KYRA Book Share

The KYRA team of practitioners regularly share there recommended reads. If you are looking for the next book to aid your personal development, challenge your thinking or just get lost in, there may be a recommendation here for you.

Mentoring in Schools. How to become an expert colleague.  Hali Hughes

As you all know by now, the Early Career Framework (EC) becomes statutory in September 2021. This is a huge and significant change and one of the biggest reforms in teaching. I am hugely excited by the changes that are to come and I know our Early Career Teachers and their mentors will be greatly impacted and developed due to the framework.

However, it is vital that Schools, Teaching School Hubs and MATs take these changes seriously, are prepared for the roll out and engross themselves in the new way of working. I appreciate there is a lot of information and some significant actions that need attending to before the end of the year. However these reforms were put into place to focus on recruitment and retention, ensuring our ECTs get a broad and challenging body of professional knowledge -  this can only be a positive thing.

The role of the mentor is significant to the success of the ECF and therefore I would highly recommended this book, written by Hali Hughes.

Each chapter is based on a standard from the framework and begins by exploring the research which underpins the guidance, before then providing a summary of findings from the focus groups which link to the standard discussed. It gives practical advice and guidance for activities, reading and strategies that mentors can try with their early career teacher. This is not just for mentors, but all staff. As the ECF lands in our schools, it is the responsibility of the whole school to get on board.
This book shows us how effective mentoring from expert colleagues can provide our new and novice teachers with the platform to thrive, succeed and grow.
 
Are you prepared for the ECF? Have more questions? Please don’t hesitate to get in touch lnicoll@kyra.anthemtrust.uk
 
Lauren Nicoll 
Head of Teacher Development
KYRA | Part of Anthem Schools Trust 

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World – Cal Newport

This book was recommended during a Bupa Wellbeing for Educators session I attended (these sessions were excellent and free – find out more about them and register your interest here: https://www.bupafoundation.org/page/wellbeing-for-educators/). Deep Work is a really interesting read and as a result I have changed some of my working practices and I’ve become more mindful and disciplined in my online and social media use.
 
 Newport defines deep and shallow work:
 
 Deep Work: Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate.
 
Shallow Work: Non-cognitively demanding, logistical-style tasks, often performed while distracted. These efforts tend not to create much new value in the world and are easy to replicate.
 
Newport argues if you spend enough time in a state of frenetic shallowness, you permanently reduce your capacity to perform deep work.
 
The first half of the book explores what is meant by deep work and gives case study examples of people with great career success who have committed to prioritising and making the time for deep work.  The second half of the book explores strategies to achieve this.  Newport highlights that deep work genuinely isn't for everyone depending on the type of role you have and the responsibilities within that role.  However, for educators, I think this reminds us of the need to focus on the things that will genuinely make a difference to children’s learning and positive outcomes and to maintain boundaries and limit time on the things that don’t directly impact.  The book also clearly makes the point that admin tasks and work and personal online and social media use can hugely drain our time and energy, often for very little positive gain both in terms of productivity and wellbeing.
 
 In addition, Newport states, ‘At the end of the workday, shut down your consideration of work issues until the next morning—no after-dinner e-mail check, no mental replays of conversations, and scheming about how you’ll handle an upcoming challenge; shut down work thinking completely.”
 
     Reason #1: Downtime Aids Insights
 
     Reason #2: Downtime Helps Recharge the Energy Needed to Work Deeply
 
     Reason #3: The Work That Evening Downtime Replaces Is Usually Not That Important
 
I think this concept is a huge challenge for anyone working in the education sector and I have some way to go to achieve this myself.  Of course, we must also be mindful of individual needs and circumstance; it may be beneficial for staff to leave school on time and resume working later in the day to fit around personal or family commitments. However, if we don’t have boundaries around the amount of time we spend working and if we don’t prioritise ourselves and our work/life balance, we are in danger of impacting on our own wellbeing, heading towards burnout and importantly being significantly less effective in our roles.  Personal boundaries, routines and self-care are key.

Anna Miller

KYRA Mobilise Research Champion ​
 

Drive The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. Daniel H.Pink

What drives high performance? How can we become more Type-I?

