Aug 16

New school year … a new approach to school leadership?

A new school year begins shortly in the northern hemisphere, and – as with every new beginning – it is an opportunity for school leaders to reflect on how they are going to take their organisations forward, learning from the past and venturing boldly into the future. The disruptions and upheavals of the pandemic are far from gone (and the ripples in some parts of the world continue to be felt particularly vigorously), but the start of a new term and year is an opportunity to affect the direction of the school and its community, and to forge ahead with courage and clarity of vision. When school leaders stand up in front of their staff, their students and their wider community, they have a powerful platform from which to communicate, shape, guide and invest in the growth and development of the school; it is an opportunity to be grasped with both hands.

What about the leaders themselves, though? Who supports, shapes, guides and invests in them? Leaders can and should of course benefit from an infrastructure of support around them, from a Board to a supportive Deputy, and from colleagues in other schools to a mentor or coach. Ultimately, though, it is – and always has been – down to leaders to develop themselves. As leaders, we can – and do! – learn every day when we reflect on what went well and what went less well, and we adjust our future behaviour accordingly; most leaders will also turn to sources of inspiration, too, from books to conferences, to keep their understanding of the sector and the wider world topped up. But what about ourselves? How deep do we delve into who we are, and what we stand for?

Interrogation of self (and acting on the ideas and directions which emerge) is a powerful form of investment in self … and like any kind of investment, it is easier to do with the support of others, drawing on their insights, perspectives, and expertise. This has been a common thread in the discussions I have been having over the past few months with LSC Education colleagues as they shape and refine their Leadership courses due to start in September or October, and it really feels as though the autumn will bring a wealth of opportunity for school leaders really to flourish in their leadership by exploring who they are, and who they have become, as leaders, especially over the crisis-riven past couple of years.

If school leaders do not demonstrate investment in self, how can they expect their communities to believe that they should be investing in turn in themselves? 2021-22 awaits … make it the year of investment in you, the leader.

Jul 26

Three pieces of advice for school leaders

It was a pleasure to participate in a panel last week at the WLSA (World Leading Schools Association) biennial conference for leaders of some of the world’s top independent schools, and I particularly enjoyed the fruits of the preparation which had gone into it. This included the curation of videos of current leaders sharing their thoughts and ideas about how they were planning to take learnings from the Covid pandemic and turn these into practical – and better –strategies that will be embedded into the future direction of their schools. One message was clear, above all – Covid has accelerated change, and we want to use this momentum to effect a step change in education.

I was asked to speak on a panel of Global Principals by virtue not so much of my 13 years in the past as a School Principal, but rather because I spent much of the past 18 months advising school leaders, Boards and schools generally across the world, through what has been – undeniably – the most disruptive period in education in living memory. I was so grateful to have the opportunity to support so many leaders; equally, I harboured a sense of relief that I was not in charge of a school this past year, because it has been incredibly hard for school leaders – really, really, really hard. It is testimony to the utterly dogged, determined persistence of school leaders across the world that children and young people (and their families) have been able to keep their sanity, and I absolutely bow to them in admiration.   

One of the questions I was asked was what advice I would give to school leaders moving forward, and I responded with 3 key points, which I wanted to share with you:

  • First, scrap what you don’t need. Operate on the Marie Kondo principle … if you have done without something for the past year, you don’t need it. Save yourself time, energy and space by binning any processes you haven’t used. If you want to keep the best of your new structures, necessitated by Covid, then some things need to go. Dump what you don’t need.
  • Secondly, don’t lose the questing innovation which you put in place in order to tackle the hurdles you faced. Make the effort to continue to encourage the innovators and disruptors who emerged during the pandemic, and create structures – task forces or working groups, perhaps – which support and value them. Keep the restless energy bubbling away as you plan for the future.
  • Thirdly – and most importantly – invest in yourself. If you aren’t fit and well, if you don’t have a clear head, if you don’t know who you are as a leader, if you don’t have make time to learn and grow … well, how are you going to be able to lead as effectively as you can? Too many school leaders (and still, I would observe, far too many female leaders …) put themselves at the bottom of the list of priorities in school. It is time to change! If your school is going to thrive, and you are going to have the impact on the world which you are destined to have, then you need to take yourself to the next level, and this actually means investing in your own learning, coaching and mentoring. You deserve this! And so does your school. And the wider community. And the world …

