13 leadership questions.
I hope you don’t read this until the week beginning 05/06/23.
Why?
Because there’s a relaxing half term to be had between now and then.
But on the off chance you are curious about what others are working in their schools, I’ve rounded up another set of questions your fellow community members have been asking.
Join the conversations, help lift them up and create winning outcomes for students everywhere. 👌 (Thanks to everyone who supported last week 🙏)
I’ve also gathered the last set of jobs available before ‘teacher transfer deadline day’ on 31st May.
Plus some thoughts about communicating for impact to audiences of different sizes.
We - schools - Are In Beta - always learning (when we enjoy a well deserved half term).
This week
💬 Learn from 13 threads inside the community.
💼 🔎Jobs with We Are In Beta community members.
🤔📍13 questions school leaders are asking.
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1. 🤝 School placements.
“We have a member of staff on a 50/50 contract as a cover supervisor and a dance instructor keen to do the Assessment Only route to QTS but they need to have 20 days placement experience in another school. Is anybody local please able to offer support with a job swap for a member of their staff who may need similar PD?”
2. 🖥 Team communications.
“Good evening all, I am looking to make a screensaver which can be shown on staff, student and support staff computers to contains important messages. We want to use this as a tool to improve communication between SLT and staff. Has anyone already done this and if so what did you use? Am thinking a PowerPoint which rotates between slides.”
3. 🏫 Staffing structure finances - SBM chat?
“Would anyone mind linking their business managers up with our business manager to look at support staff structures please?”
4. 📚 Literacy team models.
“Hi, I am looking for some models that are used in secondary schools for how Literacy teams look and the roles staff have within the team? Thanks :)”
5. 📱 Social media damage.
“I'm looking into developing our education around the ill effects of social media use and would love to hear about any schools that feel they have made a real impact in this area with their students and parents. In particular, I'm considering how strong a position we might take as a school in saying that social media is harmful, rather than just looking at some of the risks during personal development sessions.”
6. 😰 Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA).
“We have a group of students really struggling with EBSA. They are divided into two really distinct groups - one group we have some strategies because they were complete non-attenders, and we are working through a staged process to help them in. The other group are present in the building but really struggle to attend lessons.
“The second group are much more difficult to support.
“Does anyone have any useful resources/ staged approaches they could share, for either group, but especially the second.”
7. 🔎 Sixth Form review.
“Hi everyone, I am reaching out for a bit of potential help. I would like to carry out a review of our 6th form and wondered if any of your members had any ‘deep dive’ type questions that they have used in order to conduct a review?”
8. 📝 SOW/ SOL proforma.
“Would anyone share a blank SOW/ SOL proforma they use - I am keen to refresh ours but also not make it too workload heavy as we are a Google School and can insert hyperlinks. I attach mine for information.”
9. 🎭 Eduqas course of Performing Arts.
“I am looking for anyone who delivers the Eduqas course of Performing Arts, mainly to collaborate and discuss curriculum set up and T&L ideas, but also to discuss PSA windows and the way in which schools are getting students through the equivalentPSA windows.”
10. 🎭 Head of Drama visit to look at KS3 curriculum.
“Looking for some welcoming schools in the Essex/Suffolk/North London areas who would be willing to have our Head of Drama visit to look at KS3 curriculum and talk about recruitment into GCSE at options time. We want to improve our cohorts coming through with drama. Anyone willing to kindly give up their time and help my HoD out would be amazing. Thank you”
11. ↗️ Transition.
“I'm looking to update and invigorate our transition package for students joining in the next academic year. Anyone willing to share their ideas / thoughts / resources for their transition packages?”
12. 🎯 Performance management.
“I am currently trying to rewrite my academy's performance management policy, moving away from a traditional target based system, reviewed once a year and with pay progression tied to it. Instead we want a growth model, tying performance management to what we want to see in every classroom, and developing all teachers wherever they are on their journey.”
13. ⚠️ Food tech risk assessments.
