Notes on behaviour, wellbeing and belonging, with honest ideas, quiet reflections and the small wins that add up – from real teachers in real classrooms.
The UAE’s 15-year-olds are among the most determined in the world, and improving faster than almost anyone. They are also slightly less likely than the OECD average to feel they belong at school. That gap is the one worth a leadership meeting.
In England, families are racing to secure support plans before the rules change. In the UAE, many are still working up to the first conversation. The child in the middle is the same child – and the people who bridge the gap are a school’s inclusion team.
Internal exclusion in England has nearly trebled in three years, and it falls hardest on the children with the least. The pattern was invisible until someone read schools’ own records. Most schools still cannot read theirs.
What the Meta settlement changes for teenagers in America – and what it leaves unchanged for the school watching a tired child at 8am.
What the DfE’s new linked-data study says about belonging and GCSE results – and what a school can do with it this term.
The Ministry of Education has published the 2026–27 calendar, and every write-up of it is a list of dates for someone booking a flight. Here is the year with its shape intact – and an honest mark on every date that still depends on a moon sighting.
KHDA inspections change in 2026–27: no more than 24 hours’ notice, and two types of quality assurance visit. What that actually means for Dubai school leaders.
Most schools already have values on the lanyards. The gap that undoes behaviour policies is the one between holding a value and having a shared, observable language for it.
Restorative practice isn’t five separate chats – it’s one conversation, built around five questions that move a child from defensive to reflective.
How a young Dubai school used houses, live displays and a shared language for wellbeing to turn individual recognition into something everyone shares.
When we looked at recognition patterns across schools, one correlation stood out – and it wasn’t the one we expected.
Behaviour systems that lead with consequences miss the point. The schools seeing real change start somewhere quieter – with belonging.
We won Rising Star: Start-Up Company of the Year at GESS 2025. Honest reflections on what it means – and the quieter moments that mattered more.
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