So – thank you to Charlie Jenkinson for inviting me to be part of this conference; it was great to be able to share this message! Roll on 2023 …

Jul 05

Sustainability: how Boards can – and should – contribute to net zero

COP26 is only a few months away, and is – quite rightly – focusing our collective minds globally on how we can move to net zero as soon as possible. Just in case anyone is still vague about the concept of ‘net zero’, this refers to the balance between the amount of greenhouse gases produced across the world, and the amount of greenhouse gases removed from the atmosphere – we reach net zero when the amount produced is equal to (or, ideally, less than) the amount taken away. And we can’t just keep waiting, because the world’s climate is changing in some quite scary ways (just ask the residents of western Canada), and we have to work out how we can (at least try to) limit the impact. Doing nothing is not an option any more.

Sitting in the Board room, however, dealing with the usual strategic stuff that comes up, it can be easy to allow sustainability to slip down the agenda; I’ve certainly been guilty of this in the past. A typical Board agenda is packed with discussions on finance, on improving quality, on opening new markets, of aligning personnel structures to strategic directions, and, currently, of the impacts of Covid. Where is the room for discussions on sustainability and net zero, especially as they are often accompanied by the realisation that any strategic moves towards these goals could be expensive and involve different ways of working?

Reframing the question, we might however ask ‘how can we afford not to place sustainability and net zero on our agendas?’. ‘Expensive’ has different interpretations; arguably, the consequences of doing nothing towards net zero are likely to be hugely – perhaps even impossibly – expensive in the long run … and if we think that an acceleration in climate change will allow us to keep working as we are, then we really do have our heads stuck in the sand.

There is no room for complacency in thinking about sustainability from the perspective of the Board room. A tick box ESG culture can deceive us into feeling that we are doing our part, but the danger lies in doing the minimum, or in finding loopholes. Fundamentally, though, if we are caught cheating in our homework on this issue, we will indeed be letting ourselves down, and letting everyone else down too …

Where to start? Put it on each agenda as a standing item. Read this article by Fran van Dijk on 5 mission-critical shifts in ESG which Boards need to know about. Learn and think about how you can measure your organisation’s carbon emissions, and then how you will do something about reducing them. Work out what you expect from your executive, and make sure that together you set real, effective targets which will motivate without encouraging skewed reporting.

Together we can make a difference – let’s not waste a moment longer.

Jun 22

How to leave school again … and again … and again …

I have been reflecting a lot recently on what it means to leave school – that moment of transition from being a school student to not being a school student, leaving behind 13+ years of formal schooling mandated by the state, and facing up to a future of possibilities, choices and responsibilities. These reflections have been particularly prompted by two events – a speech I am due to give (virtually) at the end of next week at Wisbech Grammar School, at which I will be speaking to the Year 13 leavers, and the fact that my son has just left school himself, which sparked a wave of emotions in me which I have been trying to unravel. (You may recall that I wrote about him a year ago, when he Did A Run Every Day (DARED) in June 2020, mid-lockdown, in aid of CIRCLE, supporting families in Scotland, and I was incredibly proud of his achievement in running and raising money; he is doing this again this year, and I’d love you (just because you can!) to follow his progress and share in my pride – he has posted all of his runs, and stuck relentlessly to a schedule despite having exams and a range of other commitments. Here is the link: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/harry-wright14 – and if you can contribute even just a little, I promise it will go to a good cause! NB You may also recall from last year that I can quite safely write about my son online without him knowing, because although I seek to communicate meaningful thoughts to the wider world through my blog, as far as he is concerned, I am just his mother, so why would he follow me? ?

Anyway, back to my musings about leaving school … Leaving school is often regarded as a momentous occasion – and in many respects it absolutely is, because it marks a visible step change in life. Come August or September, the students who are now ‘leavers’ will not have a timetable to follow at their (former) school; they will no longer be on the school roll, and their erstwhile teachers will be busy stretching the minds of others. Much, too, can be attributed to this moment of leaving school – a sense of ‘freedom’, perhaps, or a ‘coming of age’ moment, of going ‘out into the ‘real’ world’. I quite like momentous occasions … they are great opportunities to pause and celebrate achievement, although I recognise (from the perspective of an educator and parent) that one of the main reasons that I like them so much is that they provide a platform to be able to articulate inspirational thoughts that look forward, drawing on the best of the past to weave into a stronger, better etc future. Now that I think about it, celebrating leaving school feels like a bit of a (good) excuse to help shape the future of the world …

