FED Council Member: Dr Adam England. I have been a headteacher or principal since 2004, serving in the UK and internationally. Originally a languages and sports teacher, I was dragged kicking and screaming into educational leadership and have been doing my best to do justice for the young people of the world ever since.
I started working internationally nearly 4 years ago and it’s probably the best career move I ever made. I have grown hugely as a person (maybe too much pizza there!) and my understanding of how to grow a school’s learning capacity quickly and effectively has also developed exponentially.
CIS is top of the World School Games Allcomers’ charts and boasts a sector-leading set of value added figures and a host of other improvements, especially its use of adaptive technology. School has run smoothly and efficiently during COVID, to the point that our board of directors commented that you wouldn’t know there’s a global pandemic on the loose.
Prior to being a head I was a pro rugby player and university academic (which was when I did my PhD), and they were both profound learning experiences for, especially in terms of understanding how to form teams of people, and teams within those teams.
I will carry on international work for the rest of my career, and mix that with working in the UK where I hope at some stage to talk sense to whichever government will listen, in the belief that depoliticising our education will help put it once more on a par with the global leaders in the field, a level which looks a long way beyond us for the moment – but we can change that and let’s hope we do,
