[Applause]
as a child I was in all of this toolbox
because my granddad’s toolbox seemed to
have a tool for everything my granddad
seemed to be able to use these tools to
solve problems that need everyday
problems that needed fixing for example
for the broken bounced on bed that we
bounced on of course it was a series of
plates and bolts and rivets constructed
together to make this new frankenstein
bed even stronger than before and for
the problem we had a freezing cold
clothes in the morning in the house that
I grew up in as a child with no central
heating and ice that was on the inside
of the windows my granddad designed this
carefully constructed wooden shelf that
SAT over the only storage heater in the
house and we then had warm toasty
clothes but my granddad’s Gracie acid
was not the fact he could teach us to
use these tools but he he taught me the
tool of leadership he taught me how to
lead myself he taught me how to lead he
taught me that leadership was a multi
tool that could apply to anything and
here i am a generation later as a head
teacher and everyday i use that tool of
leadership to overcome the everyday
problems that i face but every day I
come into school I see a generation
where many children don’t know how to
lead themselves they’ve never been
taught in it perhaps can be taking the
form of the mass problem that they face
and they don’t know how to do it so they
just give up or they quickly write an
answer that they know to be wrong just
to keep the teacher quiet or maybe it’s
that relationship difficulty they have
and so they just melts down and they
freeze or they run to their parents to
solve it for them you see this problem
though isn’t just isolated to the UK in
my trip to Kenya to see some of the
poorest communities in Nairobi and
navassa I came across a similar thing so
for example in the project that we saw
there was Kennedy who didn’t get the
point in school so he just didn’t bother
turning up and then there was Beth who
was afraid of how the teacher
might be harsh with a wrong answer and
so she just froze and just didn’t say or
say a word you see similar problems
again to the UK and in both countries we
see poverty mindset seen children poor
thinking maybe you’ve come across these
two you know you’ve got that hopeless
thinking when I come across a problem
and they just can’t do it and so they
just remember all the times when
everything else has gone wrong and it’s
hopeless it’s hopeless I just can’t do
it I’m useless or maybe it’s that lazy
thinking they just sit there and let the
teacher do it for them or maybe it’s
that recycled thinking when they leave
their Hut their homework to the last
minute every time and every time they
feel anxious but yet they keep doing it
the saddest one for me though is the
fixed thinking the child that perhaps
gets a bit angry and every time they get
angry they end up getting in a fight and
every time they get in a fight their get
in trouble and every time in trouble
they say the same thing it’s just me
it’s just the way I am I have a
behavioural difficulty there’s nothing I
can do about it or maybe it’s stuck
thinking you know they have that
difficulty and so they just leave it for
a friend of salt for them or for the
teaching assistant to come and take over
you see in both countries we see these
poverty mindsets and these poverty
mindset strap our children in a story of
defeat and without mindset change that
story will remain the same and so we
need to teach them the secret of
granddad’s toolbox we need to teach them
how to lead how to lead themselves we
need to teach them that leadership will
help them pick up their life pin again
and write that new story you see just as
my granddad’s taught me how to lead
myself we need to teach children how to
lead and so that’s what we did in a
project in the UK and in Kenya my new
friend John from works with the school
llll theory school in Nairobi in Kenya
and I work with four schools in Suffolk
in the UK and we taught them seven
leadership mindsets in a multi-sensory
way we taught them first of all to lift
up their head we did this activity where
we had them pecking like chickens and
all they could see was the stuff in
front of them and then we taught them to
be Eagles to be up high to look around
to see the panorama to realize actually
the problem they fell
huge is actually tiny in comparison and
actually there are things around them
that can help them so what was the
impact of that well what we saw a new
theory school and in no theory school
they got them to score themselves 125
about how they felt about themselves
with five being the highest and before
the project we have eighty-one percent
of them scoring themselves to or below
but by the end of the project we had
ninety percent of them scoring
themselves for or above they began to
lift up their heads and then we taught
them to see themselves as a leader and
what we do there is we got children to
think about good leaders that in you and
bad leaders that they knew and we got
them to think about how good leaders
lift them up how badly does push them
down we got them to think about what is
a goodly to think what is a good leader
say and what is a good leader do and to
apply that to themselves and then of
course once they realize what a good
leader could say think and do they could
apply that to themselves and so what’s
the impact of that will we saw this
wonderful example from one of it the