This celebration of leaving school is also, very importantly, about acknowledging the past, and particularly the past of our time as a child, and I have learned very powerfully in my work as an executive coach just how important it is to recognise, engage with and make peace with this past, every moment of which has helped to shape our personal identity. School is a massive part of the childhood past of everyone; for school leavers, proportionate to their entire life, this is even more so the case. School is not synonymous with childhood, but they are often inextricably interwoven in our past. Leaving school is to some extent a symbol of moving from childhood to adulthood, and it is worth reflecting on this. Moreover, the past has happened, while the future has yet to happen; the past is known, while the future is not … taking time to reflect on our memories what is behind us can be a rich and grounding source of inspiration for the future … and there again is that sense of ‘looking backwards to look forwards’. Amidst all the uncertainties we face in the world, the certainty of time tells us that we will, inexorably, move forward, second by second, day by day, year by year. Our time on this planet is limited … and everything I have learned over the past few decades has certainly taught me that we have it within ourselves to make the most of this time, for our own sake and for the sake of others in the wider world which we all share. With this in mind, it is absolutely right that we should take the opportunity – any opportunity – to pause, note the past, honour the past, and use our learnings from the past to help galvanise us as we move into the future.  

Now … here is the interesting thought that is brewing in my mind … Leaving school is not in fact as clear cut as we may think, no matter how much we seek to mark it with a ‘passing out’ ceremony of some kind – leavers’ lunch, speech day, or similar. There is of course the moment at which the school student steps over the threshold of the school boundary, and thinks ‘I’m not going back’ … but the chances are that this school student will actually go back into the building anyway at some point in the future, either to drop off study materials, or to visit a teacher, or to pick up siblings on the school run. Anyway, that moment is essentially a private moment, which may in fact be overlooked in the whirl of other things happening, or if it happens in mid-conversation. In celebrating ‘leaving school’, we are in any case creating an artificial construct in time; we are choosing to pause and reflect, and to look forward. Moreover, arguably, school never actually leaves us… our learnings from school – informal or formal, pleasant or painful – remain lodged in our minds and shape us daily. I know I invite this kind of conversation because of my profession, but I can’t think of a single person I have ever met who has not at some point in our relationship used the words ‘At my school’, or ‘when I was at school’, or similar. School never leaves us; do we, perhaps, then never leave school?

If so, then what a wonderful opportunity we have! With a stretch of our phenomenal human imaginations, we could conceivably conduct the equivalent of school leaving ceremonies as often as we like! They may be more low-key, and involve fewer people (if any …), but this would not prevent them from being momentous. We could choose – as often as we like – to pause, celebrate what has gone before us reflect on what has gone before us, and then, determinedly, turn our thinking to help shape the future. We could, indeed, ‘leave school’ again, and again, and again ..

If you are a school leaver this year, enjoy your school leaving ceremonies, and see them as a model for many more in the future. Appreciate and enjoy …

Now, I really must get back to writing that speech …

Jun 07

Avoiding complacency in the application of Growth Mindset

I really enjoyed speaking to an assembled global audience of actuaries last Friday, when I delivered a lecture on how research into Growth Mindset, coupled with research into how students learn effectively, can support the actuarial profession as it tackles the current and future issues for which it has immense responsibility. I have found it extremely stimulating to contribute ideas, thoughts and insights to the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries in a lay, non-executive capacity over the past 3 years; I have met (and continue to meet) so many interesting people, and the panel which followed my lecture on Friday was no exception: thank you to IFoA President Tan Suee Chieh, former IFoA President Nick Salter, and IFoA Council Members Kalpana Shah and Keith Jennings, for their remarks, views, and shared sense of challenge and possibility for the future!

The concept of Growth Mindset is simple – so simple, in fact, that its power can sometimes be underestimated. It is not ‘pseudo’ or ‘pop’ science – it is underpinned by reams of research conducted over the years by Professor Carol Dweck and her team – and its premise is that intelligence is not static (or something that we are just ‘born with’), but that it can be developed through effort. A fixed mindset – which is often encouraged, unwittingly, in young people and adults who do well in passing exams, because they receive praise for being ‘smart’, or for having ‘done a good job’ – can lead to a reluctance on the part of these young people and adults to take risks, to be entrepreneurial, and to stretch the bounds of possibility in their thinking and experimentation. And the one thing we do know about our world and its future – the one certain thing in a world of uncertainty – is that we need flexible, adaptable, experimentational thinkers and do-ers if we are to confront and solve – increasingly urgently – the global problems we all face. A Growth Mindset is needed now more than ever. 

