Mark McCourt

@markmccourt.bsky.social

1455 Followers 564 Following

CEO, Academy Transformation Trust; Chairman, Advantage Schools

A pupil stands at a crossroads between pathways labelled "Education" and "Training", symbolising the debate over whether schools exist primarily to cultivate broad human knowledge or prepare young people for employment.
A surreal split theatrical mask stands upright, one half dark and one half light, framing two contrasting landscapes: a bright countryside on one side and a bleak industrial cityscape on the other. A winding road passes between them beneath the title “Are We Sure We Are Not the Bad Guys?”, symbolising moral ambiguity, self-reflection and the challenge of questioning prevailing beliefs.
A minimalist illustration of a confidence-weighted multiple-choice question triangle showing varying levels of certainty between possible answers, representing the identification of misconceptions and confident errors in learning.
Illustrated blog banner for an education article titled Retrieval Is Not a Starter Activity. A teacher leads a discussion with pupils while a mathematical problem involving trigonometry is displayed on a whiteboard. The scene emphasises the use of prior knowledge to solve new problems, with visual references to retrieval, method selection, connection-making and application. The design conveys the idea that retrieval is most powerful when embedded naturally within the story of learning rather than used as a disconnected classroom routine.
A birthday cupcake with a lit candle sits in an empty classroom beside attendance charts and data, symbolising the contrast between statistically interesting findings and meaningful school improvement.
Banner image for the blog “Teach Is a Transitive Verb”, featuring books representing different academic disciplines beside an open notebook, symbolising the relationship between pedagogy, didactics and subject-specific teaching.
Split scene showing engaged students in a phone-free school contrasted with students distracted by smartphones
A headteacher in academic gown stands on a path at sunset, looking towards a school building in the distance, symbolising long service and stewardship in education.