James is a head teacher of a 3-18 school in rural Scotland and a doctoral student at the University of Strathclyde. He has been a primary school teacher and head teacher, education support officer, national lead for Scotland in School Leadership (with the Scottish College for Educational Leadership) and now a 3-18 head teacher. His research interests include school leadership, social and emotional aspects of schooling and leadership, and most recently pupil voice and pupils as researchers (which forms the basis for his current research). Outside of education, his interests mostly involve gardening, woodwork, losing at Risk to his daughter and looking after his dog, cat and chickens in rural Argyll.