‘One of the things that I’m really aware of at the moment is so many school leaders are in this stage of it feels like it’s one crisis after another. The perma-crisis. One more domino and another then another.’ 

Paul K Ainsworth shares how reading emergency planner Lucy Easthope’s book Come What May: Life-Changing Lessons for Coping with Crisis resonated with his experience of what happens when things go wrong in schools.  

Drawing on Lucy Easthope’s lessons, Paul talks about the phases of recovery, the dangers of hopium, acknowledging that it takes time for things to get better, and the importance of seeking help. 

‘But I genuinely believe it will get better. And I think that anything that we can do that rebuilds our reservoirs of hope is so important.’

Paul K Ainsworth is a school improvement champion. He has supported hundreds of schools on their improvement journey in his system leadership roles across four multi-academy trusts. Paul is the author of No Silver Bullets: Day In, Day Out School Improvement and writes on Substack as No Silver Bullets Man. 

Liz Worthen’s career in education spans teaching, training, commissioning and programme development. Creating Value in Schools is all about sustainable working: taking care of people, planet and resources to secure better outcomes for children and communities. 

• Listen to Professor Lucy Easthope on Desert Island Discs: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002d87s
• Find Come What May in the Creating Value in Schools bookshop: bookshop.org/shop/createvalueschools
• Read Paul’s blogs: paulkainsworth.wordpress.com
• Find Paul’s books: paulkainsworth.wordpress.com/books
• Paul on sustainable school improvement: createvalueschools.com/blog/keep-going-routes-to-sustainable-improvement-and-finding-your-why 
• Join the Creating Value in Schools community: createvalueschools.com/subscribe

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