Leadership questions (part II)
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Leadership questions (part II)
13 (more) questions you've been asking and some help with the recruitment crisis.
Huge thanks to everyone who offered help, ideas and resources in response to the 16 leadership questions I collected last week.
To get you set for the second half of term, this week’s edition is another roundup of community questions - this time for those posted since last time.
I hope you had a great break and that you’re recharged to for Term 1b.
We - schools - Are In Beta - always learning (especially when we’ve just got back from half term).
This week:
🤔13 questions school leaders are asking.
🚀Looking for a new challenge?
💼 Jobs with members of the We Are In Beta community.
Sent this by a friend?
🤔📍13 questions school leaders are asking.
📚 Looking for subject specific support?
If you’re a subject leader or want your subject leaders to join subject specific discussions, I’ve gathered 27 threads here.
Discussions cover: exam boards, book choices, extended task technique, long term planning, deeps dives and more.
🎓P16 University offers
“Hello everyone. Of interest to sixth form practitioners. I’ve put together university contextual offers into one place. Document is being crowdsourced so feel free to add details for a uni or two yourself. Tab 1 has Sutton Trust 30 (most highly selective) and details of their contextual offers.”
👀 Reading
“Hi all Does anyone have a strong reading across the school curriculum, who would be willing to come and conduct a deep dive/external review of our reading curriculum and set up a working partnership for improvement? Thanks”
🗓 Curriculum planning
“I just wondered how many lessons a mainscale teacher teaches over a fortnight? Currently looking at curriculum planning and would be interested to know for comparisons. At my school its 43 hours. Thank you.”
🏑PE cohort strategy
“Looking for other schools that we could visit or talk to who do full cohort examination PE. I can offer advice on maximising bucket 3 progress 8 in return having lead it successfully since 2016. Looking forward to sharing.”
📊 Data
“Good ways to present data? Any suggestions”
🛡 Pastoral leadership consistency
“Hi all, I am working on a document which aims to: achieve consistency, improve accountability and improve overall effectiveness performance of pastoral leaders in my team. So far it includes: daily, weekly, termly tasks that pastoral leaders need to complete. And daily, weekly, termly tasks that SLT need to complete.”
🔎 Behaviour
“Could you please share your Ofsted behaviour one-pager?”
⏱ Punctuality
“Does anyone have a good punctuality tracker? I have an attendance tracker, but I’d like to see what punctuality trackers are about! Thanks.”
✔Attendance
“Does anyone have any attendance intervention protocols or procedures for sixth form?”
⭐️ Student role models
“Could you please share on using P16 students as role models to improve behaviour and culture? Thank you! “
❤️Internal exclusion
“I realised that this approach makes internally excluded students feel included.”
🤝 Managed moves (AP)
“I am looking to connect with AP's in Cambridge to support with a student move. Can anyone help?”
💸 Cost of living crisis
“Was great to meet Ben Jane on the cost of living crisis session. There were so many ideas that were shared. Here are just a few that we have worked on straight away.”
🚀 We Are In Beta Talent Pool
"Don't suppose you know any schools looking for a [insert role here] do you?"
"What do you know about this school? Thinking about applying for a job there."
"Can you let me know if you hear of anyone hiring for a [insert role here]?"
I get asked these questions by DM every week.
To help manage them all in one place and help you get better answers we've set up the We Are In Beta Community Talent Pool.
Pop your details in this form and we'll let you know about roles you might be interested in.
All submissions will be kept completely confidential.
💼 Jobs with We Are In Beta community members.
Want the 14.5k+ people reading this newsletter to see your roles?
Senior leadership.
Vice Principals - Ark (various locations: Birmingham, Hastings, London & Portsmouth) Message Senior Recruitment Advisor, Shevonnae Sokoya.
Assistant Principals - Ark (various locations: Birmingham, Hastings, London & Portsmouth) Message Senior Recruitment Advisor, Shevonnae Sokoya.
Middle leadership.
Head of RE - St Mark’s Academy (Mitcham, London). Message Academy Business Director, Christopher Currie.
Head of Maths - The Forest Academy (Hainault, Redbridge). Message Headteacher, Will Mackintosh.
Head Maths and Head of Computer Science - The Cumberland School (Newham, London). Message Headteacher, Omar Deria or EHT, Thahmina Begum.
Head of Computer Science and Head of Chemistry - Forest Gate Community School (London). Message EHT, Thahmina Begum.
Teaching.
PE - St Mark’s Academy (Mitcham, London). Message Academy Business Director, Christopher Currie.
Computer Science - Winerstoke Hundred Academy (Weston Super Mare)). Message DHT, Steve Holland.
Science (Physics Specialism) - Langley Park School for Girls (Bromley). Message Head of Science, Veronica Parry.
Support roles
Behaviour and Intervention Manager - Leeds East Academy (Leeds). Message Principal, Danny Bullock.
Interested in these roles?
Send the people who posted them a message to find out more. But first…
On a personal note.
In my first year as a HoD, my team was three teachers down. I didn’t have a big network. I had to use supply a lot. I spent a lot of time recruiting. It was not fun.
Many of you know this period didn’t end well for me - a story for another time. But suffice to say, I know how hard it is and how serious the consequences can be.
Now we do have a big network inside We Are In Beta, I want to help you as much as I can. Especially, given the current state of recruitment in schools. There is too much time and energy being spent on hiring.
Our aim to help schools learn from each other. If that means helping you with other things, like hiring, to make the learning easier and more stabilising for your team, then so be it.
If you’ve got ideas about how we can help further, or do it in the best way possible, I’d love to hear from you. As always, just reply to this email. Be great to hear from you.
Thanks for reading.
@NiallAlcock and the We Are In Beta team.
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