Dave Harris

For many years now, Dave has been reassuring all of us at Independent Thinking as well as the teachers and school leaders with whom he works on a regular basis including long-term projects in Spain, Slovenia and across the Isle of Man, that education is a pendulum and that pendulum is swinging.

Beating the drum loudly for our unofficial motto that ‘There is always another other way’, Dave shows that teaching, learning and leadership can all be approached in a way that is more humane, creative and values-driven if we genuinely decide that is what we want education to be like.

And he reassures school leaders that, while the job is complex, getting the basics right needn’t be complicated.

Dave’s first book, Are We Dropping the Baton, addressed an issue that still beleaguers schools today – getting transition right. Passionate about the through-school model, one of Dave’s headships involved bringing together an infant school, a junior school and a secondary school geographically split across a socio-economically deprived former mining community. In his own words, ‘A school is not the building’ and Dave has a great talent for bringing staff together to work for a common vision.

His second book, Brave Heads, reinforced his approach to leadership combining creativity and values with a willingness to experiment and fly in the face of received wisdom. In recent years he has collaborated on two volumes of Leadership Dialogues with renowned leadership academic, the late Professor John West-Burnham. These books embody Dave’s approach to working with school leadership teams - that he is not there to tell anyone what to do but to help them see through the fog and identify for themselves what it is that needs doing in the right way and for the right reasons.

If you are looking for an engaging and challenging speaker who combines common sense with those so important ‘a-ha’ moments that we all need to keep ourselves fresh in our work, then Dave Harris is the speaker you are looking for. Check out his work on the power of curiosity and wonder for learning too and ask about his 'Curiosity Table', always a hit at conferences and events.

• Dave has been with Independent Thinking since 2006 and is also our Business Director
• He is the President of his local bowls club
• You'll find him in our Leadership, Teaching and Learning and Well-Being topic areas
• You can watch Dave in conversation with Floyd Woodrow and Ian Gilbert in 2020 here
• You might also want to consider Dr Matthew McFall or Ian Gilbert
• He is also available for an On-Demand Conference in partnership with Dr Matthew McFall. Click here for more details