One thing I have learned as a headteacher is to never underestimate the power of listening.

Because while, as a leader, you can often feel you have to speak and tell people what to do - actually being willing to stop, to let others speak and to act on feedback is vital, too.

It’s one of the reasons why when I became head of my current school I wanted to ensure everyone had the opportunity to have their voice heard.

Making time for everyone

To do this, I implemented regular 15-minute one-to-one meetings with every staff member. They happen three times a year - after summer exams, before Christmas and in the summer term - allowing us to track progress throughout the academic year.

I schedule these during staff members’ non-contact time, never eating into their planning, preparation and assessment (PPA) time or beyond contracted hours. The meetings take place in my office, but they’re deliberately informal.

These aren’t formal performance reviews or policy discussions, either - they’re opportunities for genuine connection and listening, and offer a personal, focused opportunity for staff to share their experiences and ideas.

The power of informal conversations

In doing this, I’ve discovered transformational ideas often emerge from the briefest of conversations.

For instance, a full-time teacher shared they were struggling to manage a full timetable alongside personal challenges. By temporarily adjusting their schedule, without impact on pay, we were able to ease their workload and enhance their wellbeing.

In another conversation, a staff member raised concerns about Year 11 students losing valuable learning time due to long toilet queues. This feedback led to the introduction of a dedicated 10-minute toilet break for Year 11s during Period 6. As a result, students are now on time for intervention sessions, and disruptions have decreased.

Meanwhile, a member of the PE department told me how difficult it was to manage sports kit washing because they shared a tumble dryer with the design and technology food department. It was a simple issue, but one that hadn’t reached me. Once I was aware, we purchased an additional dryer, solving the problem instantly.

Finally, one meeting saw a staff member highlight that during the winter months, having all students waiting for buses in the school hall was chaotic and stressful for both staff and pupils.

In response, we completely overhauled the system. Now, students are grouped by bus route and assigned to different indoor areas of the school, each supervised by a staff member equipped with a radio. Buses are called individually, ensuring an orderly departure process and resulting in a much calmer end to the day.

These small but impactful changes show staff their concerns matter. As a result, they feel heard and therefore staff absences have become rare, and there’s a greater sense of community across the team.

I have made a point of ensuring these changes are amplified to all staff as coming from these meetings, to show that their feedback is acted on - and help ensure they understand they can feel comfortable discussing different aspects of school policy and procedure.

Of course, not all meetings are like this - sometimes staff just like chatting about their dog, family life or plans for the holidays. That’s great, too, as it helps us build rapport and for them to feel they are in a safe, engaged and caring community.

Building buy-in for change

Doing this has all been a part of my broader philosophy about change in schools that I have embedded since arriving. At that time, I talked about how everyone needs to be “on the bus” for transformational change to occur. If someone wished to leave the bus, that was fine - but fighting against the direction of travel wasn’t an option.

The impact has been remarkable. Every member of my staff is now “on the bus” - not because they’ve been forced to, but because they’ve been listened to.

These regular check-ins have been a huge part of that and created a culture where staff feel valued and heard, where problems can be caught early and where solutions come from those closest to the challenges.

They feel ownership over the changes we make because they’re part of the process and we’ve created a more collaborative, responsive and effective school environment - one that means they want to stick around for longer and that all helps drive improvement for students, too.

Julia Polley is headteacher at The Wensleydale School

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