Author: Sam Crome
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5 ways to boost your teams this January
The mammoth 15-week autumn term ended with a triumphant spree of nativities, carol services, assemblies, events, sickness bugs, and, yes, for some reason, Ofsted inspections. Chances are, whether your spirits were sky-high, or dragging along the floor, you finished the term in a hurried flurry of getting everything done, or at least trying desperately to…
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Helping your teams to thrive in autumn term 2
I’m not a huge believer in obvious or cliché claims of cause and effect. Even as a child I found it irritating when someone linked being outside for too long with catching a cold. Sometimes, things just happen! Don’t read too much into it. But, when you run staff surveys throughout the school year, you…
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Thriving Teams: researchED national conference ’24
As ever, the researchED national conference was an inspiring day of learning, networking, and sharing. Luckily, the weather was milder than the scorcher of 2023 (and I didn’t have a flip flop malfunction this year), and Parliament Hill School hosted the event brilliantly, along with Helene, Tom and the big team of helpers. My aim…
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Stuck Teams
It’s a lot of fun exploring research about high-performing teams and applying the principles to your own teams. But sometimes, like anything exciting, it can seem a bit of a utopian dream when things aren’t going well. Every workplace, and every team, has its own context and circumstances, which is why I’m always reluctant to…
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Team vision: more than a stirring anecdote
Summer events often provide inspirational anecdotes for school leaders when addressing their teams, in September meetings or assemblies. An underdog, against-the-odds story from the Olympics. A holiday anecdote that demonstrates or celebrates different cultural norms. Perhaps, this summer, it will be the resilience and collaboration of communities in the face of riots. To my shame…
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Eleven Rings, by Phil Jackson
Opening Gambit I love Michael Jordan’s story and career. Growing up in the 1990s, I was too young to understand his talent beyond watching Space Jam and collecting the Tazos (yes, remember them?!) and hearing of the infamous Chicago Bulls team featuring Jordan, and led by the author of this book, Phil Jackson. Like many,…
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Hidden Potential, by Adam Grant
I love Adam Grant’s work. An organisational psychologist by trade, Grant explores motivation, teams, and potential, among many other things. In his book Think Again (blog here), he discusses how we tend to retreat to a bunker with our views and defend them till the end. He explores how we should think more objectively, seek…
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How dysfunctional is your team?
My researchED Warrington talk, 2024 When we think of a dysfunctional team, it’s tempting to conjure an image of a group of people arguing, scowling, raising their voices or storming out of rooms. Overt dislike, perhaps. Toxic leadership with malignant approaches to accountability, maybe. And yes, those things are bad. But the truth is, most…
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researchED National Conference 2023 – The Power of Teams
The National conference was always going to be special for me this year. John Catt and I worked out that, with my book draft submitted in spring, the release date would likely occur around this time. Sure enough, six months later, I had a very happy book launch day in and around the researchED National…
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The sun’s out! Let’s evaluate everything!
The summer term is often when the most evaluation occurs across our school teams. Planning afternoons, away days, and the ever-elusive ‘gained time’ prompt us to consider what we’ve been working on this year. The most effective teams will evaluate and debrief throughout the year, of course, ensuring that it is the norm to review…
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‘The research behind high-performing teams and how to lead them in schools’ – my researchED talk
Teams are fascinating to me, perhaps because I spent a chunk of my early career dismissing the value of teamwork. Inefficient. Unproductive. Too many voices. Then, as I began to lead teams, from an English department, to a tutor team, to a learning and teaching team, and many others, I began to revise this view.…
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Building trust and rapport with students outside the classroom
Building a thriving culture of excellent behaviour, mutual respect, kindness, and joy, are common aims of school leaders and teachers. We want to go to school every day and focus on what we do best: teaching our subject, using our expertise to help children make progress, and forming healthy relationships in a safe place. Everyone…
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researchED Surrey 2022 – reflections
On Saturday 8th October 2022, the sun shone gloriously across Surrey, thus enabling both a beautiful day for researchED-ers from across the country, and me the chance to open this blog post in clichéd fashion. The sun merely acted as a symbol for the energy and optimism of the hundreds of people who gathered at…
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What Every Teacher Needs to Know, by Jade Pearce
Why I read it I would have bought and read this book regardless, but I was lucky enough to read and give feedback on ‘What Every Teacher Needs to Know’ last autumn. If you have followed Jade, you’ll know that she has spent the last three years on Twitter sharing countless resources. Teaching and Learning…
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Thriving Teams #9: Team Mental Models
Some teams work together in intense, high-pressure situations. Military teams may face perilous situations as part of their day-to-day working life; medical teams have lives in their hands and must treat each one with the same level of care and expertise. For these teams, having a shared knowledge and language of what must be done,…
Sam Crome 