Product reviews for Tiny Voices Talk

Anyone who knows Toria Bono will know how significant butterflies are to her. Toria references the butterfly effect in the opening sentence of this inspired collection of essays from a range of tiny voices. #TinyVoiceTalks began life as a Twitter hashtag; the voices are tiny not in their Twitter following, but in their volume. Toria’s innovative hashtag has amplified and emboldened these voices through their Tuesday morning engagements and by means of the Tiny Voice Talks podcast. This book reaches beyond the world of Twitter and passes the pen to 36 experienced, authentic and passionate practitioners.

Toria talks about being ‘that teacher’ and reading through these pages, one realises ‘that teacher’ has a multitude of guises, quirks and styles, but a commonality of belief to put children and colleagues first. Here is a whole year's worth of staff-meeting reading with pieces short but detailed enough to generate debate around the role of the SENCO, the ‘why’ in EYFS, mentoring, challenging issues around diversity and how we can all grow as leaders. There are stories to cause the reader to reflect, to laugh, to cry and to realise what they have been saying for years has been right all along.

Social media doesn’t run our schools but these tiny voices may just enable yours to function differently. As Toria Husband eloquently says in the final contribution to this piece, ‘The loudest voice is sometimes just the biggest ego.’The tiny voices movement is about enabling those who are not the most confident or erudite to have their contribution heard. For this reason, Toria Bono’s collection needs to be in every staff library.

If the beat of one single butterfly’s wings might be felt on the other side of the globe, just imagine the impact and the power of the wings of these tiny voices beating in unison.