I often refer to the work of Mark Finnis, and his book about restorative practice and building relationships.

There is a moment, often fleeting, when two people stop being strangers to each other. A shared laugh, a genuine question, a moment of mutual recognition. This is connection – and it changes everything that follows.

“Only connect,” captures something profound about the daily life of a school. Mark’s use of this phrase reminds us that connection isn’t a warm-up act to the “real” work of education. It is the work. The learning, the growth, the difficult conversations – all of it only becomes possible once genuine human connection has been established.

Think of the child who switches off in class – not because the content is beyond them, but because they don’t yet feel seen by their teacher. Or the parent who arrives at parents’ evening already defensive, braced for criticism, their arms metaphorically folded before a word is spoken. Or the member of staff who disengages in a meeting because they feel like a problem to be managed rather than a person to be valued.

Without connection, people arrive armoured. Differences become battles. Feedback becomes attack. The simplest conversation carries the weight of unspoken grievance.

But when a teacher crouches down and genuinely asks a struggling child how their morning was – when a headteacher greets an anxious parent with a smile in the playground – when a colleague is asked their opinion before a decision is imposed – something shifts. Walls come down. People become willing to hear, to try, to trust.

Connection doesn’t dissolve the challenges schools face. It creates the conditions in which those challenges can be met with goodwill, honesty and a shared desire for every child to thrive.

Make sure you connect with people and care.

Only connect. Then everything else becomes possible.