Is a sole leadership role is the perfect solution? Or is an extensive team is needed to lead a school to success?<\/p>\n\n\n
We have lived\nthrough changing times in education. No change there, then. In fact,\nliving with and through a constantly changing world of education is\noften cited as a reason to call a halt, quit and become a fisherman in\nCornwall.<\/p>\n\n\n
Oddly enough, even thinking of the above alternative to teaching\/managing in schools brings me back round to the territory I wanted to explore for a moment: leadership. Jumping from a school to a fishing boat would just land you in another \u2018unit\u2019 with the same demands for a leader (a captain) and a staff (however many fishermen would be necessary for the job).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
And\n it\u2019s that question of \u2018how many\u2019 which is intriguing. In the olden days\n (sorry!) my first job was in a large college of further education. I\nhad three bosses \u2013 head of English, head of arts\/liberal studies and\nprincipal. They were, of course, all men \u2013 in those days women in FE\ntaught in the catering department and seldom rose very high. In two\nyears I never met the principal, in which regard I differed from a\nfriend who later got a job in a big college of education, caused the\nprincipal to seek a divorce and married him in some triumph.<\/p>\n\n\n
But I digress. It seems to me now that most schools, for instance, may have a head \u2013 which looks much like the role as it ever was \u2013 but they will also have a sometimes quite enormous team of people sharing the load. There are, for instance, deputy heads (I was one, that I understand) but even in my day there were growing demands for that job to be labelled, for instance, deputy head pastoral, or academic, as the case may be. In applications for headship, I was quite proud of my sole deputy status, although in reality the head herself bore the brunt of everything which happened in school. The deputy was an appointment in case of need if the head was indisposed.<\/p>\n\n\n
Assistant\n heads, often attached to particular academic years or pastoral roles,\nare a new invention since my early days in classrooms. Their existence\ntestifies to the recognition that schools are enormously busy places\nwith serious and important aims and intentions for all their pupils, and\n that schools will also offer career-enhancing roles to staff who are\ninterested and ambitious. That\u2019s essential if there is to be any staff\ndevelopment.<\/p>\n\n\n
Second\nqualifications \u2013 master\u2019s or doctorate level \u2013 for experienced teaching\nstaff have changed from the old education management courses to a new\nbeast: education leadership. Recognition that one person cannot do it\nall has blossomed into the creation of leadership teams, and schools\nwith distributed leadership. And experience of those helps you climb the\n promotion ladder.<\/p>\n\n\n
It\u2019s amazing how many role models we see in positions of high authority appearing to be solo players, when in fact they have at their disposal an extensive team ensuring that they can do the one job which is theirs<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n
Of course, the smaller the school the less likely are the opportunities to build experience of leadership in advance of the big job. A colleague moved from a seven-year stint as head at a small school to a headship with one of our larger premier schools, and what did she find different, apart from sheer numbers? Enthusiasm. She said that in the small school an idea might occur round the table but no one wanted to try new things or make big changes because things were fine, weren\u2019t they? There was, in fact, great resistance to change, a kind of comfortable conviction that all was well and don\u2019t mess with it!<\/p>\n\n\n
In\n the new large school, she said a mere murmur of an idea at a senior\nmeeting would produce instant, enthusiastic offers from most people in\nthe room to pursue the idea, report back, see what was possible and go\nfor it. It sounded very like those classrooms where the keenest children\n bounce up and down, waving their hands to get the teacher\u2019s attention,\ncrying, \u2018please miss! I can do that miss! Mi-iss! Please!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n
She\n was very sure that she had a vibrant and constructive team around her,\nworking for the good of her school as well as their own careers. She\nfound it refreshing, luxurious, even. <\/p>\n\n\n
\u201cFor\n the first time as a head,\u201d she reported, \u201cI felt as if I was not alone,\n and I didn\u2019t have to do it all myself. And the school was the richer\nfor the generation of lots of ideas, which were then followed up. The\nstaff wanted experience of leading others and managing change and saw\nthe school as their test ground. <\/p>\n\n\n
\u201cEveryone benefited and I stopped having nightmares about shouldering the whole lot myself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
Team effort<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n
But\n there are other worlds outside classrooms and beyond the gates, and we\nmight wonder if other patterns of leadership or the pursuit of\nexcellence might inform school practice.<\/p>\n\n\n
It\u2019s amazing\nhow many role models we see in positions of high authority appearing to\nbe solo players, when in fact they have at their disposal an extensive\nteam ensuring that they can do the one job which is theirs. You would\nthink, because that\u2019s what it looks like, that a tennis player was a\nsolo operator, but how big is the team which puts the player on the\ncourt?<\/p>\n\n\n
I have done no specific research, but I have\nheard interviews in which leading players mention \u2013 a little casually,\nas in, \u2018but of course, what did you expect?\u2019 \u2013 their personal teams.\nThey include a coach or two (perhaps one for serving, one for backhand \u2013\n there are endless possibilities in this category), a medic or two and\nperhaps a surgeon, sports psychologist, personal trainer,\nphysiotherapist, nutrition adviser, chef, secretary and public relations expert. Wow.<\/p>\n\n\n
Wouldn\u2019t\n you love the notion of a new head arriving in school with her\/his own\nteam? Their own deputy \u2013 \u2018we\u2019re a team, we really work well together,\nand it really helps to have someone the head trusts to make sure that\nthe senior common room understands what she\/he wants, and the head has a\n direct line to the staffroom again that she\/he can trust\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n
It\u2019s\n just possible such an appointment might be considered risky, but hey,\nthis is just thinking outside the box. And what about the head\u2019s PA? A\nrottweiler guarding the inner sanctum \u2013 \u2018She\u2019s very experienced at\nspotting who\/what will waste the head\u2019s time, and very diplomatic, trust\n her with my life!\u2019 A \u2018clearer of the decks\u2019 so the head can get on with the serious business.<\/p>\n\n\n
How\n about a speech writer? I have thought heads should have one of those\never since I watched, on a train, a man whom I presumed to be a head\nwith an assembly to do the next morning, making notes from what seemed\nto be a children\u2019s book entitled An Assembly Every Day!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n
The\n speech writer is a somewhat frivolous thought, but deputy and PA are\nmore seriously meant. Effectively, they are the interface between a new\nhead and a well-established school, where there is often friction and\nmisunderstanding \u2013 dangerous territory for the body of the school.<\/p>\n\n\n
With\n a big enough team (bag carrier also?) the head might be able to cover\nher\/his beat unencumbered \u2013 no handbag, no file, no papers. Obama-esque\nelegance and minimalistic, calm authority. \u2018Nothing in my hands but\ntrust me, I\u2019ve got this.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n
Now that\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n
This article first appeared in IE-Today<\/a> on 29 May 2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Is a sole leadership role is the perfect solution? Or is an extensive team is needed to lead a school to success? We have lived through changing times in education. No change there, then. In fact, living with and through a constantly changing world of education is often cited as a reason to call a\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[124,125],"class_list":["post-495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ie-today","tag-leadership","tag-leadership-teams"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/j-moriarty.co.uk\/hilarymoriarty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/j-moriarty.co.uk\/hilarymoriarty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/j-moriarty.co.uk\/hilarymoriarty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/j-moriarty.co.uk\/hilarymoriarty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/j-moriarty.co.uk\/hilarymoriarty\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/j-moriarty.co.uk\/hilarymoriarty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/j-moriarty.co.uk\/hilarymoriarty\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/j-moriarty.co.uk\/hilarymoriarty\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/j-moriarty.co.uk\/hilarymoriarty\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}