The problem of NO. The power of NO.

Does it ever get easier to say no?

Does it ever get easier to say no? If it does, is that right? It should always be hard to say no for the right reasons. I like to think that for 99% of requests it will be a yes unless its no. I work hard with staff to try and find solutions creatively to allow their requests to take place. Of course there are some requests that just cannot be met because there is too great an impact on the service to the young people, but they may be mostly met or part met to everyone’s satisfaction.

Squashing an enthusiastic member of staff with a potentially great idea is hard because they haven’t looked at the wider impact, but I have tried to follow some general guidelines about saying no.

·         I genuinely know instantly whether I want to say yes or no to a request.

·         Sometimes when I cannot say no directly I have found a way of saying it indirectly but this has taken practise and knowing my colleague

Other sources of advice have helped me too;

·         Say no for yourself rather than referring to a higher authority or circumstances beyond your control

·         If you’re not sure then ask for some specific information so that you know exactly what you are committing yourselves to

·         When you say no to something you don’t want to do you are saying yes to yourself and your own importance

·         The skill of self-disclosure is a big help in saying no

·         Saying no and surviving the guilt gets easier

The most important bit of advice given to me was;

·         To make sure that you are refusing the request and not rejecting the person, the role, the job or the friendship

Recent things I have said no to:

A business studies trip to Amsterdam. Allowing a member of staff to attend an external course with some prolific speakers because it was felt that our in house knowledge and practice was equal/up to speed.

 
I have said yes to a holocaust CPD event for two staff with a view of a future visit to Auschwitz!

Generating Data

So my new school needs data to demonstrate progress for all the individual students. Yes this is the task of all schools but when the cupboard is bare after 6 months, work has to start and start quickly.

So where do you look? Having baseline/benchmark data to demonstrate progress from is crucial.

·         Attendance

·         Time in lessons/time out of lessons

·         Behaviour incidents

·         Reading scores/ages

·         Books Read

·         Homeworks completed (VLE)

·         Spelling

·         Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire

·         Resiliency Scales

·         Boxall profiles

·         Review targets

·         Achievements/Merits/Points/Stars

·         Low stakes test scores

·         End of KS statements

·         KS2 SATS results

·         AQA Unit Awards Achieved

·         Outcomes Wheels

 

There’s a need to focus on academic progress of course, but sometimes the “stickers” can need their self-esteem boosted by highlighting where there has been effective progress, particularly in the soft skills.

This is going to be a huge task to generate the appropriate data for each student, but the staff team are up for it and the ball is rolling.

How do you demonstrate progress? What have I missed?

The clock’s ticking.

The first 100 days before the first 100days. Aka the first 200 days.

So having read lots of information on the importance and significance of the first 100 days of leadership. They said that Franklin D. Roosevelt accomplished so much in his first 100 days that this became the benchmark to be measured by. Lots has been written about Barack Obama and the 100 day course that steered the US administration away from the Bush era here.

I am in the fortunate position of knowing I am starting on the 1^st September 2015 in my first Headship and so because I am already in the process of thinking about the first 100 days, I thought I would draft a blog about the ‘pre’ first 100 days. So perhaps it should be titled the first 200 days. On Friday 27^thFebruary there will be 85 working days in my present school until I finish, but there is lots to complete and prepare for my successor and lots to learn from the interim Head at my new school.

This Friday I am meeting with the Interim Head, in London Waterloo station, and so I will be learning first-hand about the (I will call it the target school) target school. I am still hoping to complete my NPQH by September 2015 and will be using the target school as my second placement school. I am really grateful that I will have the opportunity to get in and work at the target school, legitimately, and put into effect some leadership control, without actually being the Head. It’s a unique opportunity, to my mind anyway, but I would be happy to hear of others who are in the same boat @simonstevo
I have asked for a copy of the improvement plan and will need to prepare some key questions for the meeting. Staff morale? Staff profile? New staff? Quality of teaching (a second opinion other than the outgoing Head’s)? Pupil numbers? Resources? Learner needs? Other impacts on the school from the outside? Current issues? Finances? Perhaps that’s too much but it is exciting to consider. I don’t feel daunted.
Anyway I will update on this blog at various times and share any key findings and experiences. I will be visiting for 2 days in March and will start a project in the target school to report on, for my NPQH, but it will help me establish myself working with the new team of staff at the target school in shaping my vision and establishing my ethos for learning and leadership.

