It is true, I love my job I really do! Recently, I went round to my parents’ house in Bournemouth and my mum described me as a “round peg in a round hole” and I guess that is true, I seem to be a pretty good fit for the role of a headteacher.
That said, there are parts of my job that I find hard and there are days when I find the job challenging and if, I am honest, far from enjoyable.
Thinking about this, I was reflecting on how I get through those days and how I cope with the bits of headship that I am not so keen on.
First of all, I use my staff – and that is definitely use and not abuse! When I was a deputy, it often felt like I was given the worst jobs by the head I worked for – all the things they didn’t fancy doing.
For example, we were a school that was rapidly increasing in size and we were therefore constantly recruiting staff. As each interview day drew to its conclusion and decisions had been made as to who would be taken on, I was always given the task of telling the unsuccessful candidates the bad news and then giving each in turn a feedback debriefing as to why they had been unsuccessful.
While I was doing this, the head had the very pleasant task of taking the successful candidate around the school to introduce them to the other teachers.
I didn’t mind doing this and it no doubt stood me in good stead for my role now, because as the head I make sure that it is always me that provides the feedback to the unsuccessful candidates, and I let my deputies break the good news to the new member of our team.
Reflecting on this now, I think that the most important factor in me still having my head happily above water as a headteacher is the strategic networking I did in the early days of headship and continue to do now. During my first year I got together with half a dozen other new headteachers from our local authority and formed a little support group that met every half-term. Twelve years on, four of those original six heads still meet every couple of months to discuss the issues that we are wrestling with and to debate possible solutions.
This group has helped me on so many occasions and I have never been stuck for a policy; a quick email out to the group and within minutes I have two or three to choose from. I have learnt to read them through carefully though, as in my first year I got a policy from a friend, did “find and replace” for the school name and thought my work was done! However, I had neglected to read the final paragraph when it said that if staff had any issues they should in the first instance contact the headteacher, Mr X! Luckily, my governors saw the funny side – you live and learn!
I would like to think that I have developed another support network – that of my staff team. While I know I sometimes get it wrong, I try very hard to treat staff as I would like to be treated myself and have discovered that if you look after your staff, they will in turn look after you.
I recently had to travel to Scotland for a family funeral and while I was away I received a text from every single teacher in the school at some point over the two days wishing me well.
I am sure you all have a network of colleague headteachers who face the same problems and issues as you do and who you trust and get on with. If you do not have this, go out and find it – even if you just find one headteacher to start with, someone who is happy to meet and chat with you as a sort of response partner – in my experience this will prove invaluable as two heads are definitely better than one!
- Tom Donohoe is the headteacher of Anton Junior School in Hampshire.