Leadership Lessons - school relationships

The following post is taken from the manuscript for my still unpublished book. The book is designed as a manual for the new head teacher and the section I am including below is one where I describe the particularities and challenges involved in building positive relationships with different staff groups. I hope that you find it an interesting read and that some of it strikes a chord with your own experiences.

In my time as a school leader I noted that there are certain traits specific to different roles, and having a good awareness of these traits supports you in being able to manage more effectively. I found specific challenges particular to managing relationships involving each role, which I will outline below. I appreciate that this might look like stereotyping, but rest assured, the following comments are based on real experiences with real people!

The Deputy Head Having done this role myself for five years I can say that the role of deputy head is a strange one indeed. Although they will have a significant amount of classroom teaching to do, unless they are in a very large school, they need to understand that they are definitely not ‘one of them’ as far as the teachers are concerned. They are part of the senior leadership team, and will need to take ownership of decisions made by the SLT, some of which may not be to the liking of the teaching staff. In my experience, this can be very challenging for them. It would be an oversimplification to say that, in the Venn diagram of staff and SLT they are in the overlapping bit in the middle. If there was a middle bit that was 90% in the SLT group and 10% in the staff group, that would be about right. I was an external appointment as a deputy head and this meant I did not have any existing allegiances to the rest of the staff. As a head teacher I would advocate this approach where possible, as promoting an internal candidate to the position of deputy head can lead to conflicts of interest, particularly if they are popular with the rest of the staff. First and foremost your deputy needs to understand that they are with you. You can, and should, be able to have robust professional disagreements in your office, but outside of that they need to be loyal and wholly supportive of you as headteacher. For me, the position of deputy head was a route into headship. That is not always the case nowadays, with many outstanding leaders not wanting to take that final step. It is important that you understand which camp your deputy sits in and support their career development if they want to go further, even if it means them moving on from your school. The SENCO The scope of this role grew exponentially in my time as a school leader. Although every teacher needs to think of themselves as teachers of SEN, the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator will have a huge portfolio of work to manage. For that reason, allocating release time for them is vital. There will be many meetings and so much paperwork for them to produce so you need to take extra care of their wellbeing so they don’t burn out. It is also vital that you ensure your SENCO is part of a local professional network, as time with other SENCOs is extremely empowering for them So, what kind of person takes on a nearly impossible role like this in a school? It is very much a calling, and in my experience many SENCOs are of a similar personality type. I did the role (very badly) for a short while after mine left, as nobody else would do it, and I remember one conference in particular for the sea of knitwear that greeted me when I entered the conference hall five minutes late. There was also an unusually high demand for mint tea at breaktime and an unusually high number of small eco-friendly cars in the car park when I left that day! The flipside of the passion that SENCOs have for their role, is that it can be difficult for them to see the bigger picture in a school. Quite rightly for them the SEN children come first, but they need to understand that as a head you have other pressures to deal with, such as performance data and budgets, so be prepared for frustration on their part on occasion. Office Staff It is a bit of a cliché, but it is true to say that the office staff are the heartbeat of the school. The most important tip I would have for working with them is to try your best to ensure that communication between the teaching staff, yourself included, and the office staff is as good as possible. It is easy to overlook the fact that everything that takes place in the classroom will have implications in the office, and that as the first point of access for parents, nothing frustrates a member of the office team more than having to reply from a parental question with something to the effect of “sorry, I don’t know about that.” The big stuff, like whole school events, obviously need to be shared, but also things like P.E. days, upcoming class visitors, special class events need to be passed on too. My advice would be a shared online calendar, but make sure everyone can access it and remembers to check it regularly! I would also suggest that your office manager, or person with similar title, is part of your SLT (senior leadership team) and attends SLT meetings regularly. Support Staff When I started teaching, there were still quite a few ‘old school’ support staff working in my school. These were lovely, hard working people, who would prepare resources, hear children read, and even tidy up for you at the end of the day. How things have changed! Support staff have so much responsibility now, without the relatively good pay that teachers