For anyone who still thinks that trying harder to make the old way work is the way ahead then you need to see what Simon Cooper-Hind did with the primary school where he was the head. If ever there was an example of Independent Thinking ideas in action then this is it, thanks to the imagination, commitment to make things better and a fearless willingness to take risks shown by Simon and his team.
Before taking the plunge to work nationally this summer, Simon had spent eight years as the headteacher of a council estate primary school wedged between two motorways just outside Southampton. Since taking over the school has gone from bottom of the heap to a position where they are consistently outperforming the Hampshire average. The school is now rated in the top 3% of schools nationally matched for added value.
The secret of his success? In a nutshell it was not doing as he’s told. Rather than towing the line, he did things in the way he feels they should be done, throwing the rulebook out of the window (they don’t do traditional lesson planning and they certainly don’t teach to the SATS – despite improving results year on year) and integrating many of the ideas advocated by Independent Thinking.
Simon has been in education for over 22 years, 16 of which have been in school leadership. He is also a consultant leader for the National College of School Leadership, has OFSTED training and is an accredited Performance Management Consultant. He is also working with a number of LEAs and schools to help them develop their own ‘learning community’ practices and regularly delivers his high energy INSET to schools around the UK.
Feedback about Simon's work from recent Events include:
- Simply inspirational – thank you
- Your presentation proved to be inspirational to all headteacher collgeaues who were there
- Over and above expectations– speaker very charismatic
- Very inspiring and motivational; Simon very charismatic; felt very involved
- Though provoking; confidence building; reassuring; fun!
- Our delegates found your keynote inspirational and it gave them an enthusiastic start to the day
- For Simon's prices click here
- People who benefited from Simon have also enjoyed Will Ryan
For more information about Simon’s work and to explore how Simon can work with your school - including the chance to lead a unique 'Show Me!' INSET session where he will work in your classrooms with real children and real teachers - please call the Independent Thinking office on 0709 239 9617 or e-mail us at learn@independentthinking.co.uk
Articles written by Simon Cooper-Hind: