Curiosity is a superpower: the more curious you are, the more questions you ask, the more answers you get, the more you know, and the more that further stimulates curiosity. The pay-off is both the knowledge that is acquired(and knowledge, of course, is power) - and that virtuous circle. Unfortunately, schools, qualifications and curricula are not always set up to encourage curiosity (and there are ways in which they actually discourage it). The book covers some of the challenges encountered in trying to teach curiosity together with outlining a course that the author has designed and used to kick start that cycle of questioning.

James Handscombe is known as one of the great school leaders of this generation. This book allows his originality, inspiration and genius to be shared on a far wider stage. -- Anthony Seldon, educator, historian and author.
Handscombe is the Montaigne of education writers. -- David Didau

James Handscombe's Cabinet of Curiosity is exactly the kind of transformative, forward-thinking work our sector needs. This book doesn't merely champion the value of curiosity - it demonstrates, with warmth and intellectual ambition, how we can infuse learning environments with authentic curiosity, daring young minds and teachers alike to ask more, think deeper, and never settle for narrow answers. With hands-on guides, stories from the classroom, and a fiercely human approach to knowledge, Handscombe invites us all - educators, leaders, and learners - to become custodians of curiosity and architects of richer, more empowering educational experiences.



Cabinet of Curiosity reaches across boundaries of subject, age, and ability, exemplifying the powerful impact of a curriculum that values breadth, conversation, and the joyful unpredictability of asking "what if?" in every discipline. At CELT, we believe the future belongs to the curious; Handscombe's work gives every reader the framework and inspiration to unleash curiosity as a superpower in their own settings. This is a book every school should have on its shelves - and every teacher should have at their elbow - as a wellspring of practical wisdom in shaping the kind of education that makes a lifelong difference

* Dan Morrow, head of the Cornwall Education Learning Trust (CELT) *

James Handscombe was educated at Silverdale School in Sheffield followed by maths degrees from Oxford and Harvard. Since emerging, blinking, from his own education he has been a (mostly) secondary (mostly) mathematics teacher in South Wales, Australia and London. Since 2014 he has been the founding principal of Harris Westminster Sixth form and since 2022 the Executive Principal of a sister school in Clapham.