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CONTENTS

Contents page

1. Introductions 3

2. Priorities, Dynamics and Ethos 4

3. Focusing on Mediocrity 5

4. Mediocrity and Beyond 6

5. The Challenges of Professional Change 7

6. Stability and Success without Stagnation 8

7. Some Reflections on Being a Head teacher 9

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INTRODUCTIONS

In this short chapter I introduce some of head teachers I encountered. Not all of them for that might be rather repetitive and long-winded but, rather, a sample to pro-vide a flavor of the range of schools, the in-dividuals I met, and a hint of what is to fol-low. Some situations will be familiar to you; others less so. As the book unfolds the pic-tures I paint will provide echoes and in-sights into people’s working lives. They will be different for each and every one of us.

It is important to appreciate that all of the head teachers to whom I spoke were highly regarded and successful. Ideas and behavior which I garnered and which particularly attracted me – and, hopefully, these will not be apparent – are no more nor less appropriate than those that ap-peal to you. It is not a question of there being a right way to be a leader but, as will emerge, that success tends to come from combining a range of factors in a particular way which suits your personality and the situation in which you find yourself.

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PRIORITIES, DYNAMICS AND ETHOS

Child-centred There was a general consensus that suc-cessful early years teachers share some fundamental personal qualities.

When you walk into his or her classroom it is exciting, the environment is exciting, they are using resources in an imagina-tive way. And the children make pro-gress. It’s about children making pro-gress, both within lessons and over time. And then reflecting what they are doing and analyzing what they are doing at dif-ferent intervals, so that they are assess-ing children all the way along and then modifying and changing as they go.

All of the head teachers were very animated

throughout much of our discussion but they

were clear that creating and maintaining a posi-

tive culture in their schools was hard work and

an ongoing process which could not be left to

chance:

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FOCUSING ON MEDIOCRITY

It is not about condemning them or casting blame. Rather it is about understanding them, how they come to be as they are, the effect they have on others, and, as we will see in the next chapter, how – inmost cases very effectively – head teachers manage them

Challenges in spotting mediocre practice

If someone is underperforming in a school you

might imagine that it would be relatively easy to

spot him or her but that is not always the case for a

variety of reasons

Those who are not susceptible to change and are

not willing to change or are incompetent and can’t

take on board new ideas – it’s beyond their capacity

to be able to change their teaching because either

they’ve been doing it too long or even, sometimes,

they are younger and they just have a very fixed

mindset.

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MEDIOCRITY AND BEYOND

Some underlying principles of action The head teachers adopted a range of strategies as they endeavored to enhance the professional practice of colleagues. Some were informal: others less so. Some were done in isolation: oth-ers in tandem with other techniques. Before de-scribing their methods in more detail I would like to draw your attention to some of the principles underlying their actions.

Informal strategies

Build on strengths

There will be something that they are doing right. So what I did was try to play to her

strengths ’cos there were things that she was particularly good at, and try and detach my

side, emotionally, from the personal side of things ... she had real artistic strengths. In terms

of the planning, she could do it, so the way I pulled her into line was to make her very ac-

countable and to make sure that I saw planning in advance.

Making feel part of team

‘In every way, trying to keep bringing them into the centre.’ By this she meant literally, as

she went on, ‘But what had happened was he’d been left in a mobile out on the playground

for quite a number of years. The key thing I did was bring him right into the centre of the

school, physically, one thing I could keep an eye on every day – I was going past – but also

he had to engage with otherpeople a bit more.’

Giving responsibility

The other thing I try to do is give them responsibilities within the school. To try to get them

engaged in projects – bringing students in – I find that that has been very effective. You

know, because they have to take responsibility somewhere. They therefore have to think

about their own teaching in order to support the students and quite often some of the stu-

dent stuff will rub off, make them think about things.

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THE CHALLENGES OF PROFESSIONAL CHANGE

They are extremely knowledgeable about educational issues, so their own knowledge is good and they keep up to date with what is going on and are prepared to question their thinking and challenge their thinking and move on in the light of new research. And, I sup-pose, they are able to deal with what the government throws their way in a way that maintains their profes-sionalism yet doesn’t compromise what they feel is important for children to learn, and they can usually do that.

Government demands

If you work in a context

where there is little – or,

usually, very helpful –

external involvement in

educational matters then

you may wish to miss this

Finding the appropriate starting point Getting colleagues on one’s side and willing to embrace change is crucial but so too is recognizing where to start the process. Getting a teacher to go and work alongside or observe another teacher, who is able to differentiate really well, can be helpful. But sometimes the teacher that you have asked to go and observe someone else – they don’t quite know what they are seeing – they don’t understand the subtlety, the complexity of it, because they’re not think-ing at that level. I mean, if you can’t differentiate really well, if you don’t really know your children.

A notable absence?

There are very few references in this chapter to measuring

the impact of change on classroom performance. Admit-

tedly I did not ask specifically about this but, given that

the head teachers volunteered a large amount of informa-

tion that was not requested, this omission is interesting.

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STABILITY AND SUCCESS WITHOUT STAGNATION

You’ve got to know what your children need apart from anything else and if you’ve always got it from the National Cur-riculum and just said, ‘That’s what we’ve got to do, therefore you will learn like this.’ Actually, you know, if you haven’t listened to your children, they haven’t got a voice, you haven’t realised the context in which they live, then that is very hard.

The composition of such teams, and the very real issues which ex-

ercise heads and their colleagues as they strive to enhance profes-

sional practice. As with previous chapters, lots of factors inter-

weave, and as I prepared the draft for this one, it seems there were

even more connections than most. Indeed the spiders in my spider

diagram looked as if they were positively manic! To a certain ex-

tent this is not surprising as this chapter is adopting more of a

whole-school perspective than previously. Thus there is potential

for more interconnections as more people – and hence a greater

Continuing professional development (CPD) As one might expect, in all the schools there were continuing pro-fessional development opportunities. Here the head teachers de-scribe some of their strategies. The teachers get together in groups of three and usually experienced teachers with a less ex-perienced teacher, and help mentor each other, so whatever the school focus is – it might be looking at children’s independence in learning, or children’s assessment – then they spend 20 minutes observing each other and writing up a paragraph on what they’ve learned and how that will affect their practices.

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SOME REFLECTIONS ON BEING A HEADTEACHER

Performance management issues Performance management is usually an integral part of a head teacher's head of department’s role. It is an important responsibility and one where there is significant potential – at one extreme – to get it totally wrong. At the other extreme to make a massively important contribution to someone’s progress and understanding of themselves and their work or, as is usually the case, have an impact somewhere in between these two possibilities.

The shadow effect For the twinkling of an eye this section was entitled ‘The halo effect’ but, as a colleague was quick to point out, the content has rather more negative connotations than one associates with a halo. Very briefly I want to draw your attention to the possibility of ‘giving a dog a bad name’ and it sticking.

External challenges and opportunities My first thought was to entitle this section ‘External interference’ for, as I write, there seems to be a lot of it about at the moment. In the introduction to the book I said I would not discuss government poli-cies in any detail but rather focus on more grassroots issues relat-ing to the leadership and management of schools. Another reason for not dwelling on national strategies and impositions is that they seem to be changing every five minutes.

On making yourself available Management by walking around is all very well but it is impor-tant to acknowledge that there is a potential price attached. Throughout the book the value of teamwork is mentioned time and gain: I consider it to be a significant component of suc-cessful leadership and progress.

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