Andy Buck awarded honorary doctorate

It is his key value of injecting fun into education and drawing on reserves when things are hard that have made Andy's teaching and leadership so unique through his career. He is also a firm believer in keeping things simple. Andy said,

I am honoured to be here today to receive this award with all the graduates celebrating this special day. East London has a special place in my heart after working as a headteacher in Barking and Dagenham, and I know today's graduates can make a real difference to their communities here and in the wider world."

Andy graduated with a geography degree, which he says gave him a wonderful balance of arts, humanities and science topics across a breadth of areas. For a brief time afterwards, Andy worked in the film industry and it was after an evening watching Out Of Africa, that he was inspired to make a career change and apply to the Institute of Education to train to be a geography teacher. He then bought his ethos of enjoyment, passion and fun to the classroom to achieve outstanding results in schools, both with students and staff.

Despite becoming a headteacher of an East London school by the age of 33, and managing the heavy workload that brought, Andy continued to lead on school plays and ski trips, thriving on the personal contact with his pupils.

In the last year of headship, his school was judged outstanding in all categories and Andy was designated a National Leader of Education.

In 2010, Andy went on to work at the National College for School Leadership to establish the then-new government’s Teaching Schools initiative.

His subsequent role as managing director at United Learning, one of the UK's largest academy trusts, led him to revaluate and Andy realised he wanted to go back to being a teacher, but working with leaders in schools.

Andy then started his work on leadership development, founding Leadership Matters in 2014. It aims to improve the educational outcomes for pupils by supporting leaders to reflect, grow and develop.

His first book, Leadership Matters, became one of the highest-selling leadership school books in the UK, and remains so to this day. His latest, BASIC Coaching, is proving equally popular.

Andy is also Honorary Vice President at the Geographical Association and Honorary Education Adviser to the Duke of Edinburgh's Award, where he has delivered various training programmes.

Speaking about ambition and what makes an effective leader, Andy told the Class of 2022's graduates,

"Ask yourself, what is it that I really care about? What is my why? Great leaders are up to something. They are in touch with what they care about and they are doing something about it."

Andy gave graduates seven tips for success during his speech, including to build effective relationships and trust by asking lots of questions, and to know who your social support network is so you can lean on them when needed.