In the summer of 2006, I was having a conversation with my soon to be predecessor at Highgate Wood School Pauline Ashbee (one of my heroes!).
She was a couple of months from retiring and I was getting ready to take over. She was very keen to support my preparation and could see how nervous I was.
I did not feel ready, and she knew it. As part of a pep talk, she gave me a bit of advice that I have held onto ever since: “Remember Patrick, you can choose what you think.”
Simple, yet powerful. She could see I was struggling with a growing feeling of imposter syndrome. When I had become headteacher designate in the April of that year, I had been a senior leader for five years and seven months, of which just 15 months had been served as a deputy head. It was scary.
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