Be bold, be brave but don’t be a bruiser or a battle-axe!
When Carla asked me if I would contribute to the Talking Heads blog my initial reaction was ‘Fantastic! Yes!’ However, since agreeing to it I have had time (too much time probably) to contemplate the topic and with some trepidation I finally settled on sharing some of what works for us. I say with trepidation because I always think we’re on potentially dodgy ground when we start to list what it is we’re ‘good’ at. As a profession we hear all too often what isn’t working and on a daily basis it seems we are informed that too often we’re getting it wrong. Having read the Education White Paper this has made me more determined to share what works for us but more importantly why it works for us. I most certainly don’t profess to have all the answers but I do know that I know my school and what works for us. Above all the key message here is make it work for your school. I am a firm believer that context is everything but timing is just as important.
When I took on the Headship in my school I knew that we would be inspected in my first term. I also knew that it was highly likely we would not achieve a ‘good’ rating. Sure enough our visitors arrived 5 weeks in. we were judged as Requiring Improvement overall, Good for Behaviour and Safety and for Leadership and Management. Since then we have worked incredibly hard as a collective to move our school forward with the sole purpose of making things better for our students. We responded, we developed a plan and we stuck to it. What we didn’t do was jump through hoops we felt were unnecessary. Where we did change and adapt we did so because it was the right thing to do for our students and our school. I publicly banned the ‘O’ word and whilst we prepared for the impending visit I was very clear that I did not want colleagues to be driven by what they thought they should be doing, second guessing a framework or worse still an inspection team. We did what we do and we did it well.
‘Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.’ Reinhold Niebuhr
If like me you are a northerner born and bred, you will be accustomed to the saying ‘at the end of the day’, a prefix for some words of wisdom from the member of your family, a matriarch. In my case said person was actually my Dad. Not an educated man in the traditional sense, he has shared so many pearls with me over the years and been my go to more often than not when I needed a reminder of what’s important. His favourite ‘at the end of the day it’s midnight’. My Dad is and always has been a firm believer that some things just are what they are and that’s that. That at the end of the day there are some things we can change and others we can’t, we need to accept it. Although I too am a firm believer that even if we cannot change or influence something we can control how we respond to it. And so I manage to keep afloat in this crazy world of education and in the role of headship by applying a few things that help me.
Filter the white noise
I’ve been in senior leadership positions for over 15 years now, including Head of School for 18 months and Headteacher since September 2013. During this time I have witnessed and been party to much change but the current rate of change is such that we have had to respond, adapt and future proof our schools routinely, amidst the greatest changes we will have seen for a long time and I’m absolutely certain that we’re nowhere near done yet. However, there comes a point when we have to stop and assess, take stock of what is going on around us and make some choices, determine what is real, what is relevant and more importantly what is just white noise, a distraction from the core purpose of what we do. I realise that the white noise cannot simply be ignored, some of it has to be addressed and it is my job to act as the filter, determine which parts of this I process and share or which I simply don’t.
Know your school
This might seem like an obvious one but schools and their communities can change rapidly and significantly depending on a number of factors. Keeping on top of this is key. When we have a full diary and a pile of work sitting on our desks it can be all too easy not to walk the corridors, not do the break and lunch duties and just not get out and about as often as we should. If we don’t do this we don’t truly know our school. We can listen to our team and our colleagues’ perspectives, but we don’t get to feel them for ourselves and experience the dynamics. An example of this is that in a small school like ours in-year admissions can dramatically shift the dynamics. I insist on meeting all new admissions, I do follow ups and drop into lessons, get to know them and find out what makes them tick. Often these are managed move students and come with an interesting back story; this is their second and in some cases last chance. There are two key issues here for me, why I believe my involvement is crucial. Firstly, our ethos is built solidly on relationships and on a genuine inclusive and comprehensive approach; I want all students to know exactly that and to know who I am and what we stand for when they join our community. They need to know that they are welcome but also that there are agreed and shared responsibilities and expectations. Secondly, many of these students settle well and there’s no nicer conversation than that one.
