A Head Full of Ethos E-Book

Armando Di-Finizio

• Herausgeber: Crown House Publishing
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 394

Beschreibung

Written by Armando Di-Finizio, A Head Full of Ethos: A holistic guide to developing and sustaining a positive school culture is a head teacher's insightful account of how to go about developing a shared vision and blending it into a school's culture and day-to-day running.When one or more aspects of a school's running or curriculum breaks down, all too often the leadership team will jump from one idea to another in a bid to remedy the problem. This, however, can lead to blurred vision and possible confusion. Leaders may then wonder why the remedies aren't working and are likely to scramble for more, hopefully better, ideas.Armando Di-Finizio, however, believes that the key to success lies in the school's ethos and in the daily manifestation of its underpinning principles.In A Head Full of Ethos, Armando weaves his experiences and the lessons he's learned from three decades of successful school leadership into an engaging illustration of the principles which have supported him in his varied settings. In so doing, he explores the key elements that contribute to nurturing a positive school ethos and cultivating a healthy teaching and learning environment.The book examines the many interconnected cogs of a sustainable ethos - an ethos which will become the driving force in inspiring the school's students to flourish and its staff to grow professionally. In turn, it empowers school leaders at all levels with the means to take more ownership of what they do, and imbues them with more courage in relation to their convictions and decision-making.Suitable for middle and senior leaders in all school settings.

Leseprobe

Praise for A Head Full of Ethos

This is an important book! It is challenging and reassuring at the same time, and combines principles and practice to telling effect. Di-Finizio provides a compelling narrative that is rooted in successful leadership practice and in deep reflection. His focus on ethos is particularly valuable in supporting, as it does very well, a holistic approach that integrates strategies and principles and informs the day-to-day routines and the most important strategic challenges. The book is therefore a powerful model of leadership learning and development and a resource to inform and influence learning across the school.

John West-Burnham, Visiting Professor in Education, University of Suffolk

I have read many leadership books but none get ‘down and dirty’ with the reality of being a school leader day in, day out. And none give as much space to the importance of what it means to be an adolescent, and the implications of that for school leadership, as this book does. Armando offers sound, practical advice that new leaders (and indeed established leaders) can implement in their own context. Although I would advise reading the book from cover to cover, you can also home in on specific sections that have particular relevance to you. The book is easy to navigate, and the ‘What to take from this chapter’ crib sheets provide useful summaries.

Hilary Street, education leadership consultant, writer and former editor of the NAHT Leadership Paper Series

A Head Full of Ethos holds fast to what really matters in schools and sets out clearly how to achieve it. Armando shares his experience in a way that will be helpful to anyone who wants to run their school on truly educational principles. Full of common sense, wisdom and healthy suggestions, and with young people and their futures at its heart, this is the book to keep within reach for constant reference.

Mick Waters, Professor of Education, University of Wolverhampton

Armando has always believed that the best solutions are the simple ones, and this outlook is evident throughout the book. A Head Full of Ethos is not just for senior leaders but also for those heading up their first team or even those considering a career in teaching. Current educational challenges are complex and demanding, but this book illustrates that success can be achieved when there is a clear vision and leaders take time to build relationships and listen.

Jacky Kennedy, Chief Executive Officer, Mater Christi Multi-Academy Trust

A Head Full of Ethos complements the many ‘toolkits’ of school leadership that already exist by encouraging the reader to consider what kind of school ethos they hope to build. Armando argues that by developing a consistent set of values and principles across the school, this will help school leaders to prioritise decisions and make better and more complementary day-to-day decisions for their staff, pupils and wider community. He demonstrates that a clear vision and set of guiding principles is necessary to successfully navigate the wide array of policies, tools and interventions available to contemporary educationalists.

Professor Chris Taylor, Academic Director, Cardiff University Social Science Research Park (SPARK)

This is one of the most powerful and readable leadership books I’ve seen in a long time. It should be on every NPQH reading list in the country, and is a must-read for all new and aspiring head teachers. It offers something unique in the field: a guide to making a real difference as a school leader, by someone who has recent, lived experience of turning around and leading some of the most challenged schools in the country. Armando’s writing is a real breath of fresh air to read: concise, honest, engaging, and skilfully combining ethos and driving values with practical advice from someone who really knows what they are talking about!

