Product reviews for We Did it Here!

In this entertaining book, Brin Best, a teacher turned education consultant, reports on instances of inspirational school improvement and classroom change. He wants to get across that the “you couldn't do that here” attitude is plain wrong - that there is room for creativity and imagination in education.

He recounts the story of the PE teacher who has a Year 11 class where 96 per cent of pupils are expected to achieve grades A*-C at GCSE in 2008 (it was a lowly 27 per cent in 2006), or there's the head, who turned to the -˜14 principles for effective organisations' that were put together by US business leader W. Edwards Deming, the man credited with improving Japanese management from the 1950s onwards.

Best's book is a celebration of innovation, creativity and motivation - aspects that are often lost in the climate of initiatives, national targets and tests. As he portrays successful schools and school leaders, he builds to a climax where he draws up a 10-point manifesto for -˜real change in our schools'.



Best's lessons for school leaders are clear. Two of the main ones are that leaders must accept the responsibility that comes with the more flexible educational framework for schools that lies ahead. They should also commit to making creativity a key Dart of the ethos of the school.