Love your staff
Sir Michael Wilshaw was recently quoted as saying Headteachers should be ‘bruisers and battleaxes’ to get the job done. I have to disagree. In my experience, you have to love your staff, especially the ones who don’t want to be loved. Like knowing your students, this is crucial; we all have something that makes us tick. Everyone goes to work for a different reason and while we can dream that we all share the same drive and moral purpose, this is not always the case. Ask yourself how well you know your staff. Have you found out what it is that makes each one of them get up in the morning? When was the last time you had a conversation with Jane who works in the canteen? How did that go? Was it a transactional conversation? Or was it you genuinely enquiring how she was; how her family are? Did she manage to get away over the break? I keep a staff list and I check it often to mark off whom I’ve spoken to recently or not and why. Every so often, I ask my team to do the same, the results are always telling and serve as a bit of a catalyst to change habits and patterns that develop. In my book, a valued staff equals a happy staff, a happy school and a more productive community. I believe that frequent and genuine dialogue is key to building and sustaining relationships and gaining trust and confidence. Michael Fullan’s Leadership Framework very much promotes this, he states that if leaders lead with moral purpose, model enthusiasm and hope, engage stakeholders so they understand change when it is required, build relationships, develop a climate of knowledge creation, sharing and coherence making, we will gain their commitment. Once we have achieved this, more good things happen and fewer bad things happen.
Enable and empower your staff
Although this is not the first thing I have highlighted it is important to stress this has had the biggest impact on our success. Without a doubt, this has filtered across everything else we do and have achieved in terms of culture, morale, motivation and developing a common purpose. We have a very specific staff development programme that is led from within and not from the top down. To give the full details would take an entire blog in itself, but in summary, supporting staff to engage with their own learning and development is at the heart of all we do. All teaching staff and teaching assistants have one hour of training every week, which runs on a four-week cycle. Staff are divided into differentiated groups, NQTs to fourth year, experienced, middle leaders etc. In addition all teaching staff have one hour per week allocated to a teaching and learning group, which forms part of their timetable commitment; the groups are no larger than 7 and the focus is taken from one of the whole school priorities. Each T&L group contributes to the CPD programme and delivers training. We also currently have 75% of our ‘experienced’ staff and middle leaders undertaking NPQML as part of their training. The cycle is tightly woven into performance development and is a genuine driver for staff motivation and progression. When you talk to our staff they will tell you this is the catalyst in improving their practice and the quality of teaching and learning in our school. All of this of course equates to more engaging lessons, motivated and happy students and ultimately better outcomes.
Be Bold
Be bold, but not reckless. An example of this came some years ago when we decided to stop grading lessons. I realise most schools do not do this now, but when we took this decision it was not a common approach. We were strongly advised against it, as an RI school it was felt it was the wrong move to make. I disagreed; so we researched, we modelled and we trialled. We took feedback from staff, we ran with it and it paid off. Coupled with the CPD rationale and philosophy it was the right thing to do because it developed trust and confidence, enabled colleagues to experiment, make mistakes, ultimately getting better at what they do. At the time it was a bold decision but we weighed up all the factors and we approached it rationally. We were measured and we didn’t wade in. More importantly we consulted.
Look after yourself
It’s all too easy to do all the other things and look out for others, but if you don’t look after yourself and you don’t function properly, you’re no use to anyone. The best piece of advice I would give any new Head is keep talking. Talk to your peers, talk to your chair. None of us is an island and we need to engage with others; this is a tough enough job as it is without cutting yourself off. None of us has all the answers but someone else will; collaboration is key. I speak with and regularly meet with Headteacher colleagues. We can learn so much from each other, but more importantly, they help me keep things in perspective. Don’t lose sight of what makes you tick, not just in work, but outside of it too. For me family time and long fell walks are what keeps me sane; do more of what makes you happy and find time for yourself.
Work hard, stay humble, be kind
In February this year we were finally re-inspected. The inspection went incredibly well, we achieved the best possible outcome any school could have and as you can imagine we are ecstatic. To achieve such a significant jump is rare and I am delighted that our school, and our students and staff have received the recognition they deserve. However, we are still the same group of professionals and the same community of people doing what we have been doing for some considerable time. There are many other schools and colleagues like us who have lived with a label, a stigma in many ways, but who actually do a fantastic job given their circumstances. They are all too often overlooked in terms of what they do and how well they do it. This among other things makes me really cross! For us, it was as if overnight someone had waved a magic wand and we were no longer the ‘poor relation’. This of course is a symptom of the system we are in; it is ingrained and embedded and in my view, often inaccurate and misguided. However, as a school we have now entered a different landscape, one where we have a bit of breathing space and can celebrate what we do. Nevertheless, I want to make it very clear we are not complacent and we are not about to sit back and put our feet up. Like all schools we exist in a climate of constant change and diversion and we need to ensure we remain focused if we are to survive and thrive. And whilst we have got that particular monkey off our back there will always be another to replace it. For now however, my motto is: ‘work hard, stay humble, and be kind’ because you never know when things might change.
Tracy Crowder, Head Teacher Monkseaton High School