Pippa Whittaker, SEND specialist

In Armando’s sinuous reflection on his three decades of experience in leadership, he re-examines his approaches that help shape a school’s ethos. Each chapter is packed with insightful and entertaining anecdotes and reflective questions which give the SLT member, head of department and emerging leader ample opportunity to reflect. A Head Full of Ethos discerns the individuality of every school and its vision and is punctuated by supporting literature and influential sources yet acknowledges the limitations of following research blindly without considering one’s context. Ultimately, it is an energetic and valuable perspective that sheds light on leadership, fostering ethos and direction in a team, maintaining positive relationships and creating a sense of belonging in the community. 

Georgina Saunders, teacher of English

A Head Full of Ethos is different to other education publications. It is highly accessible, hugely relevant, an easy read and a compelling experience for any teacher, subject leader, pastoral leader, senior leader or head teacher, all of whom would find it a useful guidebook to explore the many experiences which can happen at any time in any school. As well as addressing the routine activities which impact on the lives of school leaders, most critically it focuses on the lives of those they lead. Written with a focus on the core principles which underpin the practices of school leaders and teachers, its style and presentation leads us to reflect on our own practices, values, principles and the experiences which have moulded these.

Sue Hollister, education consultant and former head teacher

To Sandra Lane: my wife, friend and mentor.

I am very fortunate.

i

Preface

As the title would suggest, this is a book about ethos – or, more specifically, school ethos. That feeling you have concerning the nature or soul of a school when you first walk into the building; it has been with me throughout my career, from teacher to head teacher. The further I have progressed into school leadership, the more conscious I have become of how influential school leaders at all levels are in setting the tone for their school and, in turn, defining its general state of health and effectiveness. In other words, it is one of the countless books covering the ins and outs of school leadership. If you have picked it up, I imagine you will have some questions that will require an answer before you invest valuable time and money on it. Here are three questions that I would be asking if I were in your position.

What makes you qualified to write a book like this?

The answer to this is fairly straightforward. I have been a teacher (at the time of writing) for 34 years in seven schools, almost half of this time as a head teacher. Apart from my first school, which was a high-achieving school in a London suburb, the rest have all been in challenging city schools in areas of high deprivation. My first (and only) deputy head position was in a low-performing school which was closed and reopened as one of the first city academies in England. The school saw a year-on-year improvement in results while I was there and was given a good Ofsted rating with outstanding features in two inspections.

Since then, I have had the genuine privilege of leading three different schools as head teacher/principal. The first two in England (Bristol Brunel Academy and Hans Price Academy) were both in the bottom 10 schools in the country with regard to GCSE outcomes and were among the highest excluding schools. They were both forced to close due to poor Ofsted reports and reopen as academies. The third and present school (Eastern High) is situated in Cardiff. It was in a similar position to the other two schools: it was in the bottom three for all deprivation measures across Wales, had extremely high exclusion rates and was ranked among the lowest (if not the lowest) schools for GCSE attainment across the UK. It also failed its inspection to the extent that it was threatened with closure.ii

The success in my first headship – which had resulted in constantly improving results (we were one of the most improved schools in the country in respect of GCSE grades), a good Ofsted inspection and zero fixed-term exclusions – led to me being asked twice more to apply to lead schools in similar situations. Each time, the outcomes have been similar and all three schools have sustained the systems and practices which made them successful. Each school has also become oversubscribed.

What made you write this book?

When I set out on my career path, I never imagined that I would be the head of three different schools, let alone have successful outcomes in each of them. I will be honest, I have lived most of my life harbouring well-hidden self-doubt and fear of failure. However, I have steadily gained confidence through the good fortune of working with some amazing role models and I have been supported by individuals who have inspired me. This has led me to always aspire to have similar qualities, such as sound moral judgement, articulacy, creativity and leadership. I was also brought up to work hard and never give up. Over the years, this work ethic, along with unrelenting self-reflection, has pushed me to a position where I can confidently acknowledge my accomplishments in each of these three schools.

What made me realise this were the questions I was beginning to be asked, such as what my formula was for turning around a school or how I generated community belief in the school. Many people have also asked whether I have recorded what I have done or planned to write about my experiences. These questions have helped me to begin to take stock of what my colleagues and I have achieved in each of the schools I have led. It is now time that I shared what has worked for us – but it comes with a warning, as described below.

What will I learn that I may not find in other books on school leadership?

