When I had the chance to take on a piece of research in my former role as headteacher of Kate Greenaway Nursery School and Children's Centre, there were two things which I knew I did not want to do.
First of all, I felt fed up with heads and leaders writing autobiographical studies. I have previously written just such pieces, and learned from them, but I wondered whether we have now heard enough about the emotional journeys of Children's Centre heads.
Secondly, I did not want to introduce a 'change programme' based on 'best practice' and then evaluate its impact. Important though the notion of 'best practice' is, it so often feels frustratingly like someone else's practice is just being grafted on to what you do - rather than being developed from the ground up.
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