“I used to hear people say about me: ‘Yes he’s a good teacher, but he’s very ambitious’ – as though it’s a bad thing.” James Eldon, 39, headteacher, Manchester Enterprise Academy, Wythenshawe (top 100 most improved schools in England).
When I was asked whether I would be comfortable staying on as head of year following a maternity cover, it was something that needed serious consideration.
The quote above was ringing in my head from a Teaching Leaders conference a few weeks previously. I had just been given another middle leadership role in the form of house leader along with my existing position as head of boys’ PE.
So to continue as year 10 head of year was a challenging prospect. Would people say I was being too ambitious? As someone who is in their mid-20s and still fairly new to the profession, it is quite daunting being asked to lead a team which, quite often, has far more experience than I do.
Do I sound like I know what I’m talking about? Do they agree with my strategies? What do they really think? In reality, worrying about these sorts of things is a waste of time and a drain on your potential. So, with the benefit of hindsight and experience, here are five things I would have reminded my younger self as I embarked on life as a busy middle leader.
Preparation
“Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.” Benjamin Franklin, founding father of USA.
Probably the biggest bugbear regardless of your position in teaching is finding the time to plan, implement and monitor within your role. However, this stage must be seen as essential otherwise your innovative ideas are going to have terminal flaws.
At the forefront of your thinking must be: “What impact will this have on pupils?” If the answer is little, then you need to reconsider. As part of my work with Teaching Leaders, I am implementing a two-year improvement plan in my curriculum area, looking to raise literacy through PE. Before any of my ideas are implemented, I must submit an improvement plan which is approved by a former headteacher and independent verifier. The reason being that any long-term plans must have feasibility, longevity and rigour, and it is important you get that second opinion of someone you trust.
Time management
“Better three hours too soon, than one minute late.” William Shakespeare, playwright.
As a middle manager you are at the beck and call of the whole school. Those you teach, those you lead and those whose demands you perform to. Using your time effectively is essential to success so having a plan to do this is important. The battle of time can be broken down into two factors: doing what is important or doing what is urgent.
As a pastoral lead I often find my time is spent fire-fighting; dealing with the immediate problems raised by behaviour within my year group. But it is important I find the time to implement and review strategies within my departmental improvement plan – for example, end of unit tests, lesson observations and reading interventions. So I have set times which can’t be affected by the urgent matters, most commonly my time before and after school, which also allows me to keep my home life separate to work.
Work out the strengths of your team
“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” Jack Welch, CEO of General Electric.
Developing others should be seen as a cornerstone of management, producing the best team possible. Often people focus on others’ weaknesses whereas I believe that young leaders should initially focus on getting the most out of their team strengths, especially if they have experts within the team. In addition, if you build an understanding of their motivations you will also maximise their effectiveness.
As my improvement plan focuses on literacy it was important that I got other key stakeholders on board, specifically the school’s literacy lead. By doing this and tapping into her knowledge I have managed to create learning resources and revision guides which simply wouldn’t have been possible without that person’s input and engagement.
Delegate effectively
“Busy is not a good word, nor is it a good excuse. To get it done at times you need to delegate effectively.” Paul Orfalea, Kinko’s founder.
Delegation is certainly the thing that I have found toughest of all when starting out as a middle leader.
Often you want things done in your own way and in your own style and I genuinely believed that it was a good thing that I was so busy and working hard. However, the more responsibilities that come under your remit, the more you’re required to effectively delegate.
Essential to this is getting buy-in from those in question. If they believe in the end outcome, feel responsible for it and have working guidelines, then the result is more likely to be successful.
For example, due to demands on time, I have had to utilise non-teaching staff to lead reading interventions. As they are one of the main reasons for the success or failure of the project I have provided training, observations and reviews to monitor performance. Ultimately though, I have been able to provide an intervention that has a big impact without the need for daily administration.
Stick to your principles
“When you believe in what you’re doing and use your imagination and initiative, you can make a difference.” Samuel Dash, late professor of law.
You will have got the role because of the way you do things and because the senior leadership team has faith in your ability regardless of your experience. At times the only way to improve is to make mistakes so don’t be afraid to be creative, innovative and forthright. Believe in yourself and don’t be afraid to be ambitious.
- Matthew Atherton is house leader and lead teacher for boys’ PE and games at William Hulme’s Grammar School in Manchester. He is also a 2015 Fellow on the Teaching Leaders Fellows programme.
Teaching Leaders
Teaching Leaders is an education charity whose mission is to address educational disadvantage by developing middle leaders working in schools in the most challenging contexts. Applications for the 2016 cohort are now open, register your interest at www.teachingleaders.org.uk