Menu ≡

The 'Jenga' tower goes through three physical states during the course of a game: stability, instability and collapse. Once the tower is toppled, the game can only begin again by rebuilding the tower, brick by brick, layer by layer.

It would be impossible to play the game with - let's say - just three layers of the wooden bricks. The tower would be too simple and too solid to be toppled. The foundations would be so secure with just the three levels on their own, it would take all the fun out of the game.

When we consider why wellbeing programmes can fail in schools, we might consider this analogy of the game Jenga. Upon initial construction, the tower of blocks is completely stable. Gradually, as blocks are taken away from their stable foundations, layered on top of pre-existing blocks, often added on with little care or at an awkward angle, the once-stable tower starts to lose its integrity. It becomes lopsided, cannot handle any more layers and, ultimately, topples over completely, resulting in the tower needing to be rebuilt from scratch.

This analogy proposes that the leadership of student wellbeing has followed a very similar model of growth and instability in the last few years. Whereas we once relied on the most fundamental concepts - such as relationships, school culture and teacher wellbeing - as the basis for positive student wellbeing, in the post-Covid haste to become better informed and more sophisticated in our approach to wellbeing, we have layered on more and more expectations of teachers in terms of their knowledge and practices, resulting in instability and overload.

If the Jenga tower was a physical manifestation of student wellbeing, we would be blessed with the simplicity offered by three levels of 'bricks'. The foundations of student wellbeing, starting from these simple, stable levels would consist of:

1. strong and positive relationships in school between staff and students
2. a school culture that can support a meaningful wellbeing programme
3. a genuine focus on teacher wellbeing.

These three levels offer a stable base that can support the tower as it continues to build. Without these in place, or if they have been poorly established, anything added to this base is in danger of causing instability. Yet this is exactly what many schools did in the post-Covid rush to 'do wellbeing well'.

We added in complex science, changed our language, sought accreditation, increased our expectations on class teachers, spent money on 'off the shelf' wellbeing programmes/applications and all of these extra 'bricks' or layers toppled the tower for many schools.

Some schools have fallen victim to the simple mistake of trying to do 'too much, too quick'. Which is not to criticise or discourage those schools.

After all, Covid shook us all to the core, especially as our approaches to wellbeing and mental health were thrust under the spotlight, unfairly in most cases, as no one could have predicted the speed at which the profession was forced to respond to a global lockdown and the impact this would have on our students, families and communities.

This is an extract from the forthcoming The A - Z of Wellbeing by Jamie O'Dowd.

Jenga (April 2025)


Ambition is a funny word in the English language.
While on the one hand we encourage children to be ambitious - we plaster school corridors and classroom walls with messages like 'you can do anything', 'be what you want to be', 'reach for the stars', 'just do it' - as a nation we have an undoubted tendency to sniff out overweening ambition wherever it occurs, be it in our colleagues, friends or politicians, and then proceed to mistrust them for it.
Ambition (January 2025)

How can we support the sector to complete one of the more challenging puzzles? The issues surrounding Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) are there for all to see within the education sector. It appears that this is now beginning to gain traction outside of the sector, with additional funding noted within the recent budget announcements, and the National Audit Office (NAO) producing their report 'Support for children and young people with special educational needs'. The findings: an urgent need for reform.
Enhanced Provision - a piece to the puzzle (November/December 2024)


To my mind, school leaders possess determination, plus an indomitable will and passion for success. They show an interest in every aspect of their school, visiting all areas and speaking to all staff as often as possible. For example, standing in the foyer first thing in the morning allows leaders to greet staff, who can then book a meeting later in the day if they need to talk.
The Stories We Tell (September/October 2024)

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the current wave of change flowing through school education. The education sector is facing other significant challenges, including teacher shortages, growing student populations, and the increasing complexity of teaching roles.
The Next Word Consultancy: We can shape a bright future with the right words...
Artificial intelligence and teachers: augmentation not replacement (July/August 2024)

A few months ago, as I was walking to a meeting in Westminster, I came across a police cordon blocking my route. As I contemplated how I would get to my destination, several police motorbikes came into view, headlights flashing. Close behind was a convoy of chauffeur-driven limousines, with more police escort bikes taking up the rear. The cavalcade swooshed past effortlessly and disappeared rapidly into the distance on the empty road.
Cavalcade (June/July 2024)