Before beginning to work in the teaching profession, each of us has journeyed through our own form of schooling. As we travelled along our career paths, our own action research projects unfolded and developed on a daily basis. Most of us iiidid this unconsciously. However, when we stop and consider all the golden nuggets of experience we have picked up along the way, we begin to realise the extent to which they form a wealth of valuable information. In addition, when we reflect, as I do in this book, on earlier insecurities and errors, we gather additional insights that we may not have noticed as we progressed. All of this together forms our own unique school improvement story, which should be shared in our collective quest to provide outstanding schooling and education for all young people.

In short, this book contains my own unique story, which will explore the elements of school improvement that have worked for me and, just as importantly, examine why some things went wrong. I will also outline the principles that have supported me in developing new ideas, as well as selecting and adapting the ideas of others, in my own schools. I cannot ignore the experiences and findings of others whose work I have drawn on and who have helped me along the way; there is much of value out there.

However, there is a health warning here too, which is that it is all too easy to be swept away by the slew of books that appear on a daily basis, as well as the slew of ideas that flow from social media, telling us how to educate young people effectively. All too often, when an aspect of school ethos or curriculum break down, especially for those in challenging circumstances, the leadership of a school will jump from one idea or initiative to another with little thought as to how it aligns with the school’s values and principles. This pick ’n’ mix approach can lead to blurred vision and possible confusion. Leaders then wonder why things aren’t as effective as they ought to be, and are likely to dive back into the vast knowledge base they have at their fingertips for yet more (and hopefully better) ideas.

Don’t get me wrong: books, blogs, pamphlets, journals and articles are our toolbox and the wealth of information they contain provides us with amazing ideas and tried-and-tested examples. However, by becoming over-reliant on the ideas and research of others, we become blind to the big picture in our own school. These ideas increasingly become used as a crutch to support us rather than the means to help us develop sustainable practices organically. The tools we deploy should align with the first principles (explained in Chapter 2) that underpin the school vision and should be used consistently and appropriately in the right place, at the right time and by the right people.

I would like to say that I have always gone back to the first principles of school improvement ever since I first stepped into a leadership role, but sadly this is not ivthe case. My journey has been long and my thoughts have evolved gradually. Now, in the latter part of my career, I feel in a position to articulate my own thoughts and ideas to help others formulate their own practice. This book will give you the means and confidence to take more ownership of what you do, regardless of the position you hold in a school, and hopefully save you much time by helping you to identify what is right for your school or area of responsibility.

To put it another way: don’t pick up this book if you are looking for definitive answers. Although there are lots of useful tips and practices which could be used in any school, try not to get too distracted by them and instead aim to identify the consistent set of principles from which they arise.

Although this book encompasses what I believe are the essential ingredients to setting the scene for good teaching and learning, what it does not do is tell the reader how to go into a classroom and deliver an excellent lesson. If this were a book about cars, it would tell you how to look after your car, perhaps plan a service schedule and repair it when it breaks down. It might also describe what you might expect in terms of performance and explain the different instruments that make it go. What it would not do is tell you what fuel to use or how to drive it.

Where I have developed ideas that I have read about or seen in other schools, I have tried to acknowledge those that have ignited my thoughts and sent me hurtling down particular paths. Apologies if I have missed anyone out; the zeitgeist really does exist and sometimes I just don’t know what sparked a particular idea.

v

Acknowledgements

I would like to say a big thank you to all those who have helped me along the way.

Some of the leaders who have forced, cajoled and inspired me to become a better leader and person: David Wragg, who first employed me as a teacher and taught me how to stay relaxed in a challenging environment; Warren Wilkinson, my first head of department who helped me to be myself; Steve Foot, my second head of department who taught me never to argue with young people; Vernon King, the deputy who gave me my first leadership role and pushed me to pursue an MA; Patrice Canavan, a head teacher who taught me the difference between leadership and management; Ray Priest, the head teacher who taught me to care; and Sir David Carter, the chief executive who gave me my first headship and developed my confidence as a leader.

Some professionals I have worked with who have just simply inspired me: Jacky Kennedy, a teacher from my early years who showed me how to make teaching fun; Chris Mackintosh, for being a genius whenever I needed one; Brigid Allen and Peter Scholey, the dynamic duo who were always there for me during my first headship and beyond; Pippa Whittaker, for always reminding me to think about every child; Graham Powell and Guy Claxton, who opened my eyes to the good habits of learning; Peter Barnard, for showing me what passion really means when it comes to getting it right for young people; and John Corrigan, who injected Zen into my career and taught me to understand myself and others better.

All the staff in the three schools I have led – Bristol Brunel Academy, Hans Price Academy and Eastern High – for their unbelievable patience, hard work and dedication and also for making my time in each of these schools so enjoyable.

