A slow laptop. A locked stationery cupboard. A behaviour system with fifteen clicks. None of these will ever appear on a school improvement plan, yet collectively they can steal hours of teachers’ time. Inspired by years of watching the Tour de France, this blog explores why the best school leaders don’t just improve teaching—they remove the friction that stops great teaching from happening.

One small word helped me with clarity when giving feedback

How coaching itself isn’t enough. Good schools build a culture of feedback and psychological safety

… if they only ever read in reading lessons. We need to craft time for them to relax and settle into reading. If it increasingly isn’t happening at home then we need to make sure it happens at school

Some mistakes I cringe at and lessons I’ve learnt from working in schools serving areas of high deprivation

All schools have interventions to help children catch up. Here are my thoughts about what makes interventions at my school more successful

When a child is brought to my office, it can be tempting to resolve it right there and then but is that a missed opportunity for a restorative between the child and the teacher?

The doom of the planned lesson observation. A dreaded performance by teachers and a chance for us headteachers to sit and watch some nice teaching which makes a welcome change from writing the SDP or the SEF or dealing with a parental complaint. But is that really the most effective way to judge teaching and learning?