Brian McLaren is the headteacher of Langlees Primary School, in Falkirk. He can pinpoint the exact moment when he decided to become a primary teacher - when Mr McKenzie took charge of his class in Primary 6. Until then, it had never occurred to him that men could be primary teachers.
Here, he talks about why his school is focused on driving up attendance, and the importance of a school leader being a visible presence in their school and doing “way more” listening than talking.
1. What I wish I’d known when I started teaching is...
I wish I’d known how little I knew and that no matter how much learning, studying, qualifications and experience I gained, some days would still feel like you know nothing at all.
2. The most important qualities that a school leader needs are...
Patience, consistency and hope. You could go on and on, couldn’t you? I’ve got many colleagues who I admire and trust who are different in approach to me, so I don’t think there are half a dozen set qualities that trump all the others.
- Tes Scotland’s 10 questions with...
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I think it’s important to be a real person and to share your expectations, and to try every day to be the best version of yourself that you can be. You must also be open to challenge and be prepared to listen to other opinions and not be afraid to change your opinion if the facts change or you learn more.
3. The most important lessons I’ve learned from doing this job are...
As long as your heart is in the right place, you can learn everything else. It is one of the central considerations for me as we go through recruitment processes to bring others into the team, and the core of what we return to when making difficult decisions. Is the heart of this decision correct?
I want to work in a school where doing the right thing is more important than doing things right.
4. The best change I ever made to my practice or my school was...
Thinking about what my job actually was compared to what I thought it should be. A very learned former headteacher of mine was full of sage advice, some of it unprintable, but she would say something along the lines of, “See that stuff you’re moaning about getting in the way of your job? Sometimes that is your job!”
Once I accepted that my job was to work with the people in front of me, supporting, challenging and laughing with them and all the time looking for improvement together, then some of my frustration fell away.
I am delighted with the impact of some recent changes we made to focus on attendance at our school. As a Scottish Attainment Challenge (SAC) school, we spend some considerable time trying to get under the reasons for some of the challenges in our school and for every layer that we peeled away, the issue of attendance was underlying so much. Interventions will only work if the children are actually with you regularly.
I used some of the SAC funding to create roles within the staff team to focus on improving attendance. The team have done an outstanding job in putting together a range of bespoke, targeted supports, as well as trying to work out where the blockages are in our systems.
Most importantly, they have focused on supportive mechanisms with no judgement. Month on month, our attendance has outstripped any of our previous years and so far this year we have increased overall attendance by around 1,000 days across our school population of just over 200.
5. If I could change something about Scottish education it would be...
A significantly more gender-balanced staff across early years and primary. This is a great job and I would never put anyone off joining the profession. Undoubtedly, it is difficult and frustrating sometimes, and occasionally it feels as though society perhaps doesn’t judge the profession as fairly as it might, but I can’t imagine ever doing anything else.
Right from being a wee boy, I always wanted to be a teacher and can pinpoint the moment: when I came into P6 and my teacher was Mr McKenzie. It had never really occurred to me before that men could be primary teachers.
6. My most memorable moment as a school leader or a teacher was...
A long time ago, I was having a “bit of a conversation” with a young man, who had a set of challenging life experiences, about some perceived slights. This had mostly started over a disagreement with a classmate over football and had quickly spun up into something else. I was intervening and trying to defuse the situation and it wasn’t going particularly well but I was persevering. At the peak of this he pointed at me and shouted, “Em no feart of you!” and I clearly remember being shocked and saying to him something along the lines of, “Good - you aren’t meant to be.”
That interaction has stayed with me through my career, reminding me to always take account of how I might be being perceived and that all kinds of things can have an impact on your interactions and how you are viewed.
7. The worst mistake I ever made was...
Where would I even begin? Back, early in my career, thinking that a loud voice could solve everything, whereas it rarely solves anything.
8. My top tip for aspiring school leaders is...
Listen way more than you talk. Gather opinion and spend time with your children and your team as much as you can. Not through surveys and questionnaires, but by getting out and about and visiting all the areas of your school, and doing it regularly.
Try to understand the impact of your decisions on all of those they will affect and communicate your reasoning consistently and clearly. Plan in time every week to go walking and talking, sometimes not with any particular purpose other than going to see what you can learn.
9. When dealing with challenging pupils, my go-to strategy is...
It’s completely dependent on who is needing support and the context around it. I suppose thinking back to a previous question about what I wish I’d known, it would be how important it is for everyone to feel known and valued. The strength of the relationship you have with individuals is built on consistency and clear expectation.
I recently moved school, and going back to the start and getting to know everyone again was a challenge. Tapping into local knowledge and using the expertise of the school team who had been working with children and families for years was an absolute godsend, providing an understanding of the context and narrative behind some of the behaviours, and helping to identify what was the underlying need.
10. The best CPD I ever did was...
Completing my Scottish Qualification for Headship under the watchful eye of Christine Forde was a real shift in my understanding of school leadership. Undertaking such a range of reading and being encouraged to examine and re-evaluate my positions and opinions, and then to discuss and argue for them, all the while knowing that Christine was going to challenge any assertions I made, and then support us to use our criticality to deepen our understanding.
I have tried always to consider whether I am holding on to assumptions or making assertions without sufficient evidence or experience, and try to imagine what Christine would say if she was listening to me.