The team at Crown House and especially the editors, Daniel and Emma, who, unknowingly, taught me so much.

There are countless others, including the students I have taught. Hopefully I will bump into you again one day and thank you face to face.vi

With very special thanks to:

Hilary Street, a consultant and friend who has guided me through all of my leadership years. Without her, I would have made a thousand monumental mistakes along the way and certainly not be in any position to write this book.

Sandra Lane, my wife, friend and mentor, who has contributed more to my career and this book than was ever intended when she signed along the dotted line many years ago. Her help with Chapter 3 was especially invaluable and her patience along the way (book and career) has never faltered.

Cyril Payne, a youth worker/behaviour support officer who passed away shortly before publication of this book. Cyril joined me on my first day at Eastern High and was a major contributor to creating the ethos we have today. He dedicated almost all of his working life and social time to improving the life chances of young people and will be sadly missed by many.

vii

Contents

Title PageDedicationPrefaceAcknowledgementsIntroductionChapter 1:An Ethos of Insightful Leadership at All LevelsCog 1.1: Sort out your ego!Cog 1.2: Creating that first impressionCog 1.3: Act the behaviours you want to see – modellingCog 1.4: Design a road mapCog 1.5: Avoiding distractionsCog 1.6: Leading versus managingCog 1.7: Developing a teamCog 1.8: Do you dare delegate?Chapter 2:An Ethos of Vision, Purpose and DirectionCog 2.1: It’s not just a vision statement, it’s a way of life!Cog 2.2: How to sell your vision – forming a rationaleCog 2.3: The purpose of schooling and education – a lesson on pragmatismCog 2.4: What do you believe in?Cog 2.5: Blue-sky thinking – forming value statementsCog 2.6: Making it real – developing a frameworkCog 2.7: Making it real – planning and strategyCog 2.8: Making it real – ensuring the school is on trackChapter 3:An Ethos of Care and Positive RelationshipsCog 3.1: Learning doesn’t come firstCog 3.2: Learning to juggleCog 3.3: Getting to grips with adolescentsCog 3.4: Getting relationships right – making and maintainingCog 3.5: Getting relationships right – managing relationships when they start to go wrongCog 3.6: Getting relationships right – mending and/or moving onCog 3.7: The insecurities of behaviour managementCog 3.8: Crime and punishmentCog 3.9: Why fixed-term exclusions don’t workCog 3.10: What to do about bullying?Cog 3.11: Uniform – a necessity or a source of tension?Cog 3.12: How concerned should we be about digital and social media?Chapter 4:An Ethos of Belonging and InclusivenessCog 4.1: A sense of belonging begins with community buy-inCog 4.2: Creating a sense of belonging for young peopleCog 4.3: The blocks to creating a sense of belonging for young peopleCog 4.4: Creating a sense of belonging for staffCog 4.5: The importance of the school in its communityCog 4.6: Personalisation and inclusivenessCog 4.7: Embracing diversityFinal ThoughtsBibliographyCopyright

1

Introduction

Mae ethos ysgol yn addysg ynddo’i hun!

While working as a head teacher in Wales, I was searching for the perfect statement to go on the wall for all to see as they entered our school. I wanted the statement to relate to our school ethos, but nothing felt right until a chance discussion with another head led to him suggesting the Welsh saying above.1 It translates into English as, ‘A school ethos is an education in itself.’ Immediately, I knew that this was the statement I had to have, and so I proceeded, without any negotiation or consultation, to have it printed in its Welsh form and up it went on the wall without further ado.2

Ethos (the Latin word for character) is, for me, the spirit and driving force behind every good school. It is the manifestation of a school’s vision and its underpinning principles. It should enable every student who passes through the school to grow and develop before going on, hopefully, to flourish in life – providing the ethos is a positive one that encourages development and growth. The principles supporting the ethos of a school cannot be ignored, and it is on this premise that I set about writing this book on leadership and school improvement.

Whether you are an early career teacher or an experienced head, on completion of your first walk around a school you will have felt its ethos. During this walk, you may have picked up hints about the nature of the school. Some of these will have been unconscious: perhaps the way the receptionist greeted you when you first entered the building, the relaxed way the staff spoke to the students or the congenial atmosphere at lesson changeover. Other aspects of the school ethos will have hit you directly: the wall displays of students’ work, the posters or signs with messages (such as the one I placed at the entrance to our school), the photographs of students taking part in sport or performances, and the school vision displayed in prominent places. In short, when we consider the ethos of a school, there are 2countless constituent parts and interactions which work together to form the school’s character and spirit.

