Feeling part of a team is important for all colleagues and it helps if they can get to know each other socially. Raymond Ross reports on one school’s tactics
How well do teachers in your school know each other? What do they know of each other’s teaching styles? Would they have the confidence to allow teachers from other departments to observe their classroom practice as a matter of course?
It was thoughts such as these, prompted by a suggestion from a senior teacher in charge of probationers to take them away for a team-building break, that led David MacKenzie, headteacher of Glenwood High in Glenrothes, to invite his staff to a weekend at Fairburn Activities Centre in the old spa village of Strathpeffer.
“It was a weekend of mountain biking, archery and free and frank discussion centred on the idea of getting to know each other and being confident with each other to the point where we’d be willing to go into each other’s classrooms to share good practice,” says Mr MacKenzie.
More than 50 of the 84 staff volunteered to go, so half the group went one weekend last autumn term and the others this spring. Those who couldn’t or didn’t go will be offered an evening in a local hotel to hold similar discussions and consider what they and senior management might do to improve the school.
“It was quite hard for everybody because issues were not ducked. It was very honest and constructive,” says Mr MacKenzie.
Among the recommendations staff have made already are setting up inter-departmental group discussions, dealing with “difficult” members of staff more honestly and openly by the senior management, more pupil discipline monitoring, better communication and feedback on individual pupils, a facelift for the staffroom, more social activities and more opportunities for non-teaching staff to meet each other.
“Staff wanted more in-house in-service training because they felt, rightly, that we have a wealth of talent in the school we could draw upon,” says Mr MacKenzie.
“They felt they were not consistent in approaches to discipline and they felt pupils could be pushed harder.
“They felt not all staff were listened to equally and that senior management should be more easily contactable - even though we all carry mobile phones.”
It is important to listen to what staff say, says Mr MacKenzie, and the feedback suggested that Glenwood was a good place to work yet still needs to identify and address all the “buts”.
Pete Finnigan, the principal teacher of English at Glenwood, says: “These were no holds barred sessions and they have already led to a tightening of discipline policy and fewer phone calls interrupting class work, for example. Senior management style has changed in that they now listen more to majority opinion among the staff. There is definitely a more open relationship.”
Clare Hunt, the principal teacher of computing, says the break was invaluable for her, as a new member of staff, to get to know her department on a personal basis as well as other staff members.
“I think the staff would organise another activities weekend themselves if the school didn’t. It was paid for out of the staff development fund, but it was so enjoyable and worthwhile we’d pay for it ourselves,” she says.
Susan Domin, a senior home economics teacher, says: “I went on the weekend because in school we’re geographically isolated. It provided an excellent opportunity to confer with other departments. It was absolutely terrific.”
The weekend helped other staff to realise home economics was about more than cooking. “It helped them to see the true nature and complexity of teaching new Higher courses like food technology and hospitality.”
Alastair McCabe, the principal teacher of biology, also found the event enjoyable. “I can’t say it’s changed my professional life yet. A lot will depend on the follow up,” he says.
Staff have already started going into other departmental classes to observe and share good practice.
“It is informal for the moment,” says Mr MacKenzie. “We will buy in supply staff to allow this to take place on a bigger and more formal scale. But the spontaneity already proves staff want to do this, to achieve a greater togetherness.”
Considering Mr MacKenzie expected only about 20 of his staff to volunteer to go away together, he considers the team-building initiative has got off to a very promising start and he will be working over the summer holidays to prepare for the first day of the new session when the school will tackle the further implementation of the many suggestions the activity weekends brought up.
