'The talent is there, but remains inadequately exploited' The school report. TA to Headteacher, did a great job, now helping other leaders with
@NautilusEdu
EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT
A collection of Headteacher short stories
TA to two headships, and journey from special measures to 'good'.
'A virtuous cycle of improving reputation and outcomes' - Schools Week
A 30 year retrospective.
Boy walks into reception late for school.
Receptionist says ‘late again!’
Enters building. Passing member of staff says ‘are you late again?’
On his way to class, someone else asks him for a minute. ‘Are you ok?’ They say.
Boy confides that he has no bed. 4 children in a 2
Having spoken to a lot of people in and out of the classroom over recent weeks, I’ve come to this conclusion.
Unless you work in a school right now, you have no idea how tough things are.
Family A goes on holiday in term time to Spain. This family has 3 holidays per year.
Both parents are together, with decent earnings, off-setting the cost of the fine. Both are able to pay within the time period. Family A can afford holidays outside of term time.
Family B goes
And so I do a home visit. It’s not easy because things haven’t been going too well.
The door opens. 4th floor. I’m welcomed in.
He’s very excited. Two worlds colliding, home and school.
He grabs my hand and tells me he wants me to see his room.
I play the game and we step
The teaching profession has done a remarkable job with this remote learning.
To create a whole new approach to schooling children, without preparation or training, within a pandemic and with the pressure and scrutiny of a nation.
Let's just acknowledge that for a moment...🤔
A bit of perspective on ‘catch up’.
In Iceland, knitting is part of the curriculum.
In Chile, children have 3 months break.
In Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Serbia, Sweden - children start school at 7.
Do we put too much pressure on our children?🤔
New year 3 boy arrives at school. Close to exclusion at his previous place. Mum deciding to jump before pushed.
On the first day I get a knock on my office door requesting help.
I enter into a game of cat and mouse with our young man, who is removing clothes and armed with a
When I was a kid the teachers went on strike.
I don’t remember much about those occasions.
But I do remember the time that they gave up for school football matches on a Saturday, moonlit rambles on residential, France trips to speak the lingo, evening shows and swimming galas🙏
I'm teaching year 3, World War 2. A carefully planned lesson, with a map of occupied Europe on the whiteboard behind me.
As we talk about the invasion, we unpick what Hitler was doing. I talk to them about his evil vision for the world.
And then I'm interrupted.
One little
So let’s say that you applied for a job at my school.
And when you came for your interview, you learned that we didn’t have any electronic whiteboards.
Every class had a big dry wipe and every teacher was an expert at using it.
Would you accept a job offer?
Call from school-we'd been sent an email about my yr11 son
Email says that the school is proud of him🤔
During a fire drill, he was spotted offering to help a yr10 girl on crutches down the stairs.He carried her crutches and looked after her
In front of his pals.
Love that🙏
And so the other week an ex pupil comes up on my feed.
Scored a goal in the FA cup. So the next week I thought I’d go and watch him.
It’s the cup replay. He plays really well and scores again.
As I leave he heads up the tunnel. Like a kid, I give him a shout.
He double takes
As a headteacher, every now and then one of my staff would stick their head around my door and ask me if I was alright.
Not a question about school. Not about the children. Not about a job. Not a concern. It was a just about me.
And it always meant the world.
Those year 6 teachers are doing an amazing job aren't they?
Residentials, proms, year 6 shows, SATS and leavers assemblies - often in addition to the day to day business.
I get that all staff have worked hard, but there has to be a special mention in my book🙏
I receive a call from our receptionist, a parent has arrived and is very cross.
I'm unsure, but I head down to greet her and welcome her to my office.
She's really upset. She points the finger at school. It's all our fault and her heart is on her sleeve.
This is hard.
I offer
If ever you’re wondering about the public perception of teachers, switch off the social media, put down the newspaper and just speak to the families that you serve. They see the job that you do and they’re the only ones that matter.
