Statement on Wednesday, to glean as best I could what the near and medium term economic future for the country looks like. The pundits reporting on the success or failure of her speech span from “She didn’t spook…

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"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Attr. Albert Einstein

-century physics actually said the above is of course neither here nor there. What’s true to understand is that ‘if we are what we repeatedly do’, then it’s best we as humans don’t keep doing that thing otherwise World War 3 is just around the corner. Oops, I didn’t write that. Einstein’s contribution to modern Physics is quite extraordinary, in so far as he invented it, single-handedly, either…

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Changemaking in this Diamond era - how to meet the challenge!

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Changemaking in this Diamond era - how to meet the challenge!

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Changemaking in this Diamond era - how to meet the challenge!

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Acts of Purpose - why teachers come to school.

It’s a year since our PTA AGM 2024, and we’ve just held our update for 2025. Over the past 12 months, during one of the more unstable periods of world history I’ve experienced, I’ve significantly changed my focus as a school leader, leaving the minutiae of running the secondary section of my school to another (thanks Steve) to focussing on the big picture work of being a school principal facing…

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Special Report: Navigating AI Relationships

I’ve recently written articles for Education press journals about our school’s own engagement with AI and its purposeful use in education, and in the research space I have become very aware of the growing concerns that parents specifically have for the amount of screentime they permit their children to have after hours. For me, there is a huge difference between TV screen time with family and…

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"The day that changed my life" - Andrew Watson

It’s Friday afternoon, 21 February 2025. Eight days ago, I attended Andrew Watson’s funeral service at St James the Less, Stubbings. The event was so oversubscribed that the church and parish centre (with a live broadcast) were full, and there was standing room only outside. The service was a remarkable showcase of his life, not just because of the size of the congregation but also because of the…