Experience Only Matters When We Make It Count

Aug 28, 2024

Do you remember your very first day as a principal? I remember walking into a staffroom filled with women I did not know. It was a girls’ high school, and I was not only the first man to lead the 112 year old school (it celebrates 150 next year) but the only man in the room. I was ready; not in the sense that I had learned the ropes as a deputy (I hadn’t been one) but I had spent weeks ensuring that my message highlighted my purpose, my vision, my respect and admiration for the social and professional capital in the room, my invitation to work as a team, my promise to do my best to serve the learners and their teachers and my determination to get the new year off to a flying start in week one. I share this to help you to build your own debut image.

I am writing this because it came to mind as I witnessed a brave young woman take the reins of a big, complex, ‘commuter’ high school in the city as the acting principal. Actually, you act as principal when the principal is at a workshop for two days. When the principal retires, you’re not acting. You are the principal. The whole school community needs you to be a strong one and, if you’re willing to take the lead, and that’s a big if, you bring energy, fresh initiative and the power of a team of willing supporters. Together you take the school forward.

When the Principals Academy works with a new principal (usually on the recommendation of a currently coached principal or a caring circuit manager) we only begin a coaching partnership after the first year. Experience tells us it is too crucial and busy a year. The new principal comes in early, leads from the front at the gate, in the staffroom or wherever the school is in action. You’re not there to keep the school going; you set the agenda, you shine the light on the targets already identified, you ensure the routines and processes are clearly understood and operational and you strengthen leadership in every subject, committee or portfolio.

So, when does experience begin to count? Well, that depends. In your first week you learn to listen to learners, teachers and parents, you work with a team in preparing for the weeks ahead and you get to test your ability to deal with the many crises that characterise any school week. They vary from the personal tragedies and setbacks that befall the larger school community, the disruption caused by four teachers absent on the same day, the sudden request for detailed information from an authority, the need to deal with a serious disciplinary issue and on-going admission fall-out, conflict resolution, safety concerns and labour issues. We all know the story.

Getting through that first week as a principal was a memorable experience. But, actually, it only counts as experience if we quickly appreciate the value of taking the time to reflect, to learn the lessons of every day, to understand our and our school’s strengths and weaknesses. That reflection and the willingness to make it count are the key to self and school improvement. And each crisis – there are a few every day – builds our confidence as effective leaders.

Hopefully, being the boss helps you to prioritise people management skills. You quickly understand your responsibility for the wellness as well as the professional development of your staff. This happens best when you view leadership as service and when you learn to put yourself in the shoes of others once in a while.

New principals are strong on improvement plans but the real test comes in executing those strategies. That’s what earns the respect of your stakeholders – plans that work. You learn quickly, too, not to take the credit for the success of your team.

One of the first challenges that principals face is delivering the climate for teachers and learners to succeed. Late-coming and punctuality are often first on the list of improvements. What counts here is tackling the issues in a systemic matter, understanding root causes, how they impact the situation, possible strategies, implementation, monitoring, refining and embedding. New principals can bring entirely different approaches to making schools work more efficiently. Leadership makes you think differently and forces you to make sense of everyday happenings.

The new principal hits the ground running on day one. Ideally, on day two, you’re a better principal.

Till next time.

Paul
Coach/Mentor
The Principals Academy Trust

 

No: 13/24
28 August 2024

Citius, Altius, Fortius – a school motto which became the Olympic motto [THROWBACK TO 2021]

Aug 12, 2024

It’s a Latin phrase, meaning ‘faster, higher, stronger’ which the founder of the modern Olympic Games, Baron de Coubertin, borrowed from the headmaster of a school in Paris. All of us can relate to why a school leader would love the phrase. Coubertin loved to emphasize that sport was not about winning, but participating. Life was not about the triumph, but the struggle. And the word ‘struggle’ has a uniquely South African connotation.

I’m sure principals can also relate to the huge uncertainty surrounding the Olympics. You’re uncertain about the start of next term, about the safety of those in your care, about how many teachers you’ll have next week, about managing the vaccination of staff without major disruption, about how to repair our schools in terms of learning loss, about funding much needed resources, and perhaps, about how long you can keep personally accepting all this responsibility in these uncertain times. Yes, you can, you’re an indispensable community leader educating the champions of tomorrow.

Interestingly, if the IOC calls off the Olympics in the interests of Japanese health or the safety of athletes, they stand to lose billions. However, if individual countries withdraw unilaterally or cancellation occurs at the last moment because of the pandemic, then the local organizing body and the TV networks will be covered by insurance. The athletes, like the learners, are the ones personally affected. There’s lots to learn about how athletes have continued to train, despite the lack of competition. They have shown great perseverance and resilience in ensuring their mental and physical preparedness and in staying connected with teams and administrators.

Tokyo’s motto for this Olympics is ‘United by Emotion’ – the concept that those gathering in Tokyo, under unique conditions this time, and the billions watching across the globe will come together and understand that there is more that unites than divides them. Sport gives people the opportunity to connect through their emotions. What about your school’s motto? Do you use it to connect those who gather there each day with the purpose for which they gather? Do you use it to persuade every learner to expect more of themselves, to achieve their personal best and to help each other to do so, too?

Mega-events like the Olympics are ideal for maximizing learning. There are so many ready-made Olympic teaching and learning resources for all grades available online and so many heroes from Jesse Owens (1936) to Josia Thugwane (1996) and Wade van Niekerk (2016) to highlight, and 2021 local stars like Akane Simbine, Chad le Clos and Tatjana Schoenmaker to follow. Percy Tau and his U23 SA football team will play the opening match against the hosts, Japan.