The concept is so straightforward, however, that it is easy to fall into the trap of complacency. ‘I enjoy learning, therefore I must have a Growth Mindset’, I can hear you say … and the response to this is, of course, that a predisposition to enjoying learning is great, and to be welcomed. Amongst other challenges I set the IFoA and the wider profession on Friday, however, was the challenge to reflect on their own perceptions of themselves as successful professionals. I pointed out that if we still harbour the notion that we have been successful largely because we were born smart, then our growth mindset is not as strong as it could be. Similarly – and many women fall into this category, still – if we are harbouring a lack of confidence because we think we have ‘only’ done well because we worked hard, then we are not valuing the growth mindset which has in fact driven us; if we don’t value it, we won’t exploit it to maximum effect.

It is very easy to slip into the trap of a fixed mindset, and so we must catch ourselves – and catch others, challenging them when we see examples of a fixed mindset creeping in. Moreover, we need to change our language: as followers of Carol Dweck’s work will know, she talks and writes much about the power of the word ‘yet’, and how by adding this word to our sentences about achievement or progress, we can transform our relationship with the situation we are describing … ‘we haven’t been able to do this … yet’, or ‘it isn’t possible … yet’.

So … here is a challenge for you (whether actuary or not) … make a conscious effort to add the word ‘yet’ to as many statements and sentences as possible over the next week. Note how this changes your perception of the context, and note how it almost immediately opens a figurative door in your brain to a series of possibilities, for which you can now start planning. Enjoy the surge of potential, and the ideas that unfold; and resolve not to rest on your laurels – which, as you now realise, could perhaps be a precursor to you teetering on the brink of sliding into the complacency which you – quite rightly – might wish to avoid.

As Muhammed Ali once said, “Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare.”

Enjoy daring to grow …

May 10

How to learn to be a better Board member

One of the hidden elements of really good courses run by professional educators is the expertise, careful consideration and detailed planning that goes into ensuring that the course has really impactful outcomes for its participants. This means that the course needs to be designed in such a way and to set up the learners (for that is who they are) really to absorb the learning effectively, and then to be able to translate this learning into action. The facilitation of learning is an art – a real craft, in fact – and yet all too often not nearly enough attention is paid to the HOW of the learning, not just the WHAT (which is why so many online courses, if I were being uncharitable, are quite frankly a bit rubbish!).

So let me lift the curtain just a smidgeon on some of the planning that has gone into ensuring that the #betterboards course for Board members in international schools, which Matthew Savage and I are running again soon, starting on Monday 17 May …

First, we thought about Board members and their availability (or lack thereof) – we wanted to set up the learning environment so that the information is routed to the pre-frontal cortex rather than the limbic or automatic brain. To reduce the stress which might make this latter (and less desirable) destination more likely, we therefore organised the course so it could be accessed at any time online, to meet the preferences of busy people who will undoubtedly have different preferences about when they learn and think best. We also designed the course so that lessons are only released at certain points, to avoid overload or a sense of overwhelm of information.

Then we thought about how to make the content really engaging, and so we planned short bite-size pieces of input, including videos, online links, written instructions which are clear and reassuring, and other interactive activities – including, very importantly, the ability to meet and interact with other learners through the forums, building a network in a very structured manner, as the participants are responding to specific questions, to help guide some of this interaction.

As part of our careful design for effective learning, we also thought about how we could ensure relevance and real-time engagement with the participants’ schools, in a non-invasive, non-demanding but still purposeful and useful way. And so we built that in too. Of course, the content is all excellent as well – we know our stuff.

Sign up now

One thing, though, learning only works if learners turn up … we’ve made it as straightforward as possible for you, so if you or a Board Member you know wants to find out about how to create #betterboards, come and join us.

Spoiler alert for those of you who are coming to hear us speak at the annual COBIS conference on Tuesday about #betterboards … but here is one of our final slides, explaining how much the Board members who attended our last course benefited from the experience.

