Lee Cummins

Secondary Headteacher, Cheshire. ASCL Cymru president in 2019/20. ASCL Council member from September 2023. All views expressed are my own.

[Sam Strickland @SamStrickers181]

Third time lucky! Having lost my @strickomaster account & my recent new account too here is yet again my new X account.

Please retweet….

[UptonHighPE @pe_uptonhigh]

Dance show rehearsal in full swing tonight! 24hours to go! All the learners are smashing it!

[UptonHighPE @pe_uptonhigh]

Very unlucky Yr11 football who narrowly lost their semi final 2-1. They showed outstanding commitment & pushed their opponents all the way. The end of a long journey, but they should be really proud of their growth & progress as a team. ⚽️👏👏👏

[Upton Voice @UptonVoice]

Upton-by-Chester High School is recruiting for a Teacher of Physical Education (Boys).

Closing date: Midday, Fri 24th Apr, 2026.

View full details and apply online @mynewterm ⬇️ https://t.co/MUxJWdFQ8X

[UptonHighPE @pe_uptonhigh]

Silver medals for the U13 Netball team at the Chester and District Tournament.🥈
Great squad effort and excellent skills on show! Massive well done girls 🤩

[UptonHighPE @pe_uptonhigh]

Year 9 Netball at the Chester and District Tournament. The A team came joint first and the B team came 4th. 🤩Only school with an A and B team! Thanks Issy in Yr 13 for umpiring!

[UptonHighPE @pe_uptonhigh]

Year 10 sports leaders organised 49 French students into teams, umpired games and taught them how to play. They ended with an England V France fixture that finished at draw for the boys and 2-0 victory for England (Upton). Lots of fun and amazing experience.

[Geoff Barton @RealGeoffBarton]

The view from here: a wonderful afternoon with my great friend and former @ASCL_UK president @Evelynforde1. She continues to inspire so many of us.

[UptonHighPE @pe_uptonhigh]

Well done Year 7 football who progressed to the Chester cup semi final, with a 6-2 win over Tarporley. Goals from JakeA , 2x JackP & a hat trick from LukeS. An excellent performance all round; strong defensively & creative in attack, well done all!👏👏⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️

[Upton Voice @UptonVoice]

Congratulations to Bianca in Year 7, Aoibheann and Dylan in Year 8 and Grace in Year 9 for winning our World Book Day competition. The judges were very impressed with their creative writing and artwork in answering the question 'Why is reading good for you?'

[Upton Voice @UptonVoice]

All 882 of our learners in Key Stage 3 are receiving a free book courtesy of #WorldBookDay2026. They can Go All In for #NationalYearOfReading2026.

[UptonHighPE @pe_uptonhigh]

Well done U18 football who progressed to the county cup semi finals, beating a strong Sandbach team 2-1. Goals from OksarD & MarcoG. Superb performance lads! ⚽️⚽️👏👏

[Lee Woods @LeeWoods0722]

Most school leaders are not chasing perfection.
They are chasing progress.

Quietly. Relentlessly. Under pressure.

That is why Better by Atul Gawande resonates so deeply with leadership in schools.

It is not about brilliance.
It is about systems, habits and the discipline of improvement.

In surgery, failure costs lives.
In education, it costs opportunity.

The lesson is the same in both fields:
Care is not enough. Systems matter.

That simple truth sits at the heart of Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance by Atul Gawande. Although written through the lens of medicine, it may be one of the most quietly powerful leadership books a leader can read.

Because it strips performance back to its essentials.
Not vision statements. Not slogans.
But habits, systems, humility and the relentless pursuit of improvement.

In schools, as in surgery, we often celebrate individual excellence.
The outstanding teacher. The inspirational leader. The charismatic head.

Gawande dismantles this myth with precision.

He shows that even the most talented professionals fail without:
•Clear systems
•Consistent routines
•Feedback that is acted upon
•A culture that allows challenge and learning

The lesson is uncomfortable but necessary. Performance does not improve because people care more. It improves because systems make the right actions more likely and the wrong ones harder to repeat.

One of Gawande’s central arguments is that improvement rarely comes from dramatic breakthroughs. It comes from marginal gains applied consistently.

This is profoundly relevant to school leadership.

Better attendance rarely comes from one assembly.
Better behaviour rarely comes from one policy rewrite.
Better teaching rarely comes from one INSET day.

It comes from leaders who:
•Clarify expectations
•Remove ambiguity
•Build routines that survive pressure
•Accept that good intentions are not enough

In Gawande’s world, checklists save lives.
In ours, systems save learning time.

Perhaps the most striking section of Better is Gawande’s exploration of coaching. Even elite surgeons, at the top of their profession, actively seek feedback from others who can see what they cannot.

This is where leadership in schools is often tested.

Senior leaders are expected to have answers.
Yet the most effective leaders are those who remain open to scrutiny.

The parallel is clear. Schools improve fastest when leaders:

Invite challenge rather than defend practice
Use evidence to refine decisions
Model learning rather than certainty

Leadership is not diminished by coaching. It is strengthened by it.

What makes Better resonate so strongly with education is its realism.

Gawande does not argue that failure can be eliminated. He argues that it can be reduced. He does not promise excellence overnight. He commits to progress, relentlessly pursued.

This mirrors the reality of schools.

We work in complex systems, serving diverse communities, under constant pressure. Improvement is rarely neat. But it is possible.

The leaders who make the biggest difference are those who ask, repeatedly:

What worked today?
What did not?
What one thing can we do better tomorrow?

That mindset is not glamorous.
It is transformative.

Better is not a book about medicine.
It is a book about responsibility.

Responsibility to design systems that protect people.
Responsibility to reflect honestly on performance.
Responsibility to keep improving even when progress feels slow.

For school leaders, that message could not be more relevant.

Because the work is not about being flawless.
It is about being better.

Every day.

[Geoff Barton @RealGeoffBarton]

Thought for the week ahead ...

[Upton Voice @UptonVoice]

Some of our Service learners had a fantastic opportunity to visit Chester University this week. During their trip, the learners enjoyed a tour of the campus and took part in a lecture. It was an inspiring day that sparked curiosity and gave everyone a real insight into uni life.

[Upton Voice @UptonVoice]

We were thrilled to welcome back Ella Johnson to Upton High today. After leaving us in 2022, Ella has gone on to build an impressive early career in the Infrastructure Services Department at Fisher German. Ella gave our learners a brilliant insight into the world of surveying.

[Tes magazine @tes]

Government has every right to set the overall direction of education policy, but what leaders need in return is genuine engagement – not announcements delivered via press releases, says @ASCL_UK's @pepediiasio
https://t.co/tfruDWURaL

[Lee Cummins @LeeCummins2]

@MrTeece_ @Headteacherchat @MissTaz_ Would be really interested in seeing this. We have started a professional growth process this year and it is good, but would like to see some other models. Thanks.

[Upton Voice @UptonVoice]

Thank you to our school community for your support during Sixth Form Charity Week. The current total stands at £3,245 in aid of SPACE, Let's Farm and Maggie's, with money still being counted!

[Upton Voice @UptonVoice]

We’re delivering great computing education! We’ve achieved the Computing Quality Mark, from the National Centre for Computing Education, recognising the outstanding provision across our school. @wearecomputing #Computingqualityframework #compqf