The school I served was very sporting. Offhand, I can name ten of my learners who became Olympians; four are in the current squad. What amazes me is the long-term nature of an Olympian’s commitment. My past learner medal hopeful is Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, a 35-year-old road race cyclist and former triathlete who has a degree in chemical engineering. She suffered a life-threatening head injury in a horse-riding accident in matric. She was in a coma for ten days in the July holidays, only came back to school for the final exam and still earned seven distinctions. Already a champion, wouldn’t you say?

The Olympic mascot, Miraitowa (‘mirai’-future; ‘towa’- eternity) and the Paralympic mascot, Someity (chosen to sound like ‘so mighty’) are graceful figures with big friendly eyes, pointy ears and superpowers. They will dominate our screens for weeks. Did you know that 80,000 tons of old electronic equipment, including six million phones, were melted down and used to make the gold, silver, and bronze medals? The medal design represents the daily striving for victory by the athletes, as well as their energy and that of the people who support them. That’s almost an exact depiction of what makes a successful learner. Tokyo 2020 (that’s still the official title) strives to engage young people by including surfing, skateboarding, karate and sport climbing and Paris 2024 will even include breaking – events highlighting competitive breakdancing.

I have shared these snippets about the Olympic Games because they provide the perfect backdrop for an end of term staff meeting, matric assembly or newsletter. Adapt the information to fit the occasion and use it to urge your staff and learners to get down to work faster, to aim higher and to finish the term stronger.

Till next time.

Paul (Coach/Mentor)
Principals Academy

24 June 2021

In a Great School Things are ‘Tight’

Aug 12, 2024

As a retired school principal in the Principals Academy, I get to visit eleven schools every fortnight. That’s my community of practice. The warm and sincere greeting experienced at each gate, reception window and principal’s office is both inspirational to a lifelong student of schools, and instructive, in that it is thrilling to witness the power that a school’s personalities have to shape any visitor’s initial impression of a school’s all-important culture.

Sometimes I have to wait for a few minutes. I’m not your usual visitor; I’m part of the furniture so I blend in and wander down passages, quadrangles and stairways to soak in the atmosphere, to hone in on facial expressions, to focus my trained eye on attention to detail and to experience the reality of teachers and learners interacting both within classrooms and in the explosion of energy that characterises break time. I’m not looking to criticise; I’m just trying to appreciate context, to understand current practice and to observe how different schools approach similar situations.

As a coach I’ve worked with thirty schools in the last five or six years. That’s about 600 school visits. As a serving principal I made a point of visiting schools regularly and of using meetings and sports occasions at other schools to look beyond the hall or field and to learn how other professionals approach common challenges. If we are prepared to learn from what others make possible, we see the little things that shape behaviour and attitude, that make classrooms work, that make staffrooms special, that make foyers functional, that turn unused corners into welcome places, that transform blank walls into exhibition spaces and that change toilets from institutional embarrassments into proud assets. And just imagine how many little things we can learn by visiting inside classrooms, especially when learning is happening.

On an exchange to the US in the early eighties I learned the power of a preposition. Americans like to visit, even at a first-time meeting. They visit with you which means they spend time talking informally. It’s like an invitation to open lines of communication, to join us,our community. Try visiting with colleagues and enjoying the hallmark of any successful workplace: relationships.

If there’s one concept that generally grabs me when visiting a school, it is how ‘tight’ things are in every respect. In a great school things are ‘tight’. Not for one moment does this tightness refer to anxiety, pressure and stress. It speaks to the hold that the school management team has on teaching and learning in every classroom; that level of engagement visible through every corridor door; that principal who comes out to greet me with energy, optimism and confidence; that clarity of purpose that a staff displays in dealing with a day’s routines, its discipline and its deadlines; that sense one gets that a school’s code of conduct is a living reality; that urgency that defines a busy teacher on the move; that punctuality which settles a school within minutes of every siren; that deputy who operates alongside and in tune with the principal; that learner whose natural smile and demeanour denote safety, belonging and pride. That tightness is a positive professional influence; an embedded daily proficiency practised by a school where distributed leadership is visible everywhere.

It is simply so that schools lose that tightness in a matter of days. Poor learner attendance in bad weather, a debilitating run of staff absences, a period with insufficient staff briefings or school assemblies all take their toll. School leadership stretches from office to staffroom to classroom to playground. It’s an active state like an alarm that’s on or a Wi-Fi network that’s active and in full use.

A school is a human organism with a central operating hub that’s connected to every corner: a sensitive nervous system that’s easily distracted and disturbed, a resilient immune response mechanism that quickly sparks into action when a challenge arises, a healthy daily diet routine and good doses of humour, fun and joy. The only medication needed is love. Lots of it.

An excellent school is a tight balancing act, and that tightness is something I recognise and respect. Try tightening-up.

Till next time.

Paul
Coach/Mentor
The Principals Academy Trust

PS. I was going to write about the Olympics this week and remind you of the school motto (Citius, Altius, Fortius) which became the Olympic motto. I would have changed it to Faster, Higher, Stronger, Tighter!

Read my letter Keeping in Touch in Tough Times 20/2021 (available here). The Olympics is always a great topic for a school.

 

No: 12/24
07 August 2024