 

 

Behaviour help

https://mix.fiftythree.com/1936525-Simon-Stevenson/2221766

Applying for a Headship

Applying for a Headship

 

So having spent several months being irritated by TES alerts on my mobile I finally read an advert that had something that hooked me. I’d said that I would know it when I saw it and so it proved. It’s lead my down a path and forward on an exciting adventure.

Application forms are annoyingly non-universal and although the information they demand is consistent, the structure in which you have to input the information is always slightly different which makes the transfer of information just that little bit more laborious. So having judged the form as a 3/10 in its trickiness to input (6 is generally the cut off with a 10 being don’t even consider applying) I dutifully copied and pasted the personal information and then the education and experience sections and then set about selling myself to the vision and philosophy required to attract the shortlisting team.

Deadline set at 1700 Monday and achieved by 1535. Special mentions assembly and Monday staff meetings tend to prevent anything productive happening from 3.40 onwards so the deadline was met by the skin of my teeth.

Two days later, success and shortlisting was achieved and I was booking accommodation, a hire car and discussing options with family.

The interview curiously invited me to teach a 20 minute PSHE lesson observed by the outgoing Head teacher, numerous meetings with existing staff; Outgoing Head, SENco, AHT,DHT, teaching and non-teaching staff team, Community partners and casual meetings with pupils (again curiously no pupil panel) and lunch with the school and a buffet dinner with the governors at a Community partner’s headquarters close by. A tour of the school buildings was squeezed in but was probably a bit too brief. A presentation title had been provided for successful day two interview candidates on the vision for the first year at the school. The plan was to shortlist from 5 to 3 at lunchtime on day 2, although that had not been specifically stated, it felt that that would be the way to go.

The day had started at 1030 and finished at 1830.

Day two was due to start at 0830 with panel interviews.

Three interviews took place over a 2 and a half hour period rotating all of us around:

 

·         Teaching and Learning

·         Leadership and Management

·         Community and partnerships

 

Each interview comprised three Governors and was scheduled to last 30 minutes. Questions rained thick and fast.

 

Would you permanently exclude?

What skillset would you look for in a deputy to complement your own leadership style?

Issues around Safeguarding?

Extending Partnerships?

Meeting partner expectations?

Engaging Parents?

Competence and capability?

 

…..to name but a few, let alone the supplementary questions and extras.

I love talking at interview and have answers I feel, to respond to most if not all questions fired (thank heaven they are not like Google interviews).

1230 came around and I had made the cut from 5 to three. Lunch would be followed by presentations to a team of 5 governors including a member of the DfE focussing on the first year of Headship.

I presented at 1530 (4 hours after my last interview). Everyone was tired and I could see a couple of stifled yawns. Interviewing is a tiring event for everyone. So prior to going in I watched a Youtube video “Be Phenomenal”. It’s inspiring and get up and go and got me off my feet.

Presentation last 15 minutes. Questions lasted 40 minutes.

I left knackered. I had put everything into it and was confident that I could not have done more to put myself across. If I was what they wanted then they would choose me. If not then so be it. I left wanting the job and wanting the validation of being selected. I am a competitive person. I wanted to win. I was weighing myself up against my competitors throughout and tried not to relax at any time throughout the two days.

It took 4 and a half, hours to drive home and I arrived to a phone call offering me the job.

