Reflecting on a difficult term

And so it’s the end of the autumn term and the end of the 2023 calendar year; Where has the time gone?   I think on reflection the speed with which time is flying partly relates to age (I am no longer 21!) but also the nature of working in schools where we sprint from one term to the next.   I suspect that as we are busy and as we each sprint to the finish line of each new term, this results in us not getting our heads up and engaging in new experiences, or taking in our surroundings or achievements, and the very things which make memories.   So, with the end of the term and the year I thought it a good opportunity to reflect firstly on the term, and then in a later post I will look back on the whole of 2023.

Firstly, I need to acknowledge it has been a very difficult term for me on a personal level, especially the last few months.   Now am not going to go into the nature of the challenges however I have found my life torn apart and things I had taken as read and as fact suddenly changed overnight leaving me staring at a very different future, and 2024, than I had originally anticipated.  Throughout I have tried to keep a brave face on things, and at times this has been very difficult and as we head into the festive period I am finding it even more difficult.   I think the next few months will just be about pushing forward from day to day and trying to establish a new set of norms but at this point it is very difficult to remain positive, although I am doing my best to keep my spirits up.   Am not sure what the future holds for me, but maybe the current situation is what is needed to bring about some change, to build new memories, time will tell.

The autumn term saw me much busier with external events and speaking opportunities than I have been previously.   Speaking at the Schools and Academies Show (SAAS), EduTech Europe in Amsterdam and a number of other events provided me plenty of opportunities to share my thoughts and ideas particularly around the potential for AI in education, while also providing me a focus which helped keep my mind off my personal challenges.   Looking at my schedule forward into 2024 and I already have a number of events in my diary including a return to EduTech Europe for their 2024 event.     I will admit engaging in these events has been fun, if also a bit of a challenge when factoring in my day to day role as Director of IT but thankfully I have a great team of people who work with me which has given me the time and focus I have needed in order to contribute to these events.   I am definitely looking forward to trying and contribute to the educational discourse, including on AI, cyber and digital citizenship, to name but three topics.

From the day to day side of things this term has seen significant work on using PowerBi in a number of different contexts to analyse school data.  It has also seen quite a bit of work going into delivering both cyber security and digital citizenship awareness materials to staff and students, with one of my colleagues doing a particularly excellent job getting out into departments to deliver short awareness talks to those who may not attend the bigger annual events.    Additional to this there has been some progress made on esports with us now looking towards the F1 sim racing for next year, plus looking at progressing our current esports offering for students.   I am also looking forward to speaking on this subject to a number of other schools during the course of 2024.  I think I have managed to find a good balance of getting my hands dirty in some areas, whereas being more strategic and less operationally involved in others. This is something I need to continue to work on.

In terms of fitness, I haven’t been able to establish the same patterns of effort this year as I have managed in the last couple of years.   As such my running has been very much up and down, with some weeks with 20km covered, often followed by weeks of no running.    As we approach Christmas though I am trying to get back to a pattern of effort, using the downtime post the end of the term to get back into it and hoping I can carry my running on into the new year.    I suspect I will fall short of my 500km target for 2023, however I don’t think I will miss it by too much.  

Its been a busy term!   I don’t think I will be able to reflect on it in any more positive terms despite there being some positive events and memories buried under the less positive (read: crap) memories.    Just now need to try and relax and collect myself over the holidays and then move on from there.    Life goes on!

Author: Gary Henderson

Gary Henderson is currently the Director of IT in an Independent school in the UK.Prior to this he worked as the Head of Learning Technologies working with public and private schools across the Middle East.This includes leading the planning and development of IT within a number of new schools opening in the UAE.As a trained teacher with over 15 years working in education his experience includes UK state secondary schools, further education and higher education, as well as experience of various international schools teaching various curricula. This has led him to present at a number of educational conferences in the UK and Middle East.View all posts by Gary Henderson