The Connection Commitment

Transforming School Communities Through Sustainable Connection

By: Matt Pitman

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Paperback | 11 November 2026

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Paperback
200 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
23.39 x 15.6 x 1.07

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This book is both a permission slip and a challenge. Permission to refuse the disconnection that has become normalised in schools, and a challenge to actually do something about it.

Drawing on four classic works - The Outsiders, The Metamorphosis, The Odyssey and The Tempest - Matt Pitman explores how schools can reconnect with their students, their staff, their families and their wider communities. The third book in his acclaimed connection series argues that the crisis facing schools today is not simply a workload or wellbeing problem, it is a disconnection problem, and it requires a different kind of response.

The Connection Commitment is not about adding another program or initiative to an already exhausted system. It is about rethinking the conditions under which learning, professionalism and human connection become possible, and committing to building them deliberately. For anyone who works in a school, whatever their role, this book is an invitation to help write a better story.

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Acknowledgement of Country ix

Acknowledgements x

About the author xi

A note for readers xiii

Introduction 1

Part 1: Prologue 9

Chapter 1 A ship on ambiguous waters 11

Chapter 2 The Hero's (Connection) Journey 21

Chapter 3 The stories we tell shape the world we understand 32

Part 2: Connecting students - Bringing 'The Outsiders' in 39

Chapter 4 Greasers, Socs and the threat of labels 41

Chapter 5 Stay gold 50

Chapter 6 Telling your story 59

Part 3: Connecting staff - Reversing 'The Metamorphosis' 69

Chapter 7 Waking up changed 71

Chapter 8 The silent disappearance 81

Chapter 9 Becoming human again 90

Part 4: Connecting families - Embarking on 'The Odyssey' 101

Chapter 10 Monsters, maps and misunderstanding 103

Chapter 11 Penelope's persistence 113

Chapter 12 Celebrating a homecoming 125

Part 5: Connecting schools - Braving 'The Tempest' 135

Chapter 13 Inciting the storm 137

Chapter 14 Listening across the island 148

Chapter 15 Breaking the (magic) staff 157

Part 6: Epilogue 169

Chapter 16 Return to port 171

Conclusion 177

References 181

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