The only way to survive is to breath deep and dive

by hannahejones on 2 February, 2010

A dear friend, Lisa Gates, shared with me this 3 minute YouTube video clip of poet Andrea Gibson performing a piece entitled, “Dive”.
(contains strong language) [click to continue…]

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If you had a family or personal motto what would it be?

by hannahejones on 20 January, 2010

Parents with two children

This week my husband and I have asked ourselves some questions that have made us both think deeply about what we really want out of life. In doing so we have consciously decided to steer our lives rather than just to see where we end up.

We decided that what we enjoy most are experiences. We love going on holiday and exploring new places, we love being together as a family and we love having time to pause long enough to enjoy and appreciate what we have right now.

Our family motto is “Experience Life Together”


Our family vision includes:

  • being able to afford great holidays to new places each year
  • making time every week to explore the United Kingdom’s fabulous towns, cities, parks, houses, beaches, castles, adventure playgrounds and coastlines…
  • consciously enjoying the time we spend together

I am starting to appreciate that knowing what you want in life can help you to direct your work choices and help inform your strategy for creating a working day that fits your life, rather than a life that fits your work.

We want to work to live. We want to work to Experience Life Together.

What do you want?

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iMindMap helping schools maximise their potential

January 14, 2010

Congratulations to Ysgol Gyfun Bro Morgannwg, South Wales, who recently won the prestigious Becta IT Excellence Award for Best School in Wales, 2009. These awards aim to identify and reward whole school excellence in IT and reward those organisations who support school improvement.
You can read more about how this school achieved award winning results with [...]

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What could you do with mind mapping in your school?

December 30, 2009

I have just realized that mind mapping is alive in my son’s primary school classroom.
Yesterday I created a mind map of the things that I wanted my boys and I to achieve by the end of the day. I drew the mind map on my 5 year old’s white board just after breakfast and then [...]

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Who is taking responsibility for your learning?

November 2, 2009

For many teachers, performance management reviews have come and gone for the year. Consider your responses to these questions:

Who is in control of your learning choices for the coming year?
If not you then who is and what can you do to regain control?

I learn best when I am control and I chose what I learn, when. However, left [...]

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What have you done recently to create energy?

October 26, 2009

In his latest blog Paul Blogush writes:
“The work that the kids do that is the best is always based on spontaneous ideas, not the ones that are slowly shaped over time, edited and revised.
It seems as though sudden light bulb moments create an energy within them that carries through to the end.”
Ain’t it soooo true!
Paul [...]

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Building Resilience

October 23, 2009

Last week Robert Latham from Teacher Support Network answered questions on the Times Educational Supplement (TES) Forum. His response to a question about Ofsted inspections really works for me on many levels:
“Building resilience is an essential part of managing stress. If you want to build your resilience, work on developing these attitudes and behaviours:

Think of [...]

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West Berkshire Council pioneers engagement study in schools

October 22, 2009

Today, my friend Sian Bryant sent me an article which supports my conviction that measuring staff satisfaction can really yield value when deciding and prioritising resources.
In West Berkshire some schools have action plans to address issues raised and some have formed working groups to implement changes after their school participated in a staff engagement survey.  Lisa Poole, HR co-ordinator for schools in [...]

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Early Headship Funding Changes

October 16, 2009

The way that Early Heads are funded is changing, the flexible grant is being phased out and all heads will need to have spent any monies left from their flexible grant by March 2011, or 3 years from date awarded, which ever is sooner.
I have put together a mindmap of the options available to Early Heads in London [...]

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Friday FUNdays

October 9, 2009

How often do detach ourselves from the problems of today and really give ourselves space to develop our futures? I know a fabulous lady who has built a successful edubusiness doing just that:
Jessica Higgs is passionate about enabling children to learn and does so through her pioneering brand of coach-tutoring. She has spent the past [...]

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