Sitting in my study in school, on a hot August morning in Moldova, and staring at a blank page for my “welcome back” speech, the words of the late Sir Tim Brighouse kept coming back to me: “School leaders need to be both a historian and a futurologist.”
This is my tenth “state of the union” speech, and my sixth at my current school, and finding the right words is never simple, not least because you know that among the buzz of everyone being back together, there is a slight melancholy that summer is over.
However, for school leaders it’s vital that this welcome back speech is used to inspire some esprit de corps for the new year ahead, while also mixing in important school updates, reflections on success from the past year, areas for improvements and plans for the year ahead.
Getting all that right is not easy, but I have found that breaking the speech out into three distinct sections allows a head to be both historian and futurologist.
The ‘welcome back’ speech for a new school year
Reflecting
The exam results and the school improvement priorities may be dominating your every thought for most of August but I always start the speech with something lighthearted, sometimes with reference to the most palatable meme of the summer.
My three children, Gen Z to their core, often joke that they do not want to be in “my propaganda stories that I have a life outside of school” - so, of course, I always share a few summer holiday snaps to prove that I had a break, too.
Then I move on to welcoming new staff. This, though, is not without its pitfalls - you don’t want to put a nervous new teacher front and centre if that will only add to their nerves or make them feel singled out somehow.
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I always ask beforehand how they want to be introduced, whether they are happy saying a few words, giving a wave or simply having their name read out. I can recall watching on mortified in some schools when the word “speech!” has been shouted at the newbies.
Then I move to sharing good news stories from the summer: marriages, new babies, house moves and so forth. Again, it’s best to get approval beforehand but sharing good moments underlines the collegiate atmosphere that any good school should have.
Revisiting
You can’t avoid some reference to exams in your welcome back talk - but this should be broad-brush and relevant to all staff to help them understand the school’s successes. Include all types of success stories from the past year’s cohorts, not just the ones about four-A* students off to Oxbridge.
Connect staff to these stories as a firm reminder of what we, as a school, have done and what we are building on for the coming year - a reminder of why we push through on wet Wednesdays in November when the adrenaline of August is but a distant memory.
Any messages of praise should be shared in this section, too - positive words from trustees, the board or even past students will resonate. Don’t keep them to yourself.
Usually I make the final part of this section of the speech an interactive element. For example, I will ask staff to share their personal highlights of the past year - sometimes serious (“I helped a student hit their required grades for university”), sometimes fun (“I found my favourite coffee cup”) and sometimes surreal (”I bumped into a student on a beach in Spain and was asked if I would be teaching their class next year”).
Preparing
The final section of my speech is the time to talk mission, vision and values. People do appreciate it, and it is not just something that should be memorised for any future inspection. It is about why we are all here in this school and this context. This is the leadership stuff they expect.
Building on this, it can be helpful to outline what the key priorities are for the school going forward - perhaps shared through a well-known template like “what works well/even better if” - but this should be broad so that individuals or departments do not feel singled out.
You can use this to engage staff for a breakout session for a few minutes, too: ask them to chat with each other about three things they want to achieve in the year aligned with the school’s goals.
Usually, then, it’s just a case of wishing everyone well for the new school year and reminding them that it’s a marathon not a sprint and it’s fine to smile before Christmas. End with an inspirational quote. I find that this from the poet Maya Angelou hard to beat.
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Rob Ford is director of Heritage International School in Chisinau, Moldova
