Rob Earl — WritingEssays on international education, school leadership, identity, assessment, and the place of AI in professional practice.https://earl.pro/en-gbWhen a school policy isn't followed, look at the document before blaming the staffhttps://earl.pro/writing/policy-document-before-blaming-staff/https://earl.pro/writing/policy-document-before-blaming-staff/When a policy isn't applied properly, the instinct is to look at the person who applied it. The fault usually sits further back, in a document trying to do four jobs at once. On why schools need a policy package rather than a policy document.Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTToday's students can move faster than any before them. We need to raise the bar.https://earl.pro/writing/raising-the-bar-assessment/https://earl.pro/writing/raising-the-bar-assessment/Assessment has always relied on a gap between the material a student can find and the output they are expected to produce. AI has closed it, and the answer is to raise what we ask of students rather than to police how they work.Sat, 18 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTA little data literacy goes a long way... sometimes too far.https://earl.pro/writing/data-literacy-overconfidence/https://earl.pro/writing/data-literacy-overconfidence/The conversation about data literacy in schools almost always assumes the problem is scarcity. More often it is the opposite: just enough knowledge to be confident, and not enough to be right.Thu, 09 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTAI-personalised learning will create students who have never lost an argument. That's a problem.https://earl.pro/writing/students-who-have-never-lost-an-argument/https://earl.pro/writing/students-who-have-never-lost-an-argument/AI personalisation is exceptionally good at calibrating content to the individual. It is far less suited to the parts of learning that require other people, and that is where intellectual formation actually happens.Sat, 27 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTQuality assurance should be done with school teams, not to themhttps://earl.pro/writing/quality-assurance-with-not-to/https://earl.pro/writing/quality-assurance-with-not-to/Group quality assurance can deliver real insight, yet the team that carries its weight rarely feels the benefit. On the difference between QA done to a school and QA done with it, and why serving the people in the building first protects the commercial interest better than the reverse.Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe right leader. The right school. The right time?https://earl.pro/writing/right-leader-right-time/https://earl.pro/writing/right-leader-right-time/The success of a leadership appointment isn't only about who you hire. It also needs to be the right moment in the school's development for them to thrive. On the phases a school moves through, what each asks of its leaders, and why timing is the variable hiring conversations miss.Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTReality TV taught me something about accountabilityhttps://earl.pro/writing/accountability-and-ownership/https://earl.pro/writing/accountability-and-ownership/Acknowledgement and apology tell people you understand what happened. Ownership requires action; accountability means accepting the consequences. On the difference, and why organisations so often reward performance over substance when it's time for a mea culpa.Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTWhen heritage schools go international, style travels easily. Substance doesn't.https://earl.pro/writing/heritage-schools-international/https://earl.pro/writing/heritage-schools-international/A name and a crest reproduce frictionlessly. What it actually feels like to be educated at a school does not. On the gap between the two, and what protects against dilution.Mon, 27 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTWhat Radical Candor taught me about mutual intelligibilityhttps://earl.pro/writing/radical-candor-mutual-intelligibility/https://earl.pro/writing/radical-candor-mutual-intelligibility/Communication norms vary across cultures, teams, and individuals, but the gap between what is said and what is thought is near-universal. On using a feedback framework not as a rulebook but as a neutral language for naming how we actually talk to each other.Mon, 30 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTAI as a sparring partner: why the conversation matters as much as the initial prompthttps://earl.pro/writing/ai-as-sparring-partner/https://earl.pro/writing/ai-as-sparring-partner/The part that matters most is not the prompt but what follows it. On using AI to pressure-test thinking rather than to produce answers.Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTAI and the flattening of professional voicehttps://earl.pro/writing/ai-flattening-professional-voice/https://earl.pro/writing/ai-flattening-professional-voice/What gives away an AI-generated response, and why a homogenised professional voice carries a real cost to the individuals and organisations that depend on clear thinking.Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTA provocation is not a positionhttps://earl.pro/writing/provocation-not-a-position/https://earl.pro/writing/provocation-not-a-position/Speaking last protects independent thinking but carries its own cost. On a sharper way to put an idea into the room: not as a question or a suggestion, but as a provocation.Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTKnow thyself: what I learned from teaching AI to sound like mehttps://earl.pro/writing/teaching-ai-to-sound-like-me/https://earl.pro/writing/teaching-ai-to-sound-like-me/Getting AI close enough to your own style turns out to be an exercise in self-knowledge: you cannot instruct it in how you write until you understand how you write.Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT