Primary headteacher Kim Dodd started teaching in 1987 and took on her first headship in 2011. She has spent most of her career in Aberdeenshire but left in 2014 to lead a school in Oman. She then went on to found a new school in Saudi Arabia, but a burst pipe and a flood brought her back to Scotland. She says that’s fine, though, because it led her to the job at Uryside School, a primary in Inverurie, where she has been head for over three years.  

She talks about why a headteacher should see themselves as the conductor of an orchestra responsible for getting the best out of everyone in their team so that they can produce “beautiful outcomes” - and why she believes everyone in Scottish education, and school leaders, in particular, need more thinking time.

Dodd says: “Just going into other people’s settings and listening to them and watching them - whether it’s the school next door or a school in another part of Scotland - that exchange of ideas is totally invaluable.”

1. What I wish I’d known when I started teaching is...

The importance of relationships for achieving the best outcomes for all of our learners. I graduated a long, long time ago and, back then, I don’t think we were as aware of that. But what I have come to realise is, if a teacher really gets to know each child - all of their interests, passions, talents and challenges - then the child feels cared for. They know there is somebody there that listens and understands them - who knows they have got to the next medal in gymnastics, or taekwondo, or they have got a new pet, or they might be sad because grandma is ill. The teacher then knows the ones that might not get breakfast and so might need a snack. And they know the ones that could be excitable because dad is coming back because he’s been away working.

A particular thing in this part of the country is that a lot of parents work away from home - they are offshore on the oil rigs, or further afield.

So it’s about knowing your children and building those relationships because sometimes you are the most significant person in that child’s life, outside of the family, and that strong relationship will allow you to get the best out of that child and push them outside their comfort zone because they truly trust you.

I wish I’d known that one at the start instead of spending years learning it.

As a young teacher, you think the most important thing is the mechanics and “how much content can I fill this child full of?” - but actually the most important thing is the relationships and “how much passion can I generate in this young person for learning?”.

2. The most important qualities a school leader needs are...

They need to care about everyone in the school community and have the ability to listen, and a desire to drive social change in their communities. But probably the most important thing is a sense of humour because then you can lift things when they get challenging.

Even in the early days of the pandemic, when people were very worried, you needed to find the humour in it to relieve that intensity.

The most important things a school leader could possess are a crystal ball and a magic wand - but you don’t tend to get issued with those.

• Tes Scotland’s 10 questions with...
• Early years leader Lynn McNair
• Primary head Jenny Watson
• Secondary head Billy Burke

3. The most important lessons I’ve learned from doing this job are...

You have to be happy to admit to yourself and others that you don’t have all the answers. It takes everybody in the team to create a successful school because everybody has different talents, passions, experiences and perspectives. By harnessing those, you can help to mould the school you want to create.

I see the school leader as the facilitator so don’t pretend you know it all, or that your way is the only way.

The facilitator is the conductor of the orchestra - they are not the one playing the instruments but if they find the correct piece of music and blend the instruments, they can get the beautiful outcomes.

4. The best change I ever made in my school was...

Empowering people and promoting trust. Every member of staff in our school has a leadership role that they have chosen and we also promote pupil leadership at different levels and have elected house captains as members of our leadership team.

So everyone in the community knows they are encouraged to share their ideas and that they will be listened to and then we can support them to make those ideas realities. That helps to create a happy and improving school that really does reflect the community it serves.

One example is the development of outdoor learning. We are very fortunate to have a beautiful large outdoor space at our school and one member of staff has led on it and taken everybody else with her on that journey, to develop our grounds and our outdoor learning capability.

Another member of staff has pioneered “preview learning”, where we actually give the parents our learning themes for the following week so that they are aware of what their children are learning and how their children are learning so they can support them.

5. If I could change something about Scottish education it would be...

I would like us to be more outward-looking and think of ourselves in the global context. There is so much great work going on internationally, as well as in Scotland. I really do feel that we would benefit from looking at what is working elsewhere and analysing why. It might not translate directly to Scotland, but we could look at why it is working and how we could replicate that here.

We also need more time so we all have the capacity to think, research and collaborate. I feel we don’t have enough thinking time. Even when I am really tired I’m so refreshed and stimulated when I collaborate with others and hear their ideas about their practice.

6. My most memorable moment as a school leader was...

I have memorable moments every day. When you have been in this game as long as I have there are lots and lots of fabulous memories, but one of my favourites was during the first lockdown and it will stay with me forever.

