07.24.10
Posted in Uncategorized tagged Headteacher, headteacher blog, heathfieldcps.net, moral purpose, mrs spencer, school improvement at 6:11 pm by headteacher
I think one of the most challenging aspects of my work over the last 6 terms has been the sheer volume of information that comes to me as a Headteacher and the pace that it arrives (via the LEA bag/via email/via My Briefing/via the post/via staff). Having to filter out what really matters and more importantly, what I should be dealing with and what can be delegated can be so difficult! On the one hand I want to protect my staff from too much beaurocracy and paperwork; on the other hand if my staff know that I trust them then they can feel free to make decisions without always needing my “ok”. Increasingly staff are coming to me to tell me that they have sorted something out, checked it with the DHT and would I like to pop it in my diary? Hoorah!
The tension comes then, from the plethora of unexpected information that I have to “manage” on a day to day basis. I can get very “bogged down” in mundane tasks if I am not careful. I want to be strategic. I want to lead school improvement. The task therefore, is to find ways to empower staff so that they have both the confidence and the expertise to take responsibility for decision making at middle management levels. However is this always enough? We can send our staff on NCSL courses, we can train them and coach staff, but if we are not careful this can still be a very passive act. We can empower them and help them to develop confidence, but how to we develop the personal motivation to take that extra step to become an emergent school leader?
I guess this is where we head back to basics.
- Share the moral purpose. Again and again and again;
- Share the aims. Illustrate how this is a win-win situation;
- Engage the staff in the long term view;
- Create the common agenda, *YOUR AGENDA IS MY AGENDA*;
- Model the expected behaviour and attitudes;
- Most people feel a great sense of achievement from making a successful and “purposeful” decision;
- Give honest praise where it is due;
- Know your staff and know how to manage the delegation process;
- Some staff are more confident, more experienced so personalise your approach.
NEVER kick someone when they are down. If a member of staff takes a risk and it all goes horribly wrong I can guarantee that you cannot punish them any more than they will punish themselves. Give them space and when they are ready coach them through the experience – with a nice cup of tea!
I don’t lead a large school. We don’t have a Bursar, we have an Office Manager. We don’t have a Site Manager, we have a Caretaker. We don’t have Learning Mentors, we Have Teaching Assistants. We have one Deputy Headteacher and no Assistant Headteachers.
What we do have is a small but an amazing team who are hard working, dedicated and single minded in the process of school improvement.
Motivation Is Everything.
My Agenda = Our Agenda
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07.11.10
Posted in Uncategorized tagged Headteacher, heathfieldcps.net, moral code, rules, Year 6 at 3:40 pm by headteacher
I am already thinking about the new year in September and there are a few activities that we now have in place that seem to be making a significant impact on the well-being, behaviour and attainment of the children. I don’t think any of these activities are revolutionary or particularly original, but I am a great believer in sharing and stealing ideas. So if you have any further good ideas and are happy to share please post your comments.
July
Moving Up Day and Parent Pop In
Reception Class Home Visits and Visits to School
September
Display Board photos and names of our new children
Year 6 Meeting
2 weeks of induction activities including:
- Lots of PSHCE including circle time;
- Moral Code is shared and signed by children and teachers;
- Class Rules are devised and signed by children and teacher;
- Children carry out surveys to decide what kind of learner they are;
- Lots of Art, DT, ABOUT ME displays and group tasks.
The plan is to ensure that the children feel safe and secure in their new learning environment and with their learning partners. It also gives the teacher lots of opportunities to talk to the children about different aspects of their learning and individual targets can be set. Literacy and Numeracy take a back seat whilst basic skills are revisited.
During my assemblies I introduce key standards for the year. These include, “The Golden Rules,” which many of you will be familiar with, and “The Moral Code,” which I will post later this week.
I have posted below one of my favourite Assembly themes. It is a quote by Frank Outlaw and I find that it is a very powerful piece of text. So powerful indeed, that once explained in real terms, my Year 6 children can repeat it back to me after one hearing.
Watch your thoughts;
They become your words.
Watch your words;
They become your actions.
Watch your actions;
They become your habits.
Watch your habits;
They become your character.
Watch your character-
For it will become your destiny.