A Head Full of Ethos examines the first steps towards creating a sustainable school ethos which will become the bedrock on which a school inspires its students to flourish and its staff to grow professionally. Although it is primarily a book about headship, it is not just for head teachers. Every member of staff in a school has been appointed to help improve the outcomes for the students – and a positive and consistent school ethos is central to this. For example, if you are a head of department (or aspiring to be one), the same principles that we apply to school development can also be applied to creating a positive and productive ethos in your department.

This requires a deep understanding of the relationship between the school’s vision, its underpinning principles, and how this translates into the strategic direction and day-to-day operations of the school. This deep understanding will, in turn, assist you in identifying aspects of the school that are not working so well. It will either give you the tools to deal with these impediments, which are consistent with the principles by which the school abides, or it will provide your head teacher and senior leadership team (SLT) with important feedback about the running of the school. Multi-academy trust (MAT) executives can’t lead multiple schools in isolation and neither can school leadership teams; they both need the support of every member of staff.

We all have a responsibility to be critical when necessary, but in order to do this we must be in possession of, and have a full understanding of, the guiding values and principles that sustain the school vision and its systems, processes and practices. The vision, values and principles upheld by the school are the roots of its ethos; these then germinate to form its systems, processes and practices. If head teachers set out to develop the ethos of a school, or if teachers and heads of department try to contribute to the school ethos, they must bear in mind the following: the ethos of a school and the values and principles underpinning its vision are, or certainly should be, congruent with each other. In other words, working in harmony and never coming into conflict. This is one of the reasons why the subsections of this book are described as cogs (more on this below).

Congruence requires clear leadership, which we will explore in more detail in Chapters 1 and 2, but for now it is enough to say that the consistent application of a school’s principles will help to form a strong, positive school ethos, leading 3directly to improved outcomes for the school and its students. Conversely, if there is no clear and consistent ethos, the school will feel disjointed (especially if core principles conflict with one another) and it will become an unhappy working environment for staff and students. Ultimately, this will be detrimental to school improvement and student attainment. At worst, it can cause a school to dramatically fall apart as, sadly, I have witnessed in the past.

For me, happiness is a wide-ranging and vital component of outstanding, flourishing schools. For the school community as a whole, it can range from the degree of congeniality and positive working relationships that exist (as we will explore in Chapters 3 and 4) to the purpose and aims of the school – that is, its nature (Chapter 2). For the individual, it can mean the level of security (in respect of physical safety or job security), individual esteem and aspiration.

This book will focus on how a school can move from being unhappy and directionless to becoming a school that has direction and purpose and is mostly happy. I certainly won’t fool myself, or you, that schools can be entirely happy all of the time. However, there is no reason why it is not possible to maintain a consistent direction and purpose.

Reflecting on my three headships, I have come to realise that in each school I have focused primarily on four aspects of ethos. Each of these form a chapter in this book: insightful leadership (Chapter 1); vision, purpose and direction (Chapter 2); care and positive relationships (Chapter 3); and belonging and inclusiveness (Chapter 4). Yes, I have worked hard to develop the quality of teaching and learning in the classroom, but these foundations of ethos are where real and lasting change can happen in a whole school and to all the students. Without these four focal points, fantastic teaching and learning may exist in the school but the children are hostages to fortune. They are dependent on the attributes of their teachers, and not everyone will be guaranteed the same quality of experience in all facets of their school life.

A Head Full of Ethos will look at each of these four areas in turn. There is no particular right or wrong place to start because much of what I consider in this book developed concurrently. However, what each of the four topics have in common is that they all return to first principles. Consequently, this book attempts to answer the following questions:

What are the basic principles of leadership, regardless of which model you select?What are the axioms or uncontested maxims of schooling that every school vision and its underpinning principles should contain?4What do you need to know about the basics of making, maintaining and managing good relationships?What are the key components that make a school inclusive and create a sense of belonging?

Understanding or reacquainting yourself with these fundamental principles will empower you as a leader or a teacher.

This book also asks you to reflect on what you believe in and how you conduct yourself. It focuses on the conscious, strategic and planned practices that reflect our ethos – for example, developing the vision, purpose and direction of the school and the way this comes together through leadership at all levels. The book also encourages you to focus on the day-to-day way you comport yourself at school and the level of care, inclusiveness and positive relationships which contribute towards a sense of belonging and which, in turn, bring the whole school community together.

