Retain

How much longer can hold on to the notion that it is okay for us, as public servants, to ask teachers to make the choice between being a “good” teacher and being a good father or mother or sister or husband or son or friend? And if the price of great results for children in one school is that the children of the teachers in that school missed out on years of Saturdays or Sundays with their mum or dad, is that a price we should really ask people to pay?

Talk to teachers who have recently left or are thinking about leaving the profession and they generally talk about two issues: workload and behaviour. There is a great deal a Headteacher or CEO of a Multi-Academy Trust can do to improve colleagues’ work-home balance beginning with a “Workload Charter” for all staff across the school.

At its core, leadership in a Putting Staff First school is about identifying and removing barriers so staff can get on with their jobs unencumbered. Leaders can put staff first by removing the barriers to colleagues getting on with their job through directly managing student behaviour.

The pressure of an impending OFSTED inspection can cause unnecessary stress for colleagues. It is a given that all of us want to be the very best for our students, every lesson, every day. We want to teach solidly good lessons, day-in, day-out. If we work in a school where everyone is being the best they can be in the classroom every day, every lesson, then that is all we can do. This is at the heart of the philosophy for any leader when preparing for inspection. If you put undue pressure upon colleagues, you are unlikely to secure the OFSTED grading you desire. The bottom line is that the only way school leaders will secure a good outcome from inspection is to ensure that their teacher colleagues can teach as well as possible. And that cannot be achieved overnight. So, as a school leader, don’t prepare for OFSTED; instead, create a culture where your teachers can thrive.

Feedback from the classroom is key to improving schools. If we can create schools where the sense of hierarchy is reduced – something difficult in our country which is still, despite the new populism, saturated with deference, a legacy of the class system – so that any colleague can suggest improvement, then we can improve our schools relentlessly and continuously.

Succession planning is a key feature of a Putting Staff First school. Ultimately, at the heart of highly effective succession planning are two key factors: an unyielding focus upon the human aspect of the process and a school’s wilful determination to see the process through. How well a school can attend to these two factors will have a significant impact on its ability to find and develop effectively its next generation of leaders.