Many of us are familiar with the evidence that success is built on intrinsic motivation yet all too often we are persuaded to offer rewards in our roles as parents and school-practitioners. This book takes examples from the worlds of business and education, suggesting a ‘carrot and stick’ or ‘if…then’ approach not only reduces motivation but also crushes creativity. It could be read as a ‘self-help’ book but it is more about leadership – creating a working environment where everyone moves towards Type-I – where the inherent motivation comes from the satisfaction of the task itself, which in turn improves mental health and wellbeing. Pink examines the importance of autonomy over task, time, team and technique and mastery through achieving Flow – an idea developed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi – we can only truly be ‘happy’ when operating in the Flow (Goldilocks’) channel – where a task is pitched ‘just right’, with a degree of challenge but not too hard – obviously, where teachers and TAs plan to teach on a daily basis!

The book draws on animal behaviours that humans mirror that help the reader reflect on why we carry out tasks the way we do and why we continue to engage in tasks that we don’t enjoy. Examples from business share an increase in productivity that can result from projects such as the ‘20% project’ – where workers are given one day a week to explore something completely new that they’re interested in – it may sound unplausible but over half of Google’s new products have been created in this time! Some interesting ideas of how similar projects have engaged disaffected learners in America.

Whilst a lot of this isn’t rocket-science, it was an interesting perspective (though heavily influenced by Carol Dweck’s work on mindsets), on what motivates us and how we can encourage our pupils and children not to be influenced by extrinsic motivation. If you’re looking to your own children to tidy their room, wash-up or wash the car without having to resort to bribery, you’ll be pleased to read and then share the evidence with them on why you won’t be offering them incentives or rewards for helping out.

Vanessa Hopkinson
Mobilise Project Lead
KYRA | Part of Anthem Schools Trust

REBEL IDEAS: The Power of Diverse Thinking Matthew Syed

I am reading this book with colleagues in a KYRA book club, and I could not recommend it more highly. Syed writes from a non-educationalist perspective on leadership, and how to get the best out of teams containing individuals who present diverse perspectives and approaches to problem solving and complex issues. Syed is a brilliant story writer, having me hooked from the get go as he retells stories from anti-terrorism and extreme mountain climbing to climate change. He shares through these stories how the assumption that collaboration is effective when a unified group of people arrive at a mutually agreed decision, is quite often really and sometimes tragically wrong. On the contrary, Syed explains, it is through dissent, challenge and diversity that brilliant teams are created, developed and nurtured. I refer to Syed’s words all the time in my very collaborative role and am constantly thinking of how to apply the principles of diverse thinking when developing project and communications teams. A MUST READ!

Lesley Coulthurst

Head of Alliance
KYRA | Part of Anthem Schools Trust

Meetings That Make A Difference, Jonathan Frost

Teachers and leaders spend a great deal of time in meetings.  But why do we meet at all?  For a meeting to make a difference we need to know the answer to that, before we even send out the calendar invite.  “Because we always meet on a Tuesday” is not a particularly satisfactory answer!
I have been working with Anthem, KYRA and Lincolnshire colleagues on leading effective meetings, and a really useful resource is this book:  “Meetings That Make A Difference” by Johnathan Frost.
 It usefully sets out the different roles that the leader of a meeting takes:

  • The Leader - custodian of the goals, setting the direction and focus and committed to ensuring that everything that takes place is within the context of the original purpose. 
  • The Navigator - custodian of the journey, understanding the starting point and the destination, plotting the course from current position to desired position without expecting it be a straight line to get there.
  • The Diplomat - custodian of the dynamics, keeping everyone engaged, facilitating and managing the back and forth of constructive debate and consensus building

Frost provides practical tips, strategies and advice as well as causing the reader to reflect on the role of meetings in reaching our organisational goals.
Crucially, the effectiveness of meetings is often driven by what happens outside of the meeting itself.  Preparation and follow up are the ways in which progress is driven and discussion moves to action.  A useful tool for preparation comes from Susan Scott in Fierce Conversations (see Book Corner from 12th March 2021), in which she sees out a template for preparing an agenda item following these seven steps:

  1. The issue is ...Be concise.  In one or two sentences, get to the heart of the problem.  Is it a challenge, opportunity, decision, stratgye or recurring problem? 
  2. It is significant because ...What’s at stake?  How does this affect income, people, outcomes, workforce, strategy, purpose?  What is the future impact if this is not resolved? 
  3. My ideal outcome is ...What specific results do I/we want?  In other words, assuming we get this right, what good things will occur?  What, who will be affected? 
  4. Relevant background information ...Summarise with bulleted points: How, when, why, and where did the issue start?  Who are the key players?  Which forces are at work?  What is the issue’s current status? 
  5. What I/we have done up to this point ...What steps, successful or unsuccessful, have been taken so far? 
  6. The option I am considering ...What options am I considering?  What option would I choose if I had to decide right now, without input from the group? 
  7. The help I want from the group is ...What I want from the group: Tell me what I’m missing.  What are you seeing that I may not be seeing?  Suggest alternative solutions, consequences I may have missed, where to find more information, critique of the current plan.  