It is not neat. There are crossovers here but nothing in education is neat; one of the reasons I have chosen to call my subsections ‘cogs’ is to reflect the holistic and interconnected nature of schools.3 It is important that you keep this concept to the forefront of your mind as you progress through the book. It is also the reason why I have subtitled this book ‘a holistic guide to developing and sustaining a positive school culture’. Everything connects, so we must ensure that the cogs operating in schools really do work together and don’t cause abrasion or bring about a grinding halt to progress. Rather than there being a number of vaguely related but discrete tasks with conflicting values and contradictory accompanying behaviours, a successful school ethos – with all its myriad systems and practices – should incorporate the same consistent values and principles throughout. They are the oil that keeps the cogs turning.

5Before we progress further, there are a few additional points to bear in mind:

When I refer to young people, I sometimes call them students, children or young people. The reason I use these different terms – and not just ‘student’ – is because, at times, I want to emphasise the fact that we are working with children or teenagers. Overusing the term ‘student’ or ‘pupil’ can lead to us unconsciously forgetting that these are emotionally charged and not yet fully formed individuals. They are – for want of a better way of explaining myself – different creatures to adults, and if there is one golden rule for teachers then it is never to forget this. Why refer to young people as students and not pupils? There is no real reason other than this is the term I have been most used to using in England, where children tend to be referred to as pupils in primary schools and students in secondary schools.I refer to schools as schools (rather than academies) and head teachers as heads (rather than principals) for no other reason than to ensure consistency.I am a secondary school teacher and so all of the examples in this book are from a secondary perspective. However, the principles discussed are also relevant to primary settings.I have only ever taught in schools in challenging circumstances, and so many of the examples I use are from these schools. Nonetheless, the principles and practices underlying most of what I explore in this book are equally applicable and relevant to any school.6

1 Thank you Edward Jones, the head of Pencoed School (at the time of writing).

2 The reason for having it printed in Welsh was to encourage people to ask what it meant (if they didn’t understand Welsh); consequently, it has inspired much thought and discussion.

3 I borrow the concept of cogs from Michael Fullan, who uses them in his comprehensive framework for classroom and school improvement: Michael Fullan, Barrie Bennett and Carol Rolheiser-Bennett, ‘Linking Classroom and School Improvement’, Educational Leadership (May 1990): 13–19 at 15. Available at: http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/journals/ed_lead/el_199005_fullan.pdf. Thank you to Richard Jones, currently the head teacher of Ysgol Calon Cymru, who read an early chapter and pointed me in the direction of the cog concept.

7

Chapter 1

An Ethos of Insightful Leadership at All Levels

The leadership of a school sets the bar for ethos and keeps us on track when we stray off course. Conversely, leadership can also bring about a systematic breakdown and cause a school to lose all sense of direction, leading to a loss of confidence and respect from the community it serves.

It is the head who primarily sets the scene for a school, and although they require a team behind them to create a great school, nevertheless, they can single-handedly cause it to fail. This also applies to leaders at any level: a head of department can inflict similar damage on their department and a teacher can quickly lose a productive working ethos in their classroom. In short, whether you are a school leader or a teacher just starting out, it is vital that you understand the nuances of leadership.

This chapter covers three areas which experience has led me to believe are at the core of all good leadership:

1 How you perceive yourself and how others perceive you.

2 Self-organisation, clarity and focus.

3 Understanding leadership and how this influences the way you work and relate to your colleagues.

To explore leadership fully and what it entails, we will unpick these three areas in the following ways:

We begin in Cogs 1.1–1.3 by investigating the self: who you are, how people perceive you and how you model the behaviours you hope to see reflected across your school or department. Exploring these cogs will better equip you to answer the following questions:

› How do I perceive myself as a leader?

› How do others perceive me as a leader?8

› How well do I model the behaviours I want to see?

In Cogs 1.4 and 1.5, we look at how to organise yourself as a leader, focusing on how you ensure clarity in your intentions, building a team around you and getting the most from them, and how to remain focused and systematic when it comes to school improvement and caring for your staff and students. These cogs will enable you to answer the following questions:

› How can I pace myself and others to ensure we do things well?

› How do I manage the expectations of others, especially those who hold us to account?

› How do I prioritise effectively and avoid the ‘noise’?