get. No wonder lots of excellent support staff go away and train to be teachers, between 9 and 3 the job is pretty similar. As a head teacher, the commitment and skills shown by my support staff regularly made me feel extremely guilty, like I was taking advantage of them in some way. We are now in a bit of a crisis recruiting support staff as the expectations we have no choice but to pile on to them is causing lots of them to look into jobs in other areas. I am not sure how to solve this, other than to pay them what they should be paid, which is not possible at the moment. The only way I can see this becoming possible is if we look at increasing class sizes, but nobody really wants that. So, all I would say is that, as a new head teacher, please look after your support staff and make sure they know that you are there for them. NQTs As a headteacher, one of the best things that can happen to you is for a good NQT (or ECT as they are now called) to apply for a teaching vacancy. New ideas from someone straight out of university can be incredibly useful and the keenness that they bring with them can really add to the atmosphere in the school. It is for those reasons that I always try to add a sentence in teaching adverts informing ECTs that they are encouraged to apply. I find it incredibly rewarding to watch the development of someone early in their career, but you have to be prepared for them to move on if they make good progress and promotion opportunities in your school are limited. Obviously, you need to provide the support they need to flourish in their role, and that can be taxing, but remember that all the staff can support in this, it is not down entirely to you. Caretakers and cleaners Within your school you have lots of different kinds of people, but the majority come from similar walks of life. Caretakers and cleaners can be exceptions to this and as a result you may have to spend more time managing their relationships with the other staff, and vice versa. Teachers for example may not be thinking about the impact of the science lesson where their children were making active volcanoes within the classroom, whilst cleaners / caretakers may not be considering the educational value of such an activity. Your job is to try to make each party aware of the others priorities, whilst supporting both. Sounds fun, doesn’t it! As a leader you need to appreciate that all you can hope for from an individual in your team is the best possible version of themselves, and that might not be quite the vision you would have for them in an ideal world. As caretakers / cleaners might not feel the connection that the rest of the staff does, it is really important that you do what you can to build them up to feel that they are valued as part of the team. If you can do this your efforts will be repaid a hundredfold. Supply teachers In the old days, if you had a member of staff off sick you would have the names of some local and vetted options to call upon. Very rarely would you not be able to find one that was free, and on the odd occasion that you were stuck you could call an agency. It was a fairly simple process. It is not like that anymore and finding a supply teacher, and particularly a good one, is a complete lottery. The strong teachers get picked regularly to do extended cover in schools, which is more frequent now due to rising incidents of long term teacher absence. This often leaves you with no option but to engage people who I call “professional supplies”. These are people who are likely to have only ever done supply and never had a contract with a school, and if they have it will have been back in the dark ages. They are often pleasant people, and some have the strength and charisma to engage a class of children, but many don’t so you will be left wishing you had redeployed one of your support staff to take the class for the day. As a head teacher you will be bombarded with emails from supply agencies espousing the virtues of the teachers that they have on their books, but if you ever want emergency cover due to staff sickness you won’t see any of these teaching superstars, just one of the pro-supplies. If you use an agency you will probably be charged more if you want the teacher to support you with any planning for the class. This is new and not a welcome change for schools or their budgets. A good supply can be a really strong addition to your staff and if you are in a large school or a trust it is definitely worth locking someone into a contract as you will certainly get your money’s worth. If you are a standalone small school though, be prepared as you might actually be the best person to do it. If you are in that situation, be prepared to say no if you feel that the demand on you is too high or if the cover is for any significant length of time. Volunteers

Although not technically staff, it is important to consider the role of volunteers within your school. The one bit of advice I would give new head teachers when it comes to volunteers is never to turn them down, but make sure you place them carefully in your school. As a rule I would look to place them in a class that does not include one of their children, but be prepared to be flexible here as it might be the case that if you don’t they will not come in. I think it comes down to considering whether that is something that the class teacher can deal with. You also need to be extremely clear regarding confidentiality, as they might not fully understand the importance of this, and if you find that they start sharing things that happen in school with other parents you need to be prepared to end the relationship straight away.