I deferred my answer for 24 hours to spend time talking to my wife about the role, the challenges and the opportunities it will present. It involves leaving a job I really enjoy and I will be leaving with some unfinished business and leaving some people I have had the immense privilege to work alongside and for.

I accepted the next day and the ball is rolling. I will be a Head teacher in September 2015. It feels great; it feels like it is the culmination of lots of research, commitment and endeavour and lots of hard work and I’m excited about the challenge.

I look forward to blogging about my first day, week, half-term, term, 100 days and year in the months to come.

 

Get in.

 

 

 

How seriously do you take a threat that you're going to get stabbed?

People say lots of things in the heat of the moment, when they are frustrated or angry and make threats of violence towards whoever is providing a blocker to their goal or desires.

When it’s someone you know well and you know that there are issues going on in their lives and generally they are a well demeanoured person, it would be seen as extreme, out of character and unwarranted and unacceptable and the threat may be perceived as contextualised and maybe a low level because it is out of the norm, albeit it is still a criminal offence.

But what if the young person in question has a history of volatility and unpredictability? An aggressive streak that comes out when frustrated or challenged? What if they create such a degree of uncertainty and unpredictability around them with their verbal abuse and physicality that adults are unsure around them? How real is the threat then that you may be stabbed in the future on their next visit to school as they have promised?

Risk assessing such a risk is a risk in itself. It’s a high price to pay if you get it wrong in terms of the well-being of staff around the young person. Who’s accountable and who’s responsible?

Key questions then that spring to mind are;

·         Can it ever be classified as a low risk? Regardless of context

The potential outcomes for the young person would also be life changing, but

·         how can a school contain such a threat even if it is geared up to dealing with young people that present with social, emotional and mental health difficulties?

·         Should we even be considering containing the threat at all?

·         What if there are undiagnosed mental health difficulties?

·         Do you then continue to work with the young person until those difficulties have been diagnosed or investigated or do you wait for diagnosis and possible medication and then make a decision?

·         How long would it take to get a referral, a consultation and a decision on a diagnosis?

·         Can we work with a young person over a period of months until that happens? because I am certain that we cannot wait 3 – 6 months with them not being in education.

·         Would it be safe to send an outreach team into the home to work and for how long?

Keeping everyone safe is paramount and decisions around dangerous comments need to be given serious consideration as there is a lot at stake for everyone.

What would you do?

Too much of a good thing

Wow! How exhausting is Twitter and the edu blog world. I'm reading so much incredible information and it's all so relevant and cutting edge. The opinions are thoughtful and they are provoking a lot of reflection from me and helping me drive my school and my own journey forward. I have the privilege to get to work in an amazing school with some amazing colleagues. Resilience and empathy are awash in the school and its this that makes the difference as we help our young people with their SEMH difficulties. We are all learning and it's refreshing to know that my colleagues embrace so much of what we are trying to achieve at the school for the young people. 

The pace of change is key to its effectiveness regadless of what that change is, but there's so much excellent practice out there that we need to manipulate our own teaching to absorb what's out there and then make the alterations. 

I need to learn to understand my own context better in order to filter better the information. This all takes time and we're already playing catch up so the challenge for me is immense. Consolidating what we have built already is also a challenge with new students filtering in to the school. Stability and EBD schools are not always synonymous but that's the aim. There are awesome days of course but it's hard at every level, draining and satisfying every day not always in equal measure.

I guess this is a bit of a ramble but it's a feeling given several hours reading and several years driving a school. Teaching and leading in schools is an exhausting way to make a living but it is of course more than that. Becoming the best you can be is the driver for many and for me it's no exception. Have I got the energy is the reflective question this evening. Read, absorb, evaluate,grow and tire. Three more weeks until the Christmas holidays and it's the hardest three in an EBD school. There's not a lot to look forward to for our students. Trying to shift that mindset is hard but we'll give it a good go. One young man has just had some reviews on LMYL so maybe that might be a game changer for him. I'll let you know.