Successful leaders don't just improve schools, they transform them. Everyone wants to lead a good and effective school. Everyone taking over a school in trouble wants it to recover and return respectability to the education it provides to its children. However, some leaders set ambitions that achieve these aims more effectively or quicker. Conversely, school improvement is often limited by leaders' lack of ambition. Rarely do schools achieve their aims better or quicker than the ambitions that their leaders have set.
The A - Z of School Improvement (April 2024)

Recently schools received detailed guidance from the Department for Education on banning the use of mobile phones in school. A 'non-policy for a non-problem' was the response of one teaching union.
Real policies to solve real problems (March 2024)

As a child I was a keen member of the Zoological Society of London's Young Zoologists Club. I remember making the long journey to Whipsnade Zoo to see the critically endangered Pere David's Deer. Extinct in their native China, the deer in Whipsnade were part of British/Chinese collaboration to bring these unique animals back from the brink and reintroduce them into the wild.
Stewardship (February 2024)

I started my teacher training course at the University of Leeds on Monday 17th September 2001. I remember the specific date because it was less than one week after the horrific events at the World Trade Centre on Tuesday September 11th.
A failure to invest in education risks our future prosperity (January 2024)

The current inspection paradigm has long since outlived its original purpose. The case for inspection is that it provides an independent, external evaluation and identifies what needs to improve for provision to be good or better.
Appreciative Enquiry: A New Inspection Paradigm (January 2024)

Once we have designed an ambitious curriculum which is broad and balanced, planned and sequenced, and offered it - with equality - to all students, we need to ensure that all students can access that curriculum and achieve.
The Working Classroom: How to make school work for working-class students (December 2023)

We are the firefighters, called in when things need calming. We are the referees, called in when we need to take back control. We are the Avengers, arriving with a fanfare to right wrongs and ensure justice is done. And, to be fair to us, those are all valid roles for a senior leader and ones that we're generally rather good at fulfilling. When called upon to do so, we act quickly and appropriately to maintain the good order of the school.
Jumping? (November 2023)

This independent article from Alison Jeffery, Director for Children's Services for East Sussex County Council is part of the LGA children and young people's mental health think piece series. Alison has written this piece in a personal capacity and explores the question 'what would a good 'whole system' set of services and policies to support mental health and wellbeing look like?'.
Reforming the mental health system for children and young people (October 2023)

Mr Hargreaves was an inspirational teacher who led me to some success in A level chemistry a few decades ago. He was young and enthusiastic, creating multicoloured Banda sheets (a forerunner to laser printers, Google 'Banda spirit duplicator' to have a giggle) by the ream. The whole class looked forward to his lessons: he was clear about class rules, demanding in the amount of homework and revision we had to do, merciless on those who didn't, and supportive of all his students.
Looking back, thinking ahead (September 2023)

Getting the climate right through teacher agency, shared understanding, shared ambitions. Through building strong relationships, having high expectations. It may be even MORE important to be mindful of these issues where the majority of children are growing up in families with more stable, higher incomes.
Addressing disadvantage with small numbers of disadvantaged pupils (June/ July 2023)

There are a lot of things at Aiglon College, Switzerland, about which we can be proud, but one aspect stands out for me - it is our scholarship programme.
Inter-school collaboration has never been more important (May 2023)

Nobody rises to low expectations.
Once the first foundation stone of strong, positive relationships is firmly in place, we need to take a look at the second of those three foundation stones: working with young people to set clear, consistent and high expectations. You may have heard the saying that nobody rises to low expectations. That's why we firmly believe that expectations should be set high for all young people. High expectations set the aspiration that young people and all those around them are able to be safe, content and at their best.
'Curious Not Furious' (March/ April 2023)

When Rishi Sunak announced in his first speech of 2023 that all students should continue to learn mathematics to the age of 18, I am sure I wasn't the only educationalist to be somewhat surprised. When had this major policy announcement been discussed with the profession?
Mathematics for all? (February/ March 2023)

Marsha Ivins, a veteran of five space shuttle missions who logged over 1,300 hours in space, was asked by one of our students, 'So how do you go to toilet in space?' Her smile told me it was a question she had often fielded. Her answer, although given hundreds of times by her, was original for every child asking the question for the first time.
Open your classroom window (January 2023)

If I were education secretary, I would expect to reverse the current position, and to be seen as more influential than Ofsted.
If I were Education Secretary (December 2022)

International schools are free to choose from the best educational initiatives around the world, unshackled from the administrative handcuffs of national and state regulations.
Aim High, Work Smart, Care Deeply (September/October 2022)