See you there …

Apr 26

Why learning for the sake of learning is transformational

I spent half an hour the other day learning about aphids. Did you know that there are 500 species of aphid in the UK alone? And that colonies of aphids often consist of females only, who give birth to live young who develop from eggs which are simply clones of the mother? And that they will often only develop wings if they need them – to move to another plant, for example, because their plant has become overcrowded? It was a really, really busy day, so I did not just happen to fall into this learning because I was bored, or just surfing the net. Nor did I have a practical reason for this learning, although it was prompted by an ‘I wonder why …’ question that in turn had been prompted by watching greenfly on my chilli plants a few days before. No – I chose to stop what I was doing, and to spend half an hour learning about aphids because I was putting into practice something that I believe is important, namely learning … and learning for the sake of learning, because learning itself is of fundamental significance in our journey as human beings.

As is often the way, I was reminded of this importance of learning for the sake of it through a number of different conversations I had last week with people in my professional network. I spent a fair bit of last week in interviews for the new Head of Mentoring and Operations at Light Up Learning, one of the Edinburgh-based organisations I chair, and one of the questions my co-interviewer (and Founder of the charity) asked each of the shortlisted candidates was how they would use LUL time – the dedicated (paid) time which each employee is given each month to learn about something they love. (Our premise is that we want employees who can live the love of learning which they are helping young people develop.) I also had another conversation last week with the MD of Mark My Papers, whose Advisory Board I chair, and who was passionate, as ever, about the value of examinations for young people, in developing a rigour in their learning – a rigour which risks being undermined as schools, parents or the students themselves chase a grade rather than the knowledge which should really underpin any grade (a particular problem this year, again, with Centre Assessed Grades). I appreciate that there is a risk of surrounding oneself in an echo chamber of ideas – one of the pitfalls of today’s uber-connected world – but it really did seem to me that these were timely conversations, and that I needed to prioritise my own learning, in amongst the hubbub of my other work.

And what did I gain from learning about aphids … well, in addition to the insights I acquired, I noted an increase in my creativity for the rest of the day, as I found sparky solutions to knotty problems, inspired as I was by thinking about the world from a different perspective. I also felt my mind was sharper, and my wellbeing was enhanced by having become absorbed in something other than my regular activities. I also had an enormous sense of satisfaction from having added to my knowledge of the world. I also have a far greater respect for greenfly.

Learning for the sake of it … the question is not ‘why?’, but ‘why on earth not?’ What will you spend your LUL time on today …?

Apr 12

The Pattern Seekers – insights into how different brain structures have saved humanity

If you are looking for a well-referenced, very readable and intriguing but satisfying book which explores why difference in human brains is of value in our development as human beings, then you should read ‘The Pattern Seekers’, by Simon Baron Cohen. It was recommended to me by a very good friend a couple of months ago, but it took me until last weekend to read it … in fact, it only took a few hours, although it would have taken me a lot longer, had I followed up all the notes – many hours of reading and pursuing the topic remain, should I so wish!

The main premise of the book is that human beings have evolved, uniquely amongst other living species, to have systematising as well as empathising functions, and that we possess these in different degrees, probably passed on through our genes, to the extent that there exist now both hyper-empathisers and hyper-systematisers. These latter people – the pattern-seekers – who have a higher number of autistic traits than other human beings, and who are often underappreciated by society, are, the author argues, inordinately responsible for human inventions and technical progress. ‘If we want to nurture the inventors of the future … we are more likely to find them among autistic people, and among those who have a high number of autistic traits because they are hyper-systemizers, than among the general population’ (p.136).

‘Neurodiversity is simply a fact, just like biodiversity is a fact’, he writes on page 137, and uses the rest of the book to set out structures that would better support and enable autistic people in their life and work. ‘The Pattern Seekers’ does not answer every question one might have about the autistic, pattern-seeking brain; in fact, as many good theses do, it poses instead many more questions about how we translate this into steps forward. What I liked particularly, however was what it dares to promise, as it gives a glimpse into a future where we all genuinely appreciate and value difference.

As he says in his final words, however, this is up to us.

Mar 29

The importance of discipline in a successful life

I spent a glorious hour last week tuning into a live talk with the author Alexander McCall Smith, hosted by the Caledonian Club in London, but of course all on Zoom (which made it much more accessible, if less social). Anyway, he was, as ever, a delightful speaker – entertaining, modest, self-deprecating, intelligent, with a wealth of experience in life and work behind him. He is also (as his fans will know, and very much appreciate) a prodigious writer, and he was very clear in his talk about how he achieved this – through discipline and focus. He has a system – a certain number of words a day minimum, and a certain time of day when he writes – and if he does not follow this structure, he feels discombobulated … and he knows that he does not produce what his publishers, his audience, the world at large – and he – desire and need from him. Without Alexander McCall Smith’s self-discipline, the literary world would be a far less rich and interesting place.