Finally, in Cogs 1.6–1.8, we explore the essence of leadership and working with people: how leadership differs to management, different models of leadership, building and leading a team and getting the most from those you lead. It is as much about understanding others – knowing their strengths and being sensitive to their needs – as it is about simply managing them. These cogs will help you to answer the following questions:

› To what extent am I a leader compared to being a manager?

› What attributes should I look for in my team? Do they complement my own?

› How do I enable others to grow through effective delegation?

Cog 1.1: Sort out your ego!

I had four pressing worries as I walked tentatively towards the entrance of the school on my first day as a head teacher:

1I wanted to make a lasting impression, describe my hopes and aims clearly and, hopefully, inspire the majority. I thought of all the heads I had worked 9under and their first presentations to staff, either as a new head or at the beginning of the year; so many of them were inspirational. Would I create that same lasting impression?

2 I thought about the head in my own children’s school whom I knew quite well. Although she loved the job, she told me that the big difference between being a deputy and a head was that all eyes and ears are on you and the burden of responsibility never goes away. Even when you are lying on a beach on holiday, the responsibility is there, always creeping up on you just as you begin to relax. Every word you say will be picked up on and dissected.

3 The head in my previous school had left me in charge of the school for three weeks while he took part in an educational study trip. It was frightening how much you can change the ethos of a school in a few short weeks. I didn’t wreck the place but there were certainly some subtle differences around the school which he noticed on his return. It brought home to me the influence – and, dare I say it, power – a head can hold.

4 I was a short, bald Italian man with a strong Scottish accent. I had struggled with dyslexia at school and university (until computers came along and transformed my life – but that is another story). Even though I had been successful as a deputy head, I couldn’t shake off the memory of an assistant head who, when showing me around the school for the first time, led me into the staffroom and announced in a loud but cheery voice: ‘If you’re wondering who this funny little man is, whom I have been showing around, this is your new deputy head.’ With a smile, she then led me off to meet some students, oblivious to my bruised ego. In short, I had a very bad case of imposter syndrome (something I have never really been able to shake off but have learned to live with, as we will see in Cog 1.2).

That first training day in September was top of the charts when it comes to scary. I had met most of the staff during the previous term, but not formally. This would be my first moment as a proper head teacher. The fact that the school had been put into special measures following a damning inspection report didn’t worry me. Nor did that year’s exam results – placing it as the seventh lowest performing school in the country – make me want to run. Nor the fact that it had the highest exclusion figures in the country. Not even that it had been closed and was due to reopen with the same staff and students as an academy. We were to move into a 10new building for the first time, with all the unknowns that would bring, but I knew I would cope with that. Just for good measure, there was also a police order in the local area that banned groups of more than three young people from gathering at any one time due to running battles with rival gangs on the streets outside the school. All of this was fine; I would handle it.

Nope, the things that worried me were all about me, me, me.

Perhaps you have decided that you want to be the head of a school or maybe a head of department. You feel ready for the role and the responsibility that goes with it. What you may not be so ready for is how best to handle the focus that will be on you constantly. How will you cope with almost everyone agreeing with you on a daily basis (to your face at least)? How will you manage being the centre of attention? How aware will you be of any changes in your own behaviour following your first successes or failures? And if the adulation is all going your way, how will you respond when someone disagrees with you? Will you recognise when your behaviour begins to change at home or with friends? These are all the little things that could tip the ethos in your school or department in one direction or another.

What I am describing here concerns the ego. The Latin word for ‘I’, it is often misinterpreted and misused. The standard definition for the term ego is ‘Someone’s … sense of their own worth. For example, if someone has a large ego, they think they are very important and valuable.’1 However, the term was first brought into common usage in the translations of Sigmund Freud.2 Freud described the ego as ‘that part of the id which has been modified by the direct influence of the external world’.3 The id can described as ‘the impulsive (and unconscious) part of our psyche which responds directly and immediately to basic urges, needs, and desires’.4 For example, when babies are born they are all id; as the baby matures, so does the ego in order to modify behaviours according to reality.

In the standard sense, I used to think that I didn’t have much of an ego because I had a million insecurities and rarely pushed myself to go for promotions. What I 11actually had, if we use Freud’s definition, was a healthy ego. As a head of department, I remember once telling a colleague that I would never go for a senior leadership role. My colleague’s reply was, ‘You should only think about going for the next stage when you feel ready.’ This was my ego working as it should. An unhealthy ego that is not in check can lead to poorly judged actions – for example, we may refuse to be proven wrong in an argument with someone to whom we feel superior. Even though we know we are mistaken, we may argue to the bitter end. Conversely, if we feel overly inferior, we may give up too easily, even though we know we are right.