🕧 Longer school hours.
➕ More maths.
💨 Cracking down on vaping.
That’s what the wise year 5 & 6 children at Freshwater and Yarmouth C of E Primary School in the Isle of Wight want to see.
And is what
@RishiSunak
and the government will deliver.
Fascinating responses with people sharing personal experiences from their school days.
This example is an oversight but the impact is significant. It’s a reminder to step back and remember how little we may know.
This England team are turning out to be remarkable.
Our children are watching the coolest athletes talk about food poverty, equity, racism, social media abuse amongst other things.
This is all about much more than football isn’t it?
Boy sits in a class, with his head on the table, reluctant to do his writing.
I see it, and I come back to this later in the day.
Later I'm told that he needs to be more 'resilient'.
We discuss the home circumstance. It's not good, it's complicated and we know that it's always
Headteachers, school leaders and teachers.
We're out here in our houses, where our children are safe in their bedrooms. From in here, we see you and you are doing an incredible job.
You can't see us on the screen, but we are there, listening and learning,
and we're with you.
When I interview TA’s I hear about their aspirations to eventually teach.
This is where there should be a simpler career path.
After 2/3 years in the classrooms observing and working with a good number of teachers.
Then teach. No deep end. Set up to succeed. No surprises.
@GillianKeegan
About 45,000 teachers are currently leaving each year. That’s the problem they would inherit.
You should really be tweeting about retention.
Mum and Dad met for the first time, Christmas eve 1967.
On Christmas Day he drove her to all of her midwife home visits.
On Boxing Day he proposed.
That’s my Christmas story.
The work that early years staff do at this time of the year is utterly remarkable.
It could be easy to overlook this because they will say that it’s ‘just what they do’.
But let’s stop and take a moment.
It’s exceptional.
The assumption can be that the headteacher is always ok.
That they’re strong, upbeat and well. Requiring little care from others.
And yet a good headteacher spends so much time considering the welfare of others. Giving recognition and thanking staff.
Worth knocking on the
We know that teachers have been working under immense pressure throughout the pandemic,
and yet the children leave school everyday with smiles on their faces.
How do you do that? 🤔
The year is 2003.
The unions are supporting schools and teachers with their workload management.
And so they publish a list of (originally 25) tasks that they can 'no longer be asked routinely to do'.
Does anyone else remember this?
🤔
2 years ago this month we didn’t know much about covid.
We’d never used Zoom or Teams.
Remote learning had never been done.
Bubbles were yet to exist.
To keep a nation of children safely learning has been an unbelievable achievement.
Important to acknowledge every success.
The good thing about Sure Start was that it was in the community, and not the school.
You just can't expect schools to fix everything.
If you can get those first years right, then you have a pretty good chance with everything else.
WORLD BOOK DAY⚡️Top Tip⚡️
Pick a versatile costume for an easy transition
Guaranteed that this will be the day that you will receive a serious safeguarding disclosure
Sitting with parents and social workers dressed as the Cat in the Hat, is very hard to take seriously.
When I came to our school it was in special measures.
Every day, I arrived in the dark and left in the dark.
One lady made me a cup of tea every morning. She asked how my family were. She asked how I was.
Everyone needs someone just like that.
If you’re a head, and sometimes it feels tough, there’s good reason for this.
You qualified as a teacher and now find that you work in HR, social care, accountancy, data protection and legal. I’m pretty sure that you also need to be a qualified doctor to understand high needs.
5 useful things to remember when returning to school.
The children will be looking forwards to seeing you
Your colleagues are committed and capable
You don’t have to work in your breaks
Your parents value what you do
There’s a lot of noise. Most of it’s useless
Your office door bursts open!
2 very small reception children are standing before you.
Shy and excited, they present to you a small, mis-shapen muffin.
The muffin is warm.
The children are smiling at you.
Do you eat the muffin?
The credibility, effectiveness and stress of Ofsted.