John Outlaw
Just try sharing this with your class – it’s a fantastic starting point for any set of class beliefs. There are lots more starting activities that go on in schools during September and I would welcome your ideas!
Thank you!
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07.10.10
Posted in Uncategorized tagged children, Headteacher, heathfieldcps.net, learning, staff at 4:15 pm by headteacher
I cannot believe that it is nearly the end of 2009 – 2010. Only two weeks of term left. Wow! This year really has flown by!
For those of you who don’t know me quite so well……I have been a Primary Headteacher for just over two years now. I was appointed on April 1st (hmmm) 2008. Prior to my Headship I worked in four different schools, two very different LAs, was a Leading Teacher for Early Years for some time, then was an Assistant Head, then a Deputy Head.
Luckily for me I have worked for a number of truly inspirational Headteachers who have helped to shape my values and my actions. The last two years have been very challenging but also very rewarding. During this time the governors and I have appointed four new teachers to the school, including an outstanding Deputy Headteacher who has supported me throughout the last twelve months.
Our school is moving from strength to strength! We have an outstanding team!
My staff have consistently worked hard for the last seven terms to ensure that our school develops and progresses both academically and in so many other ways. An outstanding feature of our school is the dedication that the staff have to the children. The staff will always make the time to spend with the children, before school, after school, during breaks and at dinnertimes, nurturing them and talking to them about their worries and aspirations.
Outside of the school I have been supported and challenged by Headteachers in Bolton and school has recently gained the support from a Local leader in Education programme. This help should be cross hierarchical and will filter across to all of the staff in school, including the RQTs and the NQTs.
I am happy for my staff to become experts in their fields. I have no fear that some of my staff have strengths that will exceed mine – I embrace the opportunity to learn with my staff! And I want my staff to teach me in the same way that I can teach them!
My plan for the next three years is to reach out and experience as many outstanding schools as possible and thus to develop a clear sense of the character of HEATHFIELD SCHOOL. How can my staff become outstanding unless I immerse them in outstanding learning? I want to immerse myself and my staff and my children in OUTSTANDINGNESS! How very exciting! I am already planning 2010 -2011!
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07.08.10
Posted in Uncategorized tagged aborigine, community cohesion, Headteacher, heathfieldcps.net, Year 4 at 11:14 am by headteacher
Today has been a very special day for our school. We have had a wonderful visitor called Frances Firebrace to Heathfield. Frances is a mixed heritage Aborigine/European who has a remarkable philosophy of life and of brotherly love. Frances uses traditional Aborigine stories, music and art to capture the imagination of the children and the staff to illustrate his philosophies and beliefs.
Frances was asked to visit our school by Miss Wiggans who has produced a fantastic Australian project for our Year 4 class. Frances arrived at Heathfield School this morning and within minutes he was making the staff smile with his kind words and big hugs. What a breath of fresh air!
In Assembly Frances talked about personal differences and about equality. Frances talked about the colour of our skin and the beautiful person within. Every child from Reception Class through to Year 6 was held, riveted by his genuine message of friendship and love.
I will come back to this post later today and hopefully add some fantastic photos!
This morning has been so special for our children and for our staff. How I can translate the message of today into everyday action and enduring school ethos is the challenge!
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06.18.10
Posted in Uncategorized tagged author, headteacher blog, heathfieldcps.net, writing at 12:31 pm by headteacher
The children at Heathfield are amazing! I was looking through some books this week and found this…..How old do you think this young aspiring author is?
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06.17.10
Posted in Uncategorized tagged Blackpool teachmeet 2010, Headteacher, heathfieldcps.net at 9:49 pm by headteacher
A BIG THANK YOU to all the lovely teachers that I met yesterday at the Blackpool Teachmeet. I had a fantastic evening (I don’t get out much!) and catching up with all my twitter friends was great fun. @mister_jim and Tom Sale did a fantastic job organising the event and keeping the crowd (particularly the twitterville crowd) under control.
The evening began with a presentation from Professor Heppell, education online expert and hugely inspirational leader for many of our innovative teaching folk. There were so many creative ideas, presented so well and clearly well within the capacity of many non techy folk like me. It’s not hard to preach to the already converted but when you can simplify a project so that folk like me can *get it* then we know that together we can make real progress in new technologies. I can’t remember the exact order of events but, here are just a few highlights of the evening…..
