Best Practice

A school leader’s to-do list: September and beyond

School improvement Whole-school issues Senior leadership
As a school leader, what should be on your to-do list for the beginning of the autumn term? Author of The School Leader’s Year, Dr Michael Harpham, offers a checklist of preparations, actions and evaluations that should take priority this September
Image: Adobe Stock

 

In this article, I aim to elaborate and share the key leadership activities that need to take place at the start of the autumn term.

This article complements a more in-depth episode of the SecEd Podcast, entitled Back to school: A leadership checklist, which features a conversation between school leaders Jo Smith, Paul Ainsworth and myself and is due to publish on August 31 (SecEd, 2022).

In this article, the month of September is considered, presenting activities which evaluate previously completed work, support actioning current work, or help prepare future work.

It is offered not so much as a fait-accompli, to be followed religiously, but as an aide-memoire to ensure that the most important work in school is prioritised and completed efficiently and effectively.

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