Rather than being a chore or a trial, lead your meetings to have impact and influence.  We don’t have enough time in any day, so make every moment matter.

Helen Barker
Head of KYRA Strategy and Anthem Leadership and Professional Development
KYRA | Part of Anthem Schools Trust
 

Andria Zafirakou : Those Who Can, Teach


After listening to Andria Zafirakou at an Anthem Development Day a few years ago, I have followed her closely. Inspiring, captivating and incredibly informative, I was delighted to see that Andria was releasing a book. It didn’t disappoint.
 
Anyone in education will find it compulsive and relatable reading. Andria’s passion for the arts, making a difference in a deprived, inner-city London school, reminds us all of the pressures of working in such schools. However she also passionately addresses the call that we as educators have upon us; to go above and beyond, to speak up and to make a difference to children’s lives.

As I am writing this, I have just finished a webinar about the recovery curriculum, listening to Sir Kevan Collins, hosted by the Chartered College of Teaching. Relationships and well-being of our children and staff came out so strongly and this book, along with its championing of the arts, reminds and challenges us about the task and privilege we have as educators, to recover from the pandemic. 

Andria's story is a rallying wake-up call that shows what life is really like for school children today, and a moving insight into the extraordinary people shaping the next generation.
 

Lauren Nicoll 
Head of Teacher Development
KYRA | Part of Anthem Schools Trust 

5 chairs 5 choices; Own your behaviours, master your communication, determine your success by Louise Evans

This book encourages the reader to create healthy environments in the spaces that most affect their lives and the lives of others around them. The powerful and systematic method asks us to better understand and master or own behaviours as well as better explaining and managing other people’s choices. Each chair has a standpoint or a lens through which you might view and make judgements on behaviours and statements. We are encouraged to look to modify and improve our reactions. On a conscious level, the book inspires us to give of our best, to contribute to the success and happiness of others and to receive the like in return.  There are exercises to nurture empathy, emotional intelligence and consciousness which can be integrated into your career as well as everyday life.  

A very accessible book and an inspiring text to return to again and again.
Here is a link if you would like to see Louise talk on the method;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BZuWrdC-9Q

Catherine Conyers
ITT Hub Lead and Primary Lead Mentor
KYRA | Part of Anthem Schools Trust

Fierce Conversations, Achieving Success at Work and in Life, One Conversation at a Time

Fierce Conversations, Achieving Success at Work and in Life, One Conversation at a Time; Susan Scott
 
Don’t judge this book by its title.  What do we mean by ‘fierce’?  It isn’t menacing, cruel, threatening.  It’s not raised voices and blood on the carpet.  ‘Fierce’ is what we often refer to as ‘courageous.  It means robust, intense, strong, powerful, passionate, eager, unbridled, uncurbed, untamed.  This book covers effective conversations including team conversations, coaching conversations, delegation conversations and confrontation conversations.  “In its simplest form, a fierce conversation is one in which we come out from behind ourselves into the conversation and make it real.”  Fierce conversations have four objectives.  To interrogate reality, provoke learning, tackle our toughest challenges, enrich relationships. 

Susan Scott explores all of these themes through the principles of fierce conversations, including scaffolds for conversations, templates for meetings, case studies and self-reflection assignments.  This book has enormous power, I couldn’t recommend it more highly.
 
You can get a flavour of Susan Scott from her TED Talk here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVKaXUB4EFg

Helen Barker
Head of KYRA Strategy and Anthem Leadership and Professional Development
KYRA | Part of Anthem Schools Trust

 How we approach fierce conversations, what we want from them and how we might receive them are also connected to our personality type.  If you are interested in exploring personality types further through Myers Briggs® then please click here https://kyrateachingschool.com/what-we-do/cpd-training/mbti-development-package or contact HBarker@kyra.anthemtrust.uk  

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