The key element of any successful school is a strong, positive leader at the helm. And yet in recent years, it’s gradually become almost impossible for headteachers to lead from the front.
We all know that leadership is the major driving force for change and it underpins any school’s increased and sustained effectiveness. Leadership serves as the catalyst for unleashing the potential capabilities that already exist in that institution. A successful leader will reposition their school internally and then change expectation and aspiration, and develop structures and cultures that allow the school to build and sustain performance from the pupils. This is done by raising the quality of teaching and learning whilst at the same time raising the level of individual and collective efficiency and the involvement of all staff.
And yet whilst we all can acknowledge how important a leader is to the education system, our system seems bent on destroying those not following the “norm”. This norm, ironically, has been created in an office far away from the realities of school life: it favours an efficient manager, yes, but being a great leader? Leave that at the front gates.
The pressures leaders face from external bodies all tend to reinforce this. The governors, the local authority, the multi-academy trust and Ofsted all have their view on how to run a school, and, of course, they all believe that their opinion is the right one.
Give us strong leaders
They seem to want a well-managed school with little vision, mission, culture or ethos. In fact, a school similar to the one down the road or the one they went to as a nipper; the ones with little soul excitement or desire to put the child at the very centre of all they do.
As a successful head, you engage in four core sets of qualities and practices:
- You build a vision for the school and set its direction;
- You truly understand and develop people - and, yes, that includes staff AND children;
- You redesign the organisation to meet the needs of the pupils, not the staff;
- You manage the teaching and learning programme.
Isn’t it interesting that three of these are leadership skills and only one managing?
For too long, being a successful, inventive leader, willing to push the boundaries in order to do what’s right, has had negative connations. Too often, they are called “mavericks” or “outside the fold”. And far too often the external influences have tried to curb the strong leader.
And yet there has never been a time when we need these strong leaders like we do at present. We have an education system running out of control, run by people with little understanding of the needs of pupils, with insufficient funding, and with too few listening to the issues. So to all fellow mavericks, I say, keep it up, keep fighting the good fight.
Colin Harris has led a school in a deprived area of Portsmouth for more than two decades. His last two Ofsted reports were ‘outstanding’ across all categories
To read more of Colin’s articles, visit his back catalogue
