Mindset of a Leader- Pt.2

Gemma’s blog has come about through recent training experiences the Grow Your Mindset girls have had, whilst out and about, working with middle leaders and SLT, to help them become the best version of themselves.

Here is the second part. Read the first part here.

In my number 3 spot, is someone I’ve only come across in the past few months, but has had an enormous impact. This is Jeremy Hannay, a headteacher in London. The reason I’ve been drawn to him is his unique desire to break the mould. The teachers we’ve had recently on our training, seem scared to death of ‘difference.’ Doing things that they believe are right, but what would Ofsted say? For example, they all recognize that they should be more transformational and spend far too much of their time doing transactional stuff, but when you discuss the reasons for this, it’s out of fear of disappointing someone else.

This is not Jeremy. He’s been brave and he’s been bold and got rid of the ‘noise’ from his school. Lesson planning, gone. Data collection, gone. Target setting gone. Learning walks, gone.

And this really is just the beginning. People told him he was crazy, people told him it wouldn’t work and that’s not the way to do things, but he stuck by his guns. His philosophy being, that if he improved staff well-being, this would in turn lead to his staff being better teachers, leading to better learning, leading to happy children who made good progress. And, when Ofsted came knocking earlier this year, his school was awarded ‘Outstanding’ in all areas. Do not get me wrong, although he was pleased with the grade, he is very clear on his feelings about Ofsted and the culture of fear that they have created in education and shortly after his inspection, wrote a ‘laid bare’ blog, addressed to Ofsted, stating just that.

My last inspiration comes from a leader who does everything for the children and the community that his school is in. Dave McPartlin, headteacher of Flakefleet Primary in Lancashire. You may recognize the name of this school as they were the first to get the Golden Buzzer, from David Walliams at this years Britain’s Got Talent. This headteacher truly believes in every single child at his school and promises to give them the most exciting, rich and inspirational education he possibly can. Like Jeremy, he ignores the sceptics, the pessimists and goes with his vision and dream and as BGT shows, he proved everyone wrong.

To have a local primary school do what Flakefleet did, showed everyone that dreaming big, was not just a lovely quote, but achievable and real. He’s now busying himself in another ‘Dare 2 Dream’ project, creating a better Fleetwood.

So there you have it, inspirational leaders in all walks of life, people to aspire to.

The author

Gemma Sanchez

Gemma Sanchez, co-owner of Grow Your Mindset, has the passion for and has experienced the impact that developing a Growth Mindset can have on an individual’s belief, attitude and focus towards learning and life. With 15 years primary teaching experience (including 7 years Special Educational Needs Coordinator) she has seen how successful developing a Growth Mindset can be. Her mission is to share her knowledge and experience to empower individuals to think differently and cultivate a passion for learning, no matter what their age or position – making education better! Gemma formed Grow Your Mindset formally in September 2018 and is in the running for 2 prestigious awards this coming June for She Inspires – Women in Education award and the E3 Small business start up award. Sue is on a mission to make parenting easy and has teamed up with Nexus Education to help teacher through her extensive experience. Sue is on a mission to make parenting easy and has teamed up with Nexus Education to help teacher through her extensive experience.

https://www.growyourmindset.co.uk/