Our school was the local hub for key workers and vulnerable children. We had had a really tense time setting up the hub in a short space of time with other local headteachers and we had no real idea of the longer-term implications for our school communities, or the impact on learning.

The children came in and very quickly struck up friendships with children from other schools and became a new community. And I remember going out to the school field and watching the children very happily playing in the long grass - because nobody had been out to cut it - with not a care in the world. They were happy just being young and free, exploring, experimenting and learning.

It just reminded me that children are children. It doesn’t matter if we are in the worst of times if we watch them and learn from them we will stay true to our purpose.

It was such a time of unfamiliar restriction and apprehension but they were just rolling around in the grass hiding from each other.

It was just wonderful to watch them and it just reminded me what childhood is all about.

7. The worst mistake I ever made was...

I make mistakes every single day. None of us is perfect. I always speak to the children about the mistakes I have made and fess up. I think it’s really important for the children to know it’s OK to make mistakes because that’s how we learn. If the adults admit to mistakes, children are more likely to do the same and we can move on.

But I think my biggest mistake was not realising, as a young teacher, the impact that the home life, and the teacher’s understanding of that, has on the child’s school experience.

As a brand-new teacher, my perception of my responsibility started and ended with the school day. In my class I had a child that I didn’t realise at the time was a young carer. The reason I didn’t realise is that it didn’t occur to me that I should know that much about them outside of school apart from “I live with my mum, my dad, my brother and my sister”.

That child would often come to school flustered and disorganised and I would get cross with him because he didn’t have his PE kit, or he hadn’t done his homework, or he didn’t have the permission slip we had asked for. But when I became aware and started to make allowances for it, his whole attitude to school changed.

It took me years to realise it was my attitude that framed his and others’ experiences in my class. It was not something that had been addressed in my training and I wish it had been, and I’m glad things have changed since then.

So that was the biggest mistake I made - thinking all I had to worry about was what happened between 9am and 3pm.

8. My top tip for aspiring school leaders is...

To take your time and not rush into leadership. The time you spend in the classroom learning about what good learning looks like and how to achieve it is invaluable. If you can work with a wide range of children and families, in a number of schools, with different age groups, it really gives you that exposure and it really allows you to build your toolkit for when you move into leadership.

I would always recommend to people that they take on small areas of responsibility in their school and seek out the support of a good mentor for leadership. I have always been very lucky to have great mentors throughout my career and I owe my passion for my work to them. But the time you invest before leadership is invaluable when you are there.

9. When dealing with challenging pupils my go-to strategy is...

To listen. Listen to what they say - but also to what they don’t say. Actively listen and try to understand what their perspective is. It’s not necessarily going to be the same as the other person’s but it might be no less accurate. For a lot of children, their challenging behaviour comes because they think nobody is listening.  

10. The best CPD I ever did was...

I’ve been really lucky to have high-quality learning opportunities throughout my career, but I would say the learning that had the biggest impact on my teaching was the opportunity to train with Life Education Centres which is now Coram Life Education. I was being trained to deliver Aberdeenshire’s health and drug programme, which every child receives input from every year. Their research-based methodology and child-centred approach transformed the way I thought about and engaged with pupils.

It was a 12-week experience and I felt like my brain had been taken out, juggled about a bit and put back together in a more effective way. That was over 15 years ago and many of the things I found revolutionary then have become very much part of thinking around good practice now.

The training was about the way you approach children and include children and how that really impacts their learning and progress.

So, for example, instead of pointing at a child - which can come across as quite threatening and accusatory - you would use an open-handed signal and invite them to give their opinion.

Open-ended questions are a big thing now, but 15 years ago that wasn’t the case. It was about framing the question “what have you heard about...?”, so that you are not judging if an answer is right or wrong.

It was also about the way you respond to an answer, so even if it’s not the answer you are looking for, you value everybody’s input. You are never telling a child they are wrong - you are constantly reframing things so that you value their contribution.

You also learned to power learn children’s names, so they felt valued.

I had spent years pointing and suddenly I didn’t know what to do with my hands. But a bit like driving a car - it’s very conscious to start with and then it becomes part of your unconscious practice. And to this day I would never point at anybody because it just feels alien.

The other bit of CPD I’ve found hugely valuable is visiting other schools. Just going into other people’s settings and listening to them and watching them - whether it’s the school next door or a school in another part of Scotland - that exchange of ideas is totally invaluable.

Kim Dodd was speaking to Emma Seith