“I'm looking at our food technology risk assessments at the moment and wondering what guidance is currently out there. I did our PE risk assessment which I'm happy to share (very comprehensive!), which I based on the AfPE's Safe Practice: in Physical Education, School Sport and Physical Activity document which gave detailed guidance around risk assessment. At the moment, the document I have for food which has been worked on by a couple of members of staff doesn't seem comprehensive enough and I want to make sure that I've included all area of health and safety and relevant and looked at all key publications.”
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Got a question?
💼 Jobs with We Are In Beta community members.
Want the 14.5k+ people reading this newsletter to see your roles?
System Leadership.
Chief Executive Officer - The Priory Learning Trust.
Senior Leadership.
Principal - Lomond School Helensburgh, Scotland.
Middle leadership.
Head of Geography - Brakenhale School (Bracknell).
Head of English - Brakenhale School (Bracknell).
Head of English - St. Edward’s Prep School (Cheltenham).
English LP - Ark Evelyn Grace Academy (Brixton, South London).
SENCO - Brakenhale School (Bracknell).
Head of Department Physics - Park House School (Newbury).
Head of Performance - The Wren School (Reading).
2ic Science - Ark Walworth Academy (South London).
Assistant Head of Science - Archbishop Tenison's CoE High School (Croydon).
Science LP - Ark Evelyn Grace Academy (Brixton, South London).
Curriculum Lead: Learning for Life (PSHE & Citizenship) - The Misbourne (Buckinghamshire).
Head of Social Sciences - Archbishop Tenison's CoE High School (Croydon).
Head of Department PE - St Mark's Church of England Academy (Mitcham).
Head of MFL - Archbishop Tenison's CoE High School (Croydon).
Teaching.
English; Geography - Brakenhale School (Bracknell).
Geography; PE & Progress Leader - St Mark's Church of England Academy (Mitcham).
Geography, English, Business Studies, Maths / LP, Psychology - Park House School (Newbury).
Technology (predominantly Food) - Colchester Academy (Essex).
Science - Ark Walworth Academy (South London).
Primary Teacher and SENDCO - Ark Kings Academy (Birmingham).
Humanities; English; RS - Ark Boulton Academy (Birmingham).
Science - Sheringham High School (Norfolk).
Maths; English; Geography; History - Woodhey High School (Bury).
Drama - Sherrardswood School (Herts).
KS2 teacher - St. Edward’s Prep School (Cheltenham).
Science; English - Ark Evelyn Grace Academy (Brixton, South London).
English - St James School (Exeter).
English & Science - Worle Community School (Weston-super-Mare).
Maths; English - Priory Community School (Weston-super-Mare).
Science - The Wren School (Reading).
English; Business and Economics; Latin and Classics - Archbishop Tenison's CoE High School (Croydon).
Interested in these roles?
Send the people who posted them a message to find out more.
On a personal note.
When communicating for impact - whether it be your community, your team or your students - you have to strike a fine balance between breadth and depth.
Go too broad, you risk not sharing enough for them to know what to do.
Too deep, you risk drowning people in detail and them forgetting the point.
In his session about improving student behaviour, Nat Parnell shared a great rule of thumb:
The more people you are communicating with, the shorter the message needs to be.
For example, you might:
work on a multiple page document with someone you line manage.
share a one pager with your immediate team.
repeat a two or three word mantra to every student in the school. To improve behaviour in classrooms, Nat’s was “Warn. Move. Remove”, which they eventually shortened to “Warn. Remove” for even more clarity.
Why am I telling you this?
Last week I was about to send you a collection of 23 questions. 10 from last week. 13 from this week. But it was too overwhelming.
So I chose to split them across two editions of the newsletter in the hope fewer questions would be more manageable.
After all, my aim's to help as many of you form as many meaningful, supportive relationships as possible.
(The other advantage of saving the questions in this edition for today is the lion’s share of the work was already done before I began writing it.)
Note to self: do more now and thank yourself later. 😉
Thanks for reading.
@NiallAlcock and the We Are In Beta team
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