Andy McHugh

Andy McHugh There is a shift that happens every year, but we rarely talk about it properly: Year 11 leave. The corridors feel different, the pressure drops just enough for us to notice and almost immediately, schools rush to fill the space they leave behind. On the surface, everything looks purposeful. People are busy, lessons are happening, etc. But a lot of that time slips past without leaving anything behind that genuinely improves what we do in the long term.

Andy McHugh One of the things I have noticed over the years is how often conversations about schools revolve around systems. We talk about frameworks, policies, accountability structures and data. We debate curriculum models, assessment approaches and inspection criteria. Schools are expected to demonstrate that their processes are robust and that their structures are clear. Obviously, this is entirely reasonable. Schools are complex organisations responsible for educating and safeguarding.

Andy McHugh If the past few years have taught us anything, it’s that schools rarely get a quiet “business as usual” stretch. There’s always a new priority, a new framework, a new expectation, and (usually) the same finite number of hours in the week to make it all happen. So here’s what I think the next year will feel like for most schools: not a single dramatic reset, but a series of practical nudges.