This is a tale I have heard told multiple times over the years by authors speaking at the International Edinburgh Book Festival about their success and how they achieved it. I have also heard it from successful entrepreneurs, from professional sportspeople, from senior leaders in schools … from everyone, in fact, who has ever been successful at anything. Setting your mind to something, with rigour and focus, and sticking to it, finding ways to make it a part of your daily existence, is – it is probably fair to say – a necessity if you want to self-develop. This isn’t a novel idea – Aristotle pretty much had it nailed, in fact, when he wrote back in the 3rd century BC that ‘through discipline comes freedom’.

So what stops us? Perhaps it is the fear of what ‘rigour’ or ‘focus’ might mean in practice? Or the fear of change, of something different? Or perhaps we have tried before and ended up not quite achieving what we wanted to? My simple advice would be – quite simply – bin all of these thoughts, as they aren’t serving you well. You can’t change the past (although you can change how you think about it); you can, though, change the future, so do. Just take any inhibiting thoughts by the scruff of the neck, acknowledge anything they may have helped you with in the past, and then just put them firmly and definitively on the side of the path you are planning to follow. You need never be alone in this pursuit of a goal – choose your companions, guides and coaches, and you will set yourself up to succeed … and enjoy doing so. If you are looking for a modern, straight-talking guide to developing self-discipline, with exercises to help you, then I recommend Willpower by the fabulous Ros Taylor, executive coach and businesswoman extraordinaire. One of her key recommendations is to remember that the self-discipline or willpower required to fulfil your goals is a mindset: “Willpower is limitless, but remember: acquiring a willpower mindset is a journey, not a leap.”

So – take heart and have courage on this journey, and above all embrace it. Discipline … the key to success. Enjoy!

Mar 15

The global power of language learning

I loved reading this article in The Guardian last week about a ‘video pal’ scheme instigated by the University of Warwick during the pandemic and consequent lockdowns; designed to support university students in developing their French language skills despite being unable to travel, it started with 5 students and now has almost 7,000 enrolled, and it has clearly had a huge number of additional benefits for all those concerned, not least in helping older (and sometimes lonely) citizens feel connected. Learning, communication, connection … what is there not to like in this scheme?

Indeed, reading this Guardian article helped me to overcome my slight irritation at reading an article the previous week in The Spectator, where the author – well-respected and eminent in his field – effectively communicated that learning languages wasn’t really worth the hassle for a native English speaker. I do him a slight disservice; he made a very good point about ‘hidden asymmetries’, by which (as he explains) he means that what works in one direction might not work as well in the other – a Swede often has more powerful pragmatic reasons to learn English than a native English speaker might have to learn Swedish.

The author gives himself away, however, with the phrase ‘Much as I would like to learn Italian…’; while learning Italian might not offer him some financial or practical advantage, he has (wittingly or unwittingly) touched on the core value of language learning – that of human connection and exploration. Every language in the world is a gateway not just to transaction, but to an understanding and a deep appreciation of the different perspective on the world offered by a particular swathe or sliver of humanity who have experienced the world through a different lens, in the past and in the present (and, of course, in the future – a future which entices us, if we seek to share in this development together). Often this lens is similar to our own, although it is never the same; often, though, this lens is very different, and can be both – in equal measure – exciting and challenging to embrace.

We all know that the future of the world depends on co-operation across cultures, and on humans understanding one another, in order to work together more seamlessly. Fundamentally, however, this understanding will not just appear if we do not take responsibility for working to connect with one another, and to understand one another. Language is an easy first step – no-one is expecting fluency or native capacity from language learning, but I am more convinced than ever that every little step towards learning a language really, really counts in our progress as a world. This powers me in my advisory capacity to the lovely team of passionate educators at Dragons Teaching, just as it does with my own children, who I continue to encourage to learn language. And in case you were wondering, I learn some new language every day, too … my personal contribution to the global project.

So – learn some new words in another language today. Take every opportunity to extend your understanding of the human race. You will be helping to ensure the future of the world.