One headteacher observed to me at the start of this term, “This is September on steroids.”
The beginning of the school year always brings its challenges, in addition to its opportunities. The Autumn Term 2020 has presented school communities with a task of a quite different order. By the time you reach October half term you will, no doubt, be ready to take a huge collective breath and stop to reflect. What has been achieved? What unexpected difficulties have arisen and how have you navigated them? What have you learnt, and how can this learning support and sustain you in the weeks and months ahead?
Listening to school leaders and other educationalists over the course of the last few months, and reading what they have written, a number of key messages have emerged. What tips have been exchanged and how can we benefit from the experiences and the advice of others leading schools and educational organisations in, perhaps, different contexts, but facing similar challenges? As a profession, what can we share and how can we benefit from this collaboration?
The crucial importance of setting clear values: Michael Pain of Forum Strategy wrote in July about how crucial it is for organisations to be clear about their sense of purpose. All school leaders will inevitably have been considering their priorities: What matters most to you and to your schools at this point in history? What do you need to focus on in the weeks ahead? In such uncertain times it may be difficult to be specific and definitive about your future strategy, but concentrating on your vision and values, and communicating these clearly both within and beyond your school community, should help you as you make the difficult decisions you are being called upon to make.
Is your purpose transparent, widely understood and does it inform all elements of your professional practice?
The importance of a collective team effort is vital: The primary headteacher who tweets at @Southgloshead reflected on what he had learnt about leadership during the previous 118 days. The lessons were numerous, but from his reflections emerged a clearer sense of the contribution of all members of the school community, including the school site staff, and the TAs. In retrospect, he felt he had perhaps failed fully to appreciate the potential of the whole school community in the past, but when it came to stepping up to tackle the challenges COVID presented, everyone had played their part.
Do you make the most of the complementary skills across your wider school team, and do all recognise that they are productive and very much valued?
The importance of constantly evaluating and adapting your approach to changing circumstances: David Bell, former Ofsted Chief Inspector and Permanent Secretary at the DfE, has written for Big Education about the difficulty of making the ‘right’ decision in such uncharted territory, and how leaders need to accept that, although they may use their best judgement, as the landscape keeps shifting they may, in fact, be as likely to be wrong as to be right. This requires the confidence to accept our own fallibility, to keep checking, recalibrating and altering our course if new evidence emerges.
Can you accept that changing your mind, in the light of new information, is a strength and not a weakness?
The importance of being able to embrace complexity and uncertainty: Professor Alma Harris, writing for the Chartered College Journal, ‘Impact’, reflects on the fact that nothing is predictable, and leaders are called upon to negotiate situations for which they may feel totally unprepared. It is certainly a leadership challenge to process and accept this, to find a way of becoming comfortable with discomfort. When those we lead seek reassurance and structure, it can be tempting, but may be unwise, to offer promises to make them feel more secure.
Are you able to model how to face the unknown with a degree of calmness and a quiet confidence that the school community, working together, will find a way forward?
The importance of balance, self-care and compassion: Executive Principal at the Cabot Learning Federation, Sally Apps, has written about the process of moving towards recovery, and the necessity of finding a sense of control, achieving balance and showing compassion, including for ourselves. School leaders have to be able to pace themselves so that they exemplify the manageable and sustainable professional practice which they need others to emulate. They have to safeguard their own well-being while overseeing and supporting the well-being of those they lead.
Do you know when you need to, and how you can, rest, refresh and re-energise so that you have the stamina you need to face future challenges?
After the collective breath and the reflection, now exhale….
Jill Berry is a leadership consultant, author and former headteacher