year three children in Bosnia school in
the UK pilot and she realized how she
worked through problems and how she
overcame them so she designed this
poster about how she could work them
through and it wasn’t just for her she
used this poster in our school to teach
others she’d begun to see herself as a
leader and then we taught them to be
proactive we had them running on their
front foot and how good that felt and
are nothing when got them sideways but
when they were on their back foot how
easy it was to fall over for that little
thing and then we got them to to lean
back and see how just one finger would
push them over but how leaning forward
it would take all of somebody’s force
and they still couldn’t push them over
we got them to be proactive well the
impact of this in new theory school is
they had a twenty five percent rise of
children home handling their homework in
on time so they’ve gotten to lift up
their heads see themselves a leader to
be proactive and then we taught them to
see and take responsibility for
themselves we talked to them about the
problem they might have had with litter
in their community and we said whose
responsibility is it as we started
throwing down literally in front of them
and of course they said well it’s the
person who threw it down but before long
as we talked about it they realized
actually now that they’ve seen it they
need
to take responsibility otherwise the
story of litter would remain the same
and the impact in new theory school in a
theory school they have no school
dinners like we have here in the UK if
you want lunch you have to bring it in
yourself and only thirty percent of the
children brought their luncheon with
them and before the project only fifteen
percent of them shared their lunch with
others but at the end of the project
eighty-five percent of them shared it
with others and then we taught them to
change something if they’ve seen
something they’ve seen it’s not working
don’t do it the same way change it and
so we told them the story of angry Ben
and Ben couldn’t read and write very
well so he’s called Vicky Ben and he got
angry and he got in fights but one day
his mom his mom came home having been
taught to read by a work colleague and
she taught her boys how to read and
before long angry gay ben became he
became reading been he became clever Ben
and he went on to become a successful
surgeon well what’s the impact of that
well I love this part of the story as
I’m telling this to some of my children
one of them who have real difficulties
with behavior said that’s me that’s me
I’m angry Ben I need to change now he
still has difficulties but he recognizes
that he needs to change something and
then we moved on to focus focus we
re-enacted that David Beckham free kick
do you remember the one the one against
Greece the one in the dying minutes
where he scored the free-kick to rescue
victory from the jaws of defeat to get a
place in the world cup final we’ve got
them to reenact it and think about all
the interference that was coming from
the crowd and in his own heads but
reminded them how David Beckham had
practice practice practice that
free-kick and how he’s had to focus on
it and we help them understand if they
wanted to achieve something that they
had to think about their performance was
going to be their potential minus their
interference and if they could reduce
that interference in their head those
negative voices they too could achieve
their goal now I love the impact of this
one I want to tell you about Erin Erin
is one of our year five children in my
school and when we talk to him about the
five stages of a story and how you need
to know you’re here and you’re there as
the first two steps he proudly told us
what is there was going to be his there
was going to be a zookeeper
but not just any old zookeeper a
zookeeper of wolves and every day now he
tells me how he’s looking after his dog
and now he’s telling me how he’s looking
after his neighbor’s dog because he
knows he has to focus and practice
practice because he wants to become a
zookeeper of wolves and finally we
taught them appreciative thinking we
talked to them about a quest you know
the quest when you’re facing that ogre
on the bridge and you’ve never defeated
an ogre before and it all looks hopeless
until you remind yourself you’ve already
defeated the soldiers you’ve defeated
the mermaids that have tried to lure you
to the rocks and you’ve defeated the
evil creatures of the woods and that
gives you the confidence and the skills
to defeat that ogre now for the children
there ogre might be there a times table
and once they remember that they’ve
learnt there tues and therefore that
gives them the strategy and the
confidence to tackle that last one you
know we have taught our children how to
lead and with a leadership mindset
change the story can change to you see
as teachers we can teach them we can
teach them how to lead we can also teach
in your course and give them the English
and the maths and we can give them a
geography in the history but unless we
take and put leadership at the core of
our curriculum unless we do that we will
miss out on the inspiration you see we
as teachers need to teach our children
how to lead so they can lead themselves
they can lead others and so that they
can inspire the next generation we need
to be as teachers we need to teach them
how to lead and we need to be granddad’s
you [Music]