Written by Zahara Chowdhury Zahara is founder and editor of the blog and podcast, School Should Be, a platform that explores a range of topics helping students, teachers and parents on how to ‘adult well’, together. She is a DEI lead across 2 secondary schools and advises schools on how to create positive and progressive cultures for staff and students. Zahara is a previous Head of English, Associate Senior Leader and Education and Wellbeing Consultant. The recent High Court decision, ruling in favour of headteacher Birbalsingh’s decision to ban prayer spaces has created quite the media ..read more

Written by Maz Foucher Maz is Regional Representative for the MTPT Project in Devon and a former Assistant Headteacher and KS2 lead, based in Devon. Having juggled full time teaching, school leadership and parenting, she has a great understanding of the challenges faced by those with a young family. After moving on from school-based roles, Maz studied for an MA in Education Leadership specifically researching teacher retention, and now works in education publishing. While researching teacher wellbeing and retention, I have often come across the suggestion that working part time or flexi ..read more

Written by Laura Gregory-White Laura is an RE Regional Advisor for Jigsaw Education Group. She has over 15 years experience as an educator and curriculum lead across Primary and Secondary. In today’s pluralistic society, where diversity is a fundamental part of who we are, conversations around diversity in schools and the curriculum are increasingly important. Subjects like Religious Education (RE) and Personal, Social, Health, and Economic Education (PSHE) are vital tools in our curriculum offering. Investing in these subjects, invests in our children and young people’s successful deve ..read more

Written by Gemma Hargraves Gemma Hargraves is a Deputy Headteacher responsible for Safeguarding, Inclusion and Wellbeing. I recently attended a national Pupil Premium Conference in Birmingham. The first speaker asked for people to raise their hands if they have personally experienced poverty – I have not, so I did not raise my hand. The number of people who did was striking. I was reminded of my experience at Bukky Yusuf’s session at the first Diverse Educators conference when we were asked how many boxes we tick in terms of diversity. I am very aware of my luck, my privilege, and whils ..read more

Written by Yasmin Ariff Yasmin Ariff is a Partner and Head of Quality at the CVP Group. CVP Group specialise in professional coaching training for managers and business leaders. They create coaching cultures across UK organisations, supported by the National Apprenticeship Service. I wish I’d found coaching earlier in my teaching career. It has made me a better person on so many levels. But it came at a cost. Having invested £8000 of my own money into coaching training, it’s fair to say, although it’s been worth it, it also broke the bank balance.  It made we wonder whether coachin ..read more

Written by Angel Hinkley Mathematics Teacher & facilitator of the Anti-Racism Society at Drumchapel High School. In the midst of the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict, a silence pervades many educational spaces. As a facilitator of an anti-racism club at my school, I’ve witnessed firsthand the impact of this silence. Young minds, already vulnerable to the nuances of prejudice and discrimination, now grapple with the weight of divisive rhetoric surrounding the Israel-Palestine conflict. They perceive this silence as implicit approval of ongoing injustices, further deepening their sen ..read more

Written by Dr Teresa Crew Dr Teresa Crew SFHEA is a Senior Lecturer in Social Policy with research interests relating to various social inequalities. More specifically Dr Crew's research explores the barriers faced by working class people in education. She is the author of the book "Higher Education and Working Class Academics: Precarity and Diversity in Academia" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020) which examined the experiences of working class academics. Her second book, “The Intersections of a Working Class Academic Identity. A Class Apart”, will be published by Emerald in July 2024. The ech ..read more

Written by Amy Sayer Amy Sayer is an associate, consultant, mental health trainer and content writer. She is a Leading Diversity advisor for the Chartered College of Teaching. She is the author of the book ‘Supporting staff mental health in your school’. When I was first training to teach in 2007, I wanted to impress everyone by working ridiculously long hours, volunteering to write new schemes of learning and exhausted my body to the point that by the first week of December I had a horrible chest infection and was in bed for four weeks recovering. I struggled with boundaries and puttin ..read more

Written by Nadia Hewstone Nadia is a certified executive school leadership coach. She left headship to start Destino Coaching and now supports school leaders with their own development as well as development of their teams. Below is what I shared at the ‘Breaking the Mould 2’ in Cambridge for #IWD2024. I would love to hear from you with your thoughts and reflections on the themes I explore: I am Nadia, founder of Destino Coaching – an organisation that supports Headteachers to remain strategic while tackling the enormous amount of operational challenges in schools.  I want headteac ..read more

Written by Joanne Robinson Joanne Robinson, BA, MA, PGCE, FCCT, is an education consultant with significant experience of leading teacher training programmes. Prior to this, she taught in secondary education for 16 years. She now delivers postgraduate courses and advises on programmes of professional development for schools. She is keen to promote inclusive education that centres upon the wellbeing and autonomy of teachers as well as pupils. I am writing this as an education professional with ADHD.  I am the parent of two children, one now adult, both with AuDHD (Autism and ADHD ..read more