Bad School Leadership with Omar Akbar (aka Teacher's Manual)

This weeks I am in conversation with Omar Akbar; Teacher, Author- The Unofficial Teacher's Manual: What they don't teach you in training; Bad School Leadership (and what to do about it) .  We are nattering about  school leadership, the good and the bad! This is a very positive podcast with some great takeaways.

The natter

From the introduction of the book , tell us a little bit about you and your 15 years teaching across 4 schools?

  You say this book is about the mismanagement of the system , what do you mean by this and what can we do about this ? 

 You kick off the book with relationship building and Rick astley ....tell us how important relationships, empathy and communication are for leaders

 Observations can be controversial but also useful , what are your www and Ebi here ? 

 Learning walks , deception walks and urine tests . How can we ensure visits to lessons are beneficial for all ?

 Book scrutiny and deep dives , what is a secret dossier and how can leaders be more transparent? 

 Behaviour - when in doubt blame the teacher for not engaging the learners . Is this common and how do we support teachers with behaviour so they are empowered and not undermined ? 

 Meetings - what is a Botox meeting ?  

 How do we support NQTs so they end up like the one on that recruitment advert

How important are unions and why should we stand by our unions ?   

How does shift happen ? What can we do to achieve a new normal ?

Let’s finish as you do with some myth busting! Share a couple with listeners ?   Where can we find out more ? 

Useful links 

https://theunofficialteachersmanual.blog/

John Catt sponsorship 

Here is a code for the first week: POD30. If listeners enter that where prompted on the SHOPPING CART page (not the CHECKOUT - people often slip up with that!), they will get 30% off any order from JohnCatt.com until the next week’s show.