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Along with being a primary school teacher and leader, blogging is where this all started for Aidan. If it wasn't for his passion for writing and sharing his learning and experiences, he wouldn't be working as an education consultant with schools across the country today. Shared best practice should be available to all and here on the Aidan Severs Consulting blog you can get ideas for making a difference in your own school. The blog is also a great place to learn exactly the kind of work that Aidan can partner with your school on.
Subject Leadership and the Problem of TIME
Subject leadership has to be juggled with class teaching responsibilities, so realistic expectations of subject leaders are crucial.
Aidan Severs
Jan 12, 20233 min read
The 3 Cs of Curriculum Design
By thinking about continuity, correct coverage and consistency, school leaders can begin to think about how to design their curriculum.
Aidan Severs
Jan 11, 20235 min read
The Benefits of Being a Subject Leader
Subject Leadership can feel daunting, but there are so many benefits for teachers taking on such a role.
Aidan Severs
Jan 5, 20235 min read
What Can Book Scrutiny Actually Tell Us?
Book Looks or Book Scrutinies are a popular monitoring approach in schools. Here's how to get the most out of them...
Aidan Severs
Oct 10, 20227 min read
Learning To Fall: Learning To Succeed
Learning to fall is learning to succeed. "If you can't ride, can you fall?" "I suppose anyone can fall," said Shasta. "I mean can you...
Aidan Severs
Sep 5, 20225 min read
Teachers! Be More Batman!
I wrote this back in 2016, and since it is mentioned in Dr Emma Kell's 'How To Survive In Teaching' I thought it was time to feature it...
Aidan Severs
Aug 1, 20226 min read
What Looking At Children's Books Tells You That You Don't Need To Know
When it comes to book scrutiny (or book looks by their slightly less evil-sounding name) there are plenty of things that can catch our eye as we peruse the children’s work – only some of which can be really useful. There are other things which distract us, and which we can end up getting very hung up on. Before we explore what these things might be, it is important to clarify the purpose of looking at books, or, more broadly, children’s recorded outcomes. Why do we look at ch
Aidan Severs
Jul 25, 20227 min read
What To Do When Your New Initiative Fails
In this post we explore what actions school leaders can take when something they've implemented hasn't been well-adopted by staff.
Aidan Severs
Jul 11, 20226 min read
Helping Staff To Adopt Your New Curriculum
Having staff on-board with curriculum innovations is crucial to their success. In this post we explore 5 steps towards making this happen.
Aidan Severs
Jun 27, 20225 min read
3 Ways To Identify Your Subject's Improvement Priorities
For subject leaders, identifying priorities for development can be difficult. This article outlines 3 ways to prioritise well.
Aidan Severs
May 30, 20224 min read
How To Achieve Both Curriculum Cohesion And Teacher Autonomy
Not that long ago, back when I was a teacher and before I had any SLT responsibilities, I worked in a brilliant school where we teachers had a lot of autonomy. Sure, there too existed many structures to ensure accountability, but we also had the freedom to make many decisions for ourselves. One such area of liberty was in curriculum planning. I struggle now to remember what was actually on the school's long term plan but I do remember half-termly after-school planning meeti
Aidan Severs
Apr 25, 20225 min read
Teacher Wellbeing: The Three Things You Need
Teachers need three things to ensure good wellbeing: competence, autonomy and relatedness. Here's how schools can provide them.
Aidan Severs
Apr 21, 20223 min read
The Patient School Leader
School leaders' patience (an essential of the job) can be developed by wisely overlooking things, by speaking gently and by remaining humble
Aidan Severs
Apr 18, 20224 min read
School Leadership: Achieving Unity Through Harmony And The Recognition of Individuality
Each school is a body and every staff member has a part to play in making things work. Great school leaders bring about harmonious working.
Aidan Severs
Apr 13, 20223 min read
School Leadership: Hard or Complex?
Being a school leader is complex and therefore is difficult to do. When the job is becoming hard, the complexity needs to be reduced.
Aidan Severs
Mar 5, 20223 min read
From Paper to Practice: Beyond Curriculum Intent, and Into Implementation (Part 3)
Before reading this, make sure you've caught up on the prior blog posts in the series: Part 1 Part 2 Curriculum Implementation: Learning From Mis-Implementation Mis-implementation will occur. It’s what you do after it’s occured that really matters. All of the previously-mentioned parts of the implementation process present the risk of things not going to plan. Some undesirable things happen that weren’t even considered during the planning phase. When I arrived at my last sc
Aidan Severs
Feb 10, 20225 min read
From Paper to Practice: Beyond Curriculum Intent, and Into Implementation (Part 2)
Before reading this, make sure you've caught up on the first blog post in the series: Part 1 Curriculum Implementation: Getting Implementation Right By... The good news is, that you as head teachers will already be doing everything that you need to do in order for your curriculum implementation to be successful. You are already providing training to staff on a variety of matters. You are already giving staff planning time. You are already supporting in the development of tea
Aidan Severs
Feb 9, 202212 min read
From Paper to Practice: Beyond Curriculum Intent, and Into Implementation (Part 1)
The curriculum (intent) is done! Many schools are now in the position where, after a significant drive from Ofsted, and the realisation that the wider curriculum needed strengthening, their curriculum is all down on paper, and ready to be delivered by teachers. On the paper work, all the Is are dotted, and all the Ts crossed, and the shiny new curriculum has made its way into the curriculum guidance document that you hope against all hopes that teachers, in amongst their busy
Aidan Severs
Feb 8, 20226 min read
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