#WomenEd Blogs

by #WomenEd Strategic Leaders

#WomenEd has held five unconferences at the beginning of October since we were founded in 2015. The global pandemic means we can’t do a face-to-face one this year. So we are going even bigger and taking the opportunity offered by our lockdown learning.

Announcing our online global unconference over 2nd, 3rd, 4th October 2020. 

by #WomenEd Strategic Leaders

#WomenEd is in its sixth year and we have, in that time, changed beyond our earliest imaginings. Our core strategic group has changed many times also and we have always sought the strongest and most committed voices to steer the group.

by Christalla Jamil @ChristallaJ

Are you sometimes a headteacher out of work too? I certainly am. Sometimes my husband says, “You’re not at work now darling.” Or my children, who are both adults, chuckle and add, “Oh there she goes again, Mum thinks she is our headteacher!” Yet both these examples are paired with an element of humour. Today, I was hurt, emotional, angry, disappointed, frustrated, powerless and instantly went into headteacher mode. What would I do if this happened at work mode?

by Megan Brown @mbhistory

Anyone entering the teaching profession will have been asked the question ‘Why do you want to be a teacher?’.  You are almost guaranteed to get asked it at an interview for a place on a teacher training course, and it should be the easiest to answer. Yet, when I sat down to plan for my interview I found myself struggling to articulate one. This shouldn’t have been the case: I have wanted to be a teacher my whole life. I just couldn’t find the right words to express why.

by Vivienne Porritt @ViviennePorritt #BirthdayCelebration

I loved our 5th #WomenEd birthday party on May 19th, 2020. Nearly 500 people booked it, over 300 joined on the evening.

I’m looking forward to reading all the comments and have appreciated going through the amazing tweets from the party. 

The video from the evening is on our YouTube channel as are videos from some of our brilliant network leaders: please subscribe. 

by Susan Strachan  @SusanSEnglish  #BirthdayCelebration

Tonight on 18th May, , I met virtually with 300 other women to listen, learn, reflect and be inspired by a plethora of strong women, who are not afraid to have their voices heard. Some of these women know what it can be like to have the guilt of not doing enough or being enough. They banish that guilt  (No 3 in the tips from Zara, @zssnas) or remind themselves that they are enough.

It gave me hope. Hope that this guilt will be banished for good. Not only from myself, but from my own daughter and every other female that I come into contact with, not only in my professional life, but in my personal life too.

by Jess Mahdavi-Gladwell @drjessm   #BirthdayCelebration

On March 7th I was privileged to attend the @WomenEdSE #LeadMeet. It was brilliant on so many levels, I got to see my friend Kate Evans (@purekathryn76) in a different role and saw her shine (I also got to meet her mum who is a legend!).

by @WomenEd Strategic Leaders        @AlisonKiel @EquitableEd @JulesDaulby @keziah70 @LizAMFree @ViviennePorritt

#WomenEd is hurtling towards its fifth birthday in May and, when we pause to reflect, we have collectively achieved so much. Five years ago, the original founders shared a collective vision of what we hoped to achieve and agreed an initial strategy to achieve this.

by Dr Deborah Netolicky @debsnet

The last couple of weeks have been hectic around the world and the pace of change at all levels has been rapid and relentless. In Australian schools, leadership teams and teachers have been preparing for distance learning.

by Debs Jewell @jewellsjournal   Image: The Tree of Life - by Gustav Klimt, 1905

We bandy about the term ‘It’s okay to not be okay’, heck I’ve thrown it out there into the world myself, and with the best intentions. But … is it?  Is it really okay to not be okay?

by Anoymous

Your discomfort is palpable as the questions draw to an end. The parent governor on the panel is smiling warmly, but I can see that, although my performance today makes me the strongest of all the candidates, you are hesitant about employing me.

by Katie Ridgway @MissMeeks14

‘What-if’s’ and ‘maybe’s’ move erratically through my mind. Tonight, sleep eludes me, like it will be for many of my colleagues in the education sector. I have an anxiety disorder and have recently completed a course of CBT, but right now my breathing pattern strategies are of no help to me.

by Kathryn Evans @purekathryn76

My husband has often mused that if I have the option of two different pathways, I will always choose the harder journey. To this, I always reply that the journey may be hard but the learning will be of greater value and the sense of achievement even greater

I am incredibly proud of the success of the @WomenEDSE #LeadMeet on International Women’s Day 2020, which was held at my workplace, Archbishop Courtenay Primary School in Maidstone, Kent. The sense of team, collaboration, community and support was tangible.

by Kate Brown @katebrown2016      Thursday 5th March: #LeadMeet for #IWD2020 at Dr Challoner’s High School, Buckinghamshire. 

There is an undeniable irony in that even as I write this blog, I am all too aware of the fact that the reason I have never published my reflections previously is the belief that my thoughts are not as interesting, engaging or impactful as those of the Edu-Twitter community that regularly share their ideas and whom I admire.

By Lisa Hannay  @lhannay1

Friday, March 6 marked @WomenEdAlberta’s second #LeadMeet in honor of International Women’s Day 2020. Planning began a few months back and much to my delight and surprise @cvkraig traveled all the way from Lloydminster, Alberta, a wee 6 hour drive from Calgary. Here lies the obstacle of “in real life” events in Alberta, never mind Canada. Our country is beautiful and magnificent but massive in terms of geography.