Why this website, why now?

We all know that great teaching is the only thing which will make a school truly great. Since 2020, however, recruiting staff has become ever more difficult. Retaining colleagues, once they have been attracted to work in schools, is equally challenging.

Beyond staffing, the job of leading schools has become increasingly tough in ways which do not require cataloguing here. Those colleagues doing the job know all about what they are facing.

Consequently, Jonny and John are publishing on this website materials derived from Putting Staff First. Everything they post on this website will be downloadable for free. They hope that colleagues accessing the content will find it helpful.

And why are the downloads free? Well, John and Jonny have always believed in the power of collaboration over competition. They think we should never take pleasure in “beating” another school as that means we are pleased young people in that other school haven’t done as well as our young people, and that is morally indefensible as an educator. 

A leader in a Putting Staff First school will think beyond what is in the interests of their own school as an institution and will think about the impact of all their decisions on the school down the road. By doing so, it makes it easier for the leader down the road to put their staff first. The more people who lead this way, the better the system will become because it is through our collective behaviour that the system will thrive or fail.

Furthermore, John and Jonny want to offer a free mentoring service to headteachers and principals. They have limited time, but they will be available to mentor a small number of colleagues via email, coupled with a half-termly, hour-long check-in via Zoom. If you’re interested, please head to the Contact page.

They aim to help school leaders find practical solutions to the problems faced whilst doing the day job.

This website is offered up with a huge dose of humility. Nothing presented here purports to be the final word, but just stuff that has worked for Jonny and John in their contexts, underpinned by the wisdom gleaned from decades spent leading schools.