New roles, new networks

We are well into the new school year and many of us will have taken on some kind of new or different role. It is an exciting time in the autumn term and a time to set in place some foundations that give you the best chances of success for the year ahead.

All of us, when undertaking new roles, benefit from a three-pronged approach:

Through your induction and performance management processes you will no doubt have support in place for the first and second points. But, let’s focus here on the third – the people within your new professional network.

This vital and diverse group of people – your new professional network – might be within your school, local authority or multi-academy trust, or may be beyond your cluster or local area. It is critically important to connect to people from both similar and contrasting schools, catchments and ideologies in order to continue to refine your own views and practice.