Manx Maxim

The final episode of Whichever Way You Throw Me, a week of stories from my own career and what each one taught me about leadership. The series takes its name from the Manx motto, Quocunque Jeceris Stabit. A few years ago I was leading an assembly at Laxey School. An ordinary one. I have led hundreds and I could not tell you what this one was about, which is part of why this story stays with me...

Episode four of Whichever Way You Throw Me, a week of stories from my own career and what each one taught me about leadership. The series takes its name from the Manx motto, Quocunque Jeceris Stabit. In 2017 I was asked to lead a second school. I was head of Dhoon, three years into my first headship, and Laxey needed leadership. The question came and I said yes.

I have lived in Onchan all my life. I went to school there as a boy. I live there now, a few minutes from where I grew up. On an island of circa eighty-six thousand people this is not remarkable, and it is not something I have ever thought much about. It is just the shape of my life. Then came March 2020.

In 2011 I was appointed deputy headteacher of Murrays Road School in Douglas. A junior school, Years 3 to 6, single site, with a separate infant school called Ballaquayle a short walk down the road. Two schools, two headteachers, two staff rooms, two identities, serving what was in truth one community of children who moved from one to the other at seven. This is the story of the amalgamation that followed.

In 2014 I inherited my first headship from the head before me. Eleven years later, when my role changed and the job was advertised, he applied and took it back. The keys went full circle. This week I'm sharing five stories from my career, starting with what that taught me.