Product reviews for Dare to be Different

"Will Ryan has worked in schools in Rotherham, South Yorkshire for over 30 years as a teacher, head teacher and Local Authority adviser. As a head teacher he led a school that prized itself on genuine pupil creativity. While it is presented to the reader as a fable with fictitious characters, "Dare to be Different: A Leadership Fable About Transformational Change In Schools" is based on real schools: schools in which Will Ryan has worked with leaders and teachers who, by applying their deeply held educational beliefs, accelerate learning and provide exciting learning opportunities for their pupils. What Ryan has done is to condense and interweave his forty-three years worth of accumulated experience of going in and out of the UK's best classrooms into "Dare to be Different in which the reader will find: At least one-hundred-and-eighteen tips that are based around exciting primary practice and which should make the hairs tingle on the neck of the most wizened school inspector; At least forty-five significant ideas that will strengthen leadership and have the capacity to transform your school as a learning community: A minimum of fifty quotations that will make the reader think about how our most inspirational leaders create inspirational teachers who get an inspirational response from their learners; Compelling pieces of evidence to demonstrate that primary school teachers are doing a fabulous job -- despite what any politician or tabloid reporter would proclaim. Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "Dare to be Different" is unreservedly recommended for both community and academic library Educational Studies collections and supplemental reading lists. It should be known for the personal reading lists of students, teachers, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Dare to be Different" is also available in a digital book format."