No two days are the same in teaching. We navigate through myriad responsibilities, wearing various “hats” for different reasons, all on top of our day-to-day teaching practice.
It’s easy, then, in our bustling working day, to focus solely on our own needs, responsibilities and subject areas - and there’s nothing inherently wrong with that.
However, it’s crucial to remember that our influence extends beyond the four walls of our individual domains and can have a significant impact throughout the entire school.
Analysing decision making in schools
That’s why we recently held a CPD session that was designed to help leaders across the school at all levels think holistically about decision making in terms of how our decisions can impact others and how to work together in the best way to make decisions collaboratively.
We hosted an hour-long workshop in which we discussed a range of topics, their importance to colleagues and how people approach them to understand the decision-making process in the school and its impacts.
For example, we looked at everything from maintaining accurate registers to more complex topics like addressing behaviour issues promptly, logging concerns on the centralised school system and embracing a growth mindset and positivity when collaborating with others.
This provided a platform for educators to openly discuss their experiences, share success stories and learn from each other’s pitfalls - something that has had numerous benefits.
Teacher empowerment
It was uplifting, for instance, to discover that some staff found empowerment in dealing with challenging behaviour directly, without escalating it to line managers immediately.
This approach not only strengthened their professional capabilities but also helped to build stronger connections with their students, resulting in various benefits for both educators and students alike.
This also helped other staff to realise that while it can be logical to want to escalate a behaviour situation, not doing so immediately leaves further avenues to explore should unwanted behaviour continue and create workload implications for other staff.
We also discussed the importance of logging behaviour and concerns that may arise during a school day, with heads of year and tutors explaining how identifying trends through tracking behaviour was invaluable to their roles and could lead to long-term support for pupils if needed.
This helped colleagues who perhaps overlooked this step in the process of dealing with an incident directly understand why it is important they log all incidents: it helps colleagues in other roles to do their job in the best way possible, for everyone’s benefit.
Parent engagement
As well as focusing on behaviour and collaboration with colleagues, the session delved into the crucial area of communication with parents.
While this is something that is universally acknowledged as part of our role as educators, the benefits of such communication for the wider school community are perhaps not at the forefront of one’s mind when addressing a situation.
As a result of the discussions that took place during the CPD session, though, it was encouraging to see staff reflect on the wider benefits to their departments and pastoral team when it comes to parental involvement.
As a firm believer in positive education, I was also pleased to listen to discussions about the importance of communication with home to celebrate success both inside and outside of the classroom. There was a realisation of the positive impact and far-reaching benefits this can have on many facets of a child’s journey through their education.
How our decisions affect others
The main topics discussed in the session were also a catalyst for wider reflection.
Acknowledging how our roles are interconnected and the ripple effect that our choices have is crucial, and it is something to remember as we don our many “hats” during each day.
While we are aware that we impact our students, we can sometimes overlook the multifaceted impact we have on all aspects of the school and our colleagues.
However, sharing how we work and making clear the positive benefits of ensuring that we think about our colleagues during our decision-making can help anyone in leadership become a more collaborative, reflective professional.
Ian Watts is assistant head of secondary (student wellbeing and community) at The International School @ ParkCity, Kuala Lumpur
