by | | blog, Reflections on the pressures of increased accountability for school leaders
How many schools do you know that following an OFSTED visit, their staff have felt an upsurge in energy and have been inspired and motivated to carry out their roles with increased levels of passion and commitment? If you know of any, I’d like to be introduced to them and to be told of their secret formula for overcoming the huge amounts of stress that OFSTED inspections induce. Head of OFSTED, Amanda Spielman recently said that, “There are quite a few heads in the system who write blogs that spin up levels of anxiety. It’s not just the various parts of government… there’s also a responsibility in the whole education system not to manufacture tension which shouldn’t be there” In my opinion, these Heads that she refers to are not writing blogs to ‘spin up levels of anxiety or to ‘manufacture tension which shouldn’t be there’ they are simply writing to tell it how it is. They are simply saying “We are human beings operating in a system that has yet to take full account of and understand the emotional impact that OSTED has upon us and our schools. They are saying, “We need a relational model of school leadership/accountability that builds trusts and allows us to be autonomous in our decisions as school leaders.” It’s a hard message for OFSTED to hear, but ask any Head and they will tell you that a culture of fear does exist and it not based on hearsay or myth. It is based upon their own experiences and that of many of their colleagues....
by | | blog, Maintaining personal and professional well being
After the end of each term or particularly at the end of every year, I think we can all find ourselves very much in a reflective mode. Now it won’t surprise me, if in your reflections, you ponder on how tired and exhausted you have felt at times this term! I know back when I was a School Leader – that reality was all too familiar. In education, we tend to slog through the term – seeing the holidays as our chance to get the renewal we need that can sustain us through the year. However, I don’t think that has to be the case. Instead, I believe, by doing four key things to look after yourself better during term time, you can change the tone of your life as a school leader and keep yourself positive and full of vitality throughout the year. If you have chance, I would really encourage you to take some time to reflect on these and these questions for reflection to help you find an answer that will help support your own self-care as you move into the new year… 1. Change your Mindset If you really want to end each term feeling a little less tired and a little less strained then you have to begin with you; your own thoughts and the messages that you give to yourself about self-care. I have met far too many school leaders for whom their own self-care is not a priority. They have developed a set of beliefs that has caused them to sacrifice their own needs in order to meet the needs of others. They have a belief that...
by | | blog, Reflections on the pressures of increased accountability for school leaders
This blog comes from ex-Secondary Headteacher, former Governor and Integrity Coaching associate, Tim Small. As volunteers, usually with busy professional and personal lives of their own, governors are asked to carry a heavy responsibility. How can they sort out the vital from the not-so-vital and focus on what matters most? At the heart of that question lies the relationship between governance and leadership. In three different roles, I’ve witnessed this relationship close to: as a Head, as a Governor myself and as an External Adviser for Heads’ Performance Management. From all three perspectives, the relationship was ‘make-or-break’; it had the power either to drive or destroy momentum for improvement. I believe it all depends how Governors understand and apply themselves to these five key responsibilities… 1) Setting ethos and values 2) Holding leadership to account 3) Balancing support and challenge 4) Distinguishing between help and interference 5) Taking responsibility for the Head’s wellbeing. 1) The school’s ethos and values are the governors’ responsibility, but how they’re arrived at will decide both their credibility and their impact. When the process is genuinely inclusive, it harnesses all the energy of the community to a common sense of purpose. In the Governor team that I belonged to, we initiated a simple but thorough consultation of every stakeholder group: pupils, staff, governors, parents and families and the local community, asking them (i) what they liked (about school), (ii) what mattered most to them and (iii) what they would change if they could, we gathered rich feedback for sifting, discussing and distilling on a training day. The values statement...
by | | blog, The qualities of outstanding school leaders
Our thoughts influence how we feel and our feelings affect how we behave. It is only when we are listened to empathically that we are able to unpick how one affects the other. We make links between feelings and thoughts all the time in our daily lives. As a school leader, you do this constantly and probably do not realise the impact that the inter-relationship has on your levels of confidence and performance in the role. For example, you feel miserable when you think about the school governor who constantly attempts to override your decisions; or you feel angry when you think about the member of staff who never has a good word to say about anything (particularly about you!); or you feel apprehensive when you think about a meeting that went wrong, knowing you don’t want the same thing to happen the next time around. All of these are natural emotions. The danger that many school leaders fall victim to is that, left unprocessed, these emotions cause an internal blockage, so the ability to lead oneself with integrity becomes severely limited. These people may find themselves in situations where they begin to lose confidence. As a result they act in ways which, far from increasing their self-confidence, actually diminish it. They adopt behaviours that do not match the image of the leader they really want to be. When they catch themselves behaving ‘out of character’, they may feel a mixture of shame, embarrassment, frustration, hurt and anger – emotions which, left unprocessed, decrease their ability to lead themselves and others with confidence and authenticity....