Zoe Ross presenting Guilty Pleasures, illustrating her obvious natural gift of perfect comedy timing, and Bill Lord using giraffes to illustrate the amazing writing potential of our youngest learners. I love to see samples of emergent writing; it takes me back to my very happy days in the EYFS. It was also a real pleasure to meet Simon Haughton who is tireless in his capacity to give support and advice on twitter to non techies like me.
@colport, @hgjohn @zoeross19 @primarypete_ @bevevans22 @DeputyMitchell @janweb21 @simonhaughton @Joga5 @ianaddison @spanishsam @jacksloan @mynictle @jacksloan @ideas_factory @mister jim @chrisrat
Did I enjoy myself? Absolutely! I feel really privileged to know such a dedicated group of fellow teachers! And I am so looking forward to meeting my twitter friends again! Thanks again guys for a great evening out! Superstars one and all!
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06.13.10
Posted in Uncategorized tagged blog, Headteacher, heathfieldcps.net, teachmeetBlackpool at 9:15 pm by headteacher
This next few weeks are going to be extremely busy at school. We are just in the process of organising all of our schedules and timetables for next year. Even in a small school such as ours, organising ICT, PE and Hall times is not easy. Some teachers will be changing year groups, Teaching Assistants also have to be allocated to classes and resources and equipment are being audited. Allocating the Teaching Assistant timetable is becoming an increasingly complex activity, we have a wealth of statistical and contextual data from which to draw and it is important that we make the best possible use of our “Human Resources”. How we can ensure that all of our children receive their educational entitlement is a huge priority, so many children have so many “special needs”.
Teachers are also busy writing reports and I have stacks of paper work to complete, The School Profile, the SEF, Governor Reports and evaluation of the School Development Plan (plus a few more bits and pieces).
On Wednesday I have been asked to attend a Teachmeet, this would mean leaving school at 3.30pm in order to drive up to Blackpool. However if I stay at work until 6.00pm as I usually do on a Wednesday I could get lots and lots of paper work done. Paper work is very important and we are all accountable but……
“BUSY IN THE THICK OF COMPLETING VERY THIN TASKS?”
However, if I am truly honest with myself I know that the reason that I don’t want to go to the Teachmeet is because I know that the teachers presenting and attending will make me feel like a dinosaur!!! The technology and the ideas that are being discussed on twitter are so beyond me that I think I will be overwhelmed! How do I understand it all? What if I look dumb? How do I keep up?
More importantly, what if I don’t attend? It’s hard enough keeping up with the children already! Avoidance is not the answer.
So I guess that it is time for me to be very brave and “FACE MY FEARS” – attend Teachmeet at Blackpool and meet all the lovely (and slightly scarily clever) tweeps that I have been talking to for so long…….
Take a deep breath…what is life but a leap of faith after all…….
AFTERTHOUGHT:
I really am such a selfish person. It didn’t occur to me that all of the very clever ICT bods on twitter might actually be nervous about presenting! I am so dumb at times!!
Good luck and thank you to Jan, Colin, Nicola, David and all the other good folk/presenters who are going to be helping me to be better at my job.
THANKS!
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06.10.10
Posted in Uncategorized tagged Bernadette Ballezza, blog, Headteacher, heathfieldcps.net at 2:24 pm by headteacher
Some weeks ago I published a lovely short story written by a lady called Bernadette Ballezza. Today I was absolutely thrilled to get an email from Bernadette, who lives in the USA. I am constantly amazed by the power of blogging and how quickly messages travel from one continent to another. Bernadette has kindly given me permission to share some more of her ideas with you- I wonder how quickly my PLN can share this truly positive message and I wonder how many countries and continents we can influence for the better by just a few well chosen thoughts and comments?
KINDNESS by Bernadette Ballezza
We don’t always have to be brave.
Sometimes we lack valor.
We don’t always have to be fearless.
Sometimes we get lost in despair.
We don’t always have to be trusting.
Sometimes we have doubts.
We don’t always have to be right.
Sometimes we are to blame.
We don’t always have to be happy.
Sometimes we become disheartened.
We don’t always have to be the winner.
Sometimes we feel conquered.
We don’t always have to be infallible.
