Category: boards

Celebrating the positive despite adversity

Sometimes the weight of the stories reported in daily news bulletins can, quite simply, be overwhelming. Pestilence, War, Famine, Death … if we listen carefully, can we hear the thunderous hooves of the Four Horsemen? Fear and anxiety certainly inhibit the creative act of putting pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, to capture and …

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Is Amsterdam calling …?

One of the hats I wear is that of the Chair of the Supervisory Board of the British School of Amsterdam – a role in which I have sought to do my bit for the school since December 2019, having joined the Board in 2017. It is a great school – no question of this! …

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Three pieces of advice for school leaders

It was a pleasure to participate in a panel last week at the WLSA (World Leading Schools Association) biennial conference for leaders of some of the world’s top independent schools, and I particularly enjoyed the fruits of the preparation which had gone into it. This included the curation of videos of current leaders sharing their …

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Sustainability: how Boards can – and should – contribute to net zero

COP26 is only a few months away, and is – quite rightly – focusing our collective minds globally on how we can move to net zero as soon as possible. Just in case anyone is still vague about the concept of ‘net zero’, this refers to the balance between the amount of greenhouse gases produced …

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How to learn to be a better Board member

One of the hidden elements of really good courses run by professional educators is the expertise, careful consideration and detailed planning that goes into ensuring that the course has really impactful outcomes for its participants. This means that the course needs to be designed in such a way and to set up the learners (for …

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Why learning for the sake of learning is transformational

I spent half an hour the other day learning about aphids. Did you know that there are 500 species of aphid in the UK alone? And that colonies of aphids often consist of females only, who give birth to live young who develop from eggs which are simply clones of the mother? And that they …

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Dusting down and revamping your Board Strategic Plan – 3 easy steps

I wonder … how relevant is your current Board Strategic Plan? You may, of course, have a sparkling, succinct, highly relevant Strategic Plan, which has adapted to the challenges of the last year, and which sets out clearly your goals for the next few years, as well a roadmap and timetable for how you are …

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“Diversity is not an absolute”

I have had such fun this past week! Genuinely! My kind of fun, just to be clear, involves engaging in uplifting dialogue with potential change-makers, with a view to making the world a better place; when I do, in whatever format this is, I come away energised, determined, positive, optimistic … what is not to …

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#betterboards course for International School Board members – starting next week!

Next week – the week beginning 25 January – Matthew Savage and I will release the first of 8 lessons in the LSC Education #betterboards course designed to help International School Board members focus in on what is really important in International School governance. Joining details will be popping into participants’ mailboxes over the next …

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Governance and the art of the possible

I think about governance every day – not surprising, really, given the Boards I chair or am involved with – and my reflections have been heightened recently, as, together with Matthew Savage, I have been putting the final touches to our 5 week flexible online course for international school Board members, #betterboards, which is launching …

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