Ours was an Ofsted experience that I would have considered impossible.
We were a large, complicated and very proud school that had come from special measures. Always vulnerable.
On the morning of our inspection something
My daughters form teacher called last night. We were having fish and chips.
She grabbed the phone and ran out of the room.
Sitting on the stairs, they chatted like pals.
'I'm really good thanks, and how are you?'
Just beautiful.
Your colleagues are tired in school. Here's 6 golden rules for a happy school.
Wash your teaspoons
Don't run and hide when the photocopier jams
Put a lid on your bowl of soup when microwaving
Don't leave mugs in the hall
Empty the dishwasher
Remember your playtime duty
So teachers, let me get this right...
The kids come in when they’re little and they can’t read and write.
Then they leave a bit bigger and they can read and write.
How do you do that?
And so the phone rings.
A call from the receptionist, my 10 o clock meeting is here.
I head down, greet, shake hands and we head to my office together. I make confident and polite small talk along the way.
As we sit facing each other, I smile and apply my strategic silence.
My experience of home schooling.
Parent becomes disaffected by the school or system.
Decides to home school.
Discovers it’s very difficult.
Brings the child back to school.
Went to observe a lesson the other day.
On the centre of each year 2 table was a pot of bright, yellow daffodils.
I asked what they were for and was told that there was no particular reason.
Now that’s just lovely but not the most impressive thing.
This was a supply teacher,
When I was a school, our careers advice came from a big supercomputer. You had to fill in boxes, a bit like doing the lottery.
A few weeks later the results arrived.
For me, car sales.
The lad who sat next to me was the toughest in the school.
For him, wigmaker.
True story.
Phone rings.
School admissions letting me know that we have pupil with high needs who will be coming to our school.
I listen to the back story, trying to make careful notes.
This is a child who with no mobility or communication and a very rare life-limiting condition. They
My daughter came home from school and said,
‘You know when teachers look really unhappy, so you make big effort to be really nice to them’
Never crossed my mind that the children spot the tough days too.
@steadysirteddy
We thought we’d try it and we discovered that outcomes improved.
The staff became really good at modelling and they didn’t need a laptop, so they never worked much at home.
The school saved money and became greener.
The children worked more and applied more.
Not every teacher wants to be a leader. Leadership has been imposed on so many and just isn’t always everyone’s preference.
Spending your career crafting your teaching, planning and delivering to the best of your ability deserves recognition.
Making everyone a leader does not
As the headteacher, I used to love an empty school by 4 O'clock on a Friday.
by 4:30 I'd send out a text to everyone thanking them all for their efforts and wishing them a great weekend.
Best way to end the week.
Can everyone please vacate the school building tomorrow by 4pm please. You’ve given everything this week and need to go and spend time with your family.
I’ll be sending the caretaker round to rattle his keys at 3:50pm.
We’re sitting on a bus taking the children to the seaside.
Most have never seen the sea, or left Hackney.
I take my seat next to Chandler. I like him. He can be a bit of a handful and so this is a great opportunity to have a bit of time with him.
As we move and talk, I ask him
QUIZ
You're asked to come to reception to meet an angry parent
As you greet them, you see that they are accompanied by their crying child
They inform you that they've lost a coat. You make your enquiry.
The answer is 'no', but what is the question?
When I taught phonics in London, I successfully managed to teach every child in my class to speak with a broad Yorkshire accent.
The 'ow/oe' sound was my always my favourite.
@teacher_cath
I've done this. And then had a knock at the door from someone wanting the same or wanting to discuss why I'd declined theirs. Throw in religious observations, trips to Mecca, families visiting loved ones in Libya, Syria etc and it's a minefield.
And so I reluctantly get in the car.
We cautiously set off down the road. As we approach each parked car and every turn, I grip the seat and concentrate on my breathing.
I realise that my life is now in her hands.
My word.
Why didn’t anyone tell me about that moment, when
I can remember my first week as a headteacher.