It would be fair to say that all prospective heads have a degree of egotism which enables them to feel confident, strong and, quite possibly, superior enough to apply for headships. This self-belief may stem from a healthy ego which draws on past experience or from an unshakeable and/or irrational self-assurance which may arise from an unhealthy ego. This elevated ego may have its advantages but they are limited.

The problem arises when we want to do it our way and close our ears to advice from others. After all, we have come into the job wanting to lead a school or department with a degree of autonomy. Many of you may have spent most of your professional life thinking that you could do it better and criticised every little thing that every head has ever asked you to do. However, during your time as a teacher and as a middle or senior leader, if you have learned anything, it should be that we are only human – everyone makes mistakes. We need to listen to advice and weigh up all sides of a debate before deciding on a course of action. Easy to say, but the unhealthy part of our ego can grasp the upper hand, resulting in us pushing ahead with our own beliefs and ignoring other voices.

This is where the tension comes in. A certain degree of ego is necessary when it comes to leadership. Someone has to have enough belief in themselves to make the final decision. In an emergency situation, we cannot wait for a democratic decision-making process to occur before any action is taken. Having said that, it is important to remember that ego shouldn’t be the driver when it comes to making decisions. As soon as you put yourself on a pedestal, you lose touch with the ebb and flow of day-to-day life in your school.

Let us take an example which affected me during a heatwave in 2018. With temperatures rising above 30 degrees, the pressure was on us to allow students to wear their PE kits to school (four weeks before the end of term). Some schools 12were relenting and the national media had picked up on the story. My first reaction was to say no: everyone should remain in normal school uniform – including staff, who were starting to wear flip-flops and other attire which were not what I would have expected in a professional-looking workforce. While some of the senior team and staff were in favour of relaxing the rules, many had started to argue otherwise. Parents were also beginning to inundate us with requests. The easy option would have been to give in and let the students come into school in their PE kit. However, I remained consistent with my initial reaction and insisted that our students continue to wear their uniforms, albeit without a blazer if they wished. The heatwave carried on for the remainder of the term, but within a few days of the initial demands being made, things had died down and the students continued to come to school in full uniform.

Why did I stick to my initial reaction? Was this an unhealthy side of my ego getting the better of me or was it something else? To answer this question it is important to consider my thought processes during this situation. Not only were other schools allowing their students to wear PE kits, but I also had the pressure of many parents and staff demanding that I should relent. However, I was aware there were still four weeks to go until the end of term, and we had worked very hard that year to ensure everyone was in uniform. Parents respected our uniform policy and I didn’t want it to be undermined. I was also conscious that the media push these types of stories and then they disappear quickly. Finally, I felt that many would respect the decision to stay true to our uniform policy and I certainly didn’t want to set a precedent for going back on policies.

If my resolve had been purely dependent on egotism, I probably wouldn’t have stood firm. However, what served me well in this instance and caused my healthy ego to work appropriately was gut instinct based on experience. There is much debate regarding the worth of gut instinct. In Blink, Malcolm Gladwell describes how a snap decision or judgement is often much more effective than a decision based on a rigorous analysis of the facts.5 While he also highlights the fallibility of this approach, there is much merit in what he says. When I first became a head, I used to always say when something didn’t go as planned that ‘I wish I’d listened to my gut feeling.’ Frequently, I knew the decision I was making was wrong but I went with what the majority were telling me to do.

13Gladwell helped me to appreciate how important it is to listen to your gut, but I have also learned how vital it is to rationalise why your gut feels this way. If you can’t justify your feelings and vocalise them to others then perhaps it is your unhealthy ego taking over. In summary: be aware of your ego. If you don’t nurture its healthy side, it can make you pretty unpopular and lose you a lot of respect. It can give you the self-belief to make strong decisions, but make sure you back them up with a rationale based on experience.

Cog 1.2: Creating that first impression

In the previous cog, we considered the dangers of an inflated ego. We now need to consider how an inflated ego can manifest itself when we seek to create a good first impression with the staff we will lead.

Being aware of our unconscious insecurities

Any change in leadership brings with it a degree of uncertainty, so staff will need to feel confident in their head (or any other potential leader) if they are going to buy into the ethos that the school community or department is trying to develop. The last thing anyone working in a school wants to pick up from a leader is indecisiveness or a lack of confidence, therefore having an understanding of, and control over, your own insecurities is a prerequisite, especially when commencing a new role.