Given the unusual way the schools white paper and SEND green paper were published on consecutive days in late March, it is understandable that the sector is still trying to make sense of them.
2030 vision: we need to talk about speech and language (July/August 2022)

The simplest sentences are often the most impactful. That was certainly the case in Roy Blatchford's monthly column in March:
"If you read no further than the end of this sentence, please watch the YouTube video Frank Cottrell-Boyce supporting the Essex Year of Reading - Essex County Council."
10 reasons why reading aloud matters (April/May 2022)

It is the start of term and for INSET day an engaging and inspirational speaker has been booked. It is a financial investment but they have a great reputation on the conference circuit and some glittering reviews.
Learning Strands (February 2022)

When I was starting as a headteacher, I was given the advice, Remember to lead as you.
This is a most valuable piece of advice and one I often return to. And it has never been more important than in the past two years, when we have all been asked to give more than we ever thought we would.
Lead as yourself (January 2022)

This is an extract from Chapter Seven of Jean Gross's recently published 'Reaching The Unseen Children'
The seven secrets of self-efficacy
This is the most important chapter in this book. It is important because it introduces a concept which is relatively unfamiliar to educators, but profoundly important in improving outcomes for disadvantaged children.
Reaching The Unseen Children (December 2021)

We appear to be making the leadership of SEND increasingly complicated. The danger of creating this overly complex approach is that it persuades teachers across the country that they may not be sufficiently expert enough to help children experiencing difficulty.
Leading great SEND provision in schools (November 2021)

The learning scientist
The critical success factor in the education system will always be the teacher. It is essential today that teachers are supported to develop the skills, subject knowledge, attitudes, behaviours, pedagogical content knowledge and digital skills required to thrive in the classroom environment. The recently published teaching report by the Economist Intelligence Unit, sponsored by Microsoft, laid stark some sobering data.
The learning scientist (October 2021)

At the cutting edge
Teaching is moving at a pace, and there has never been a more exciting time to become a teacher. We know more now than we have ever known about how the brain works, and teachers can be more confident than at any time in history about the science of learning. What's more, there is still so much left to discover.
At the cutting edge (September 2021)

Great news! Primary languages are rubbish!
Ofsted blog: schools, early years, further education and skills
As the subject lead's blog on the Ofsted website explains, inspectors recently visited 24 primary schools, all rated excellent at their latest inspection, to assess the quality of their languages teaching.
Great news! Primary languages are rubbish! (June 2021)

Rethinking assessment: in praise of ePortfolios
The long-term impact on education systems caused by the Great Pandemic of 2020/21 will take many years to play out. Emergency remote teaching became the mode through which education systems tried to overcome the impacts of school closures, and most schools turned to EdTech for solutions.
Rethinking assessment: in praise of ePortfolios (May 2021)

Shaping the legacy of COVID-19
During a particularly difficult stretch of the lockdown, my professional coach invited me to engage my curiosity. This prompted me to consider the enormity of the pandemic from an entirely different perspective. I remain curious. Necessity may have been the mother of invention during lockdown but as the world returns to a semblance of normality, school leaders will need to ponder next steps.
Shaping the legacy of COVID-19 (April 2021)

Changing the image of teaching
Education is in the spotlight in a way it hasn't been for decades, and much has been said about how teaching can 'build back better' after the pandemic. Yet step back from all the talk of 'catch up funding' and ways our classroom practice can be improved by having taught online, and there's an even bigger picture.
Changing the image of teaching (March 2021)

Culture
The most effective strategies give teachers and other staff the capacity, expertise, knowledge and development to meet the needs of their pupils and improve them as learners. Teacher agency and buy-in are fundamental to success. They all complement one another, working together to support the development of a culture of inclusivity where pupils' needs are understood and assessment drives action.
Culture (February 2021)

The pandemic will be remembered in the words of Dickens as "the worst of times" and, in the most unintended ways, also "the best of times". Before the lockdown, the challenge for our kind of schools was finding the sweet spot between theoretical and experiential learning. After the move to virtual learning, it has become about finding our collective 'ikigai', or finding our reason for being.
Online passages from India (January 2021)

In a week when the government has threatened councils with legal action over decisions to switch to online learning over coronavirus fears, I feel the urge to celebrate the considerable merits of online learning. Such threats almost cast a slur on the very concept of online learning and, given our positive experience as a state secondary school, I am compelled to make a case for the defence.
The case for the defence: online learning (December 2020)