Two parents having a dispute on site, with one assaulting a pupil.
A member of staff fiddling his timesheets.
A year 5 pupil bringing drugs into school and sharing them in the toilets.
I can remember thinking things would be
@GillianKeegan
Imagine just how amazing our education system could be if we had stable and effective leadership, adequate funding, fair pay and working conditions and multi-agency support for children?
Gove, Morgan, Greening, Hinds, Williamson, Zahawi, Donelan, Cleverley, Malthouse, Keegan.🤔
When I drive home from school, I pass a little mental checkpoint. Here, I tell myself to stop thinking about work.
When I get home and am asked about my day, I say that it's good, regardless. No more discussion.
Then my mind can clear for the evening.
I can remember my first week of headship.
A threat from a governor. A member of staff fiddling time sheets. Drugs found in the toilet. An attempted pupil abduction.
I told myself it would all be ok when everything settles down.
It just never really did🤔
I asked our staff not to use the term ‘kicking off’ when they reported a behavioural issue to me.
It’s a term that I think escalates the situation. It’s also unsympathetic and unsupportive.
A phrase that sensationalises.
I remember the moment that the threshold changed when referring a pupil to social care.
Being told that you could only refer with the permission of the parents.
But what do you do when parents lie?
As a Headteacher, I never used Twitter. I’m finding it a really lovely place to be. I see so much kindness and compassion Every day amongst our profession.
That can only be a great thing for so many young people right now🙏
When parents are unhappy, I would always try and take the heat out of things. A quick conversation to help.
But one parent was not satisfied. Her child unhappy at school.
I monitored closely. Very closely and found nothing.
I fed back, but it was relentless.
Things became
If your headteacher has done a great job getting the new school year off to a flyer,
pop in tomorrow and let them know.
This stuff always means so much.
Bring cake.
Friendly advice for any new headteachers starting in September.
When things get a little too much, head for early years. After 20 minutes of lego, you will have forgotten everything and the world will be a brighter place.
@GillianKeegan
Will it be fully funded? It's important that the general public can understand the implications of this beyond the headlines
If it isn't, families will need to know that this comes directly from their childrens' pens and pencils pot.
It will also put more schools into deficit.
I was in a school today having a meeting with the head. As I was writing notes, I could hear the sound of the children singing carols in the hall.
Such a beautiful moment.
There’s really no place like a school at Christmas time.
I look back and realise that I was often bending the rules with compassionate leave. When staff asked for it, I gave it
I doubted if I was being ‘soft’ but I now think that I got it right
School is important, but people have much bigger things going on in their personal lives
I was at the airport today picking my son up.
So many children coming through arrivals from their holidays.
All of that hard work in schools to deliver a good education, and so many kids seem to be on the beach.
Is school now a choice for some?
Often as a head, I welcomed a child into reception, becoming immediately involved in managing behaviour.
This would then be sustained for the next 7 years, often intensively.
And then they go.
It’s an achievement that nobody else will quite recognise, apart from you.
That first day of school.
The tears, emotion and confusion.
And after your first few days in school, you’re told that you’ll be doing this every day.
Until half term.
But you don’t know what a ‘term’ is.
Or for 6 weeks.
But you don’t know what a ‘week’ is.
Or for the rest
Sometimes a member of staff will come and see you to request leaving for a family matter. It could be easy to worry about appearances.
But the floodgates won’t open.
And it’s important to say yes.
People will remember you for this. This is how you create loyalty in your school
I was a TA for 8 years before qualifying. I reckon I’d watched 40 different teachers across the entire primary age range before qualifying. It’s only now that I realise how lucky I was.
We must try and create schools where our teachers can see less of their own 4 walls🤔
Really important for all staff and parents to understand the term ‘headteacher discretion’ this week when they’re managing the school in the heat.
This is the difficult position heads will find themselves in when there’s no clear support or guidance.
Meaning ‘it’s your call’.