To lead schools successfully, the relationship between the various leaders in the school and the teams that they lead is critical to establishing a healthy school culture and to achieve continuous improvement. There are times, perhaps, where leaders focus too much on the team members driving improvement as opposed to whether the team members are... Continue Reading →
Every school I have ever worked in or visited is keen to improve. When school leaders often talk about improvement, they more often than not consider what is needed to help teachers grow and develop. This may be in through the provision of resources to complement the teaching and learning that we wish to see... Continue Reading →
School leaders spend a considerable amount of their time in problem solving mode. There are those problems that leaders create ourselves through their own actions or the change initiatives that they are either leading themselves or requiring of others. Added to this, are those problems that emerge from factors beyond the control of school leaders.... Continue Reading →
How many times have you seen problems schools where teachers say something like, "the 'Admin' need to do something about that," or, "that's the fault of the 'Admin'"? Too often and conveniently so, teachers are quick to use the term 'Admin', which is not particularly helpful in solving problems and can have a detrimental impact... Continue Reading →
Being a productive and effective school leader requires a positive mindset and the motivation to do our very best each day. I found that over the last 12 months that the mood I was bringing to school each day varied significantly. It was not that I had got bored with my work, quite the contrary;... Continue Reading →
School leaders, regardless of the position held, take on a number of tasks at the same time, so many in fact that the 'To Do' list never ends. Leaders are constantly juggling tasks, which may include reacting to situations that have arisen, carrying out tasks to maintain effective function of the school/division/department, or leading and... Continue Reading →
There is overwhelming evidence in support of developing professional learning communities (PLCs) in schools to improve teacher collaboration that has a positive impact on student learning. Yet, for a number of schools that have embarked on a journey to embed PLCs, the process often stalls or collapses for a variety of reasons, despite good intentions.... Continue Reading →
Teachers being given time to collaborate on matters pertaining to student learning is crucial to improving schools. While elementary / primary schools may often find it easier to schedule collaborative time, in comparison to secondary divisions, owing to the horizontal organisation of teaching teams, teachers still raise not having enough time to collaborate as one... Continue Reading →
Meetings are not the easiest things in the world to lead and to manage. Depending on the meeting, some of the group or team wish to be there and value the opportunity, whilst others perceive it to be a waste of time. Even after significant time is invested by you in creating meetings where... Continue Reading →
