If you are 'painting by numbers' in a world monitored and policed and controlled by 'bean' counters and 'keep within the line' checkers and 'weigh the pig' consultants, sadly all you get is mediocre outcomes... red lights flashing on the bridge and millions wasted on initiatives that make little or no real long term difference to outcomes for our children and young people.

Command and control doesn't work and we all need to wake up to the fact that critically what really, really matters is the quality of the learning teams, the quality of the leadership and the quality of the local services supporting our learning places. We need trusted, empowered and talented colleagues to release the magic!

We are trapped in a viscious spiral of negativity, of it's not good enough so let's do something else, let's create another intiative, let's get more consultants when we really need to reflect, think and get back to basics... vision, discipline, focus, passion, engagement, relationships and leadership. Let us nurture and support our learning teams to ensure that they deliver for our children and young people and let's take the best of what we do here in Leeds and learn from the best practice nationally and from Reggio Emilia, and from Sweden and Finland and Denmark and anywhere that will help us to build brilliant local provision.
Chris