Sometimes we make mistakes.
We don’t always have to be grounded.
Sometimes we lose our way.
We don’t always have to be strong.
Sometimes we are fragile.
But we must always try to be kind.
Bernadette Ballezza
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06.09.10
Posted in Uncategorized tagged blog, blogging, global learning, Headteacher, heathfieldcps.net, stimulating learning, year 3, Year 4 at 8:48 pm by headteacher
Half term has just finished and once again at Heathfield we are back in the swing of things. New terms never start at a comfortable pace do they? You land in school at 8.00a.m.( if you are lazy like me!) and from there everything hits you at a superfast pace!
So much of what we do seems to be about creating and subsequently chasing a paper trail to evidence that we have completed certain mundane tasks. But this won’t inspire children and it certainly won’t develop within them a passion for learning.
Having been lucky enough to have had a week away on holiday it was lovely to arrive in school to see some beautiful new 3D displays in the entrance foyer. Year 3 have been learning about the Native American Indians and have been experimenting with Voicethread: Native American Indians
Year 4 have been learning about Australian life. We even have a “special visitor” coming into school to talk to the children this month, an Australian chap with Aborigine heritage! Fantastic! Year 4 have also been talking to a school in Australia and have recorded their learning on Voicethread.
Will this matter a year from now? Yes I think it will. Our staff are working so hard to create a stimulating and exciting learning environment for the children. The children will move on to their next class feeling enthused, positive and actively engaged in the learning process. Our children are learning to grapple with challenging concepts and they are gaining a global understanding of the world – not from text books but from real children in other continents. Fab!
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05.25.10
Posted in Uncategorized tagged blog, blogging, Headteacher, heathfieldcps.net, middle leaders, senior leaders at 9:04 pm by headteacher
Nothing is as unequal as the equal treatment of unequal individuals.
From our college days we all know about the philosophy of providing equal opportunities for our students. We also know that when we look at the inequalities of home life, background experience, innate ability, capacity to learn and readiness for school that children come to our schools with a vast array of personal experiences that directly and indirectly affect their capacity to achieve in and enjoy school life.
In short we try to treat children unequally in order to give them all a “more” fair starting point in the journey of life. Any child who has difficulties needs to be supported to ensure that they can access all elements of the wider curriculum. Most students have some form of “special need” at some point in their school career. This model of *special needs* can at times be very fluid, it can be very serious or it can be a minor intervention. External factors weigh heavily on the capacity of the child to cope with school life and we, as teachers, make decisions every day about the fragility and the capacity of our children. Our corresponding “teacher” behaviour thus reflects our amazing and HUGE capacity to bend and sway like willow trees encompassing our children in the care of our ever widening branches.
Good teachers have always recognised that pupils require flexible, individual care, and have acted on it; recently it has become re labelled as the “personalised curriculum.”
Why then do we assume that so many members of our staff need the same levels of support and challenge? How many times have we all been subjected to the one size fits all model of teacher training? Please do not misunderstand me. There will always be a requirement for staff to learn more content, be given new up-to-date information and to receive data. That’s the common sense/ pragmatic element of professional training that we all expect to undertake. However it seems to me that in some schools sadly this is the full range of CPD that the staff experience.
I’m thinking more about the sustainable opportunities that we can provide our staff with, in house, on a day to day basis, based on the NCSL models of peer mentoring and coaching. How can we, as individuals, be enabled to support each other in school through non threatening models of staff development? Can I (humbly) suggest, that when you embark on your next round of CPD you ask your line manager about the opportunities for developing peer mentoring and coaching throughout your school? As a middle leader, possibly aspiring senior leader, what skills and characteristics do you have that might just help to move another teacher from “satisfactory” to “good” or even from “good” to “outstanding”?
I am so lucky; I am being “coached” by a Local Leader in Education (experienced Headteacher) who has promised me that in turn her DHT will coach my DHT and so on through the school. This is a non invasive and non threatening model which helps the “coachee” to resolve their own issues thus becoming a SUSTAINABLE model which aims to develop transferrable skills and independent problem solving capabilities. This situational leadership support model is highly personalised – being based on real school issues and the needs of the individual at different times in their career.
Ooh hang on, where have I heard that before? Isn’t that the learning model we want for our children?
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