School Leadership V Headship
In 2009 I was successful in passing & obtaining my NPQH,
National Professional Qualification for Headship.
Designed in collaboration with current leading head teachers
and academics it is a rigorous masters level course running over 6 -18months.
It comprises all elements, both academic and practical of Teaching
&Learning, Educational Management and high quality professional leadership.
It is one of the best higher level studies I have undertaken, with wide ranging
applications.
I mention because of a conversation I had recently with an
NPQH qualified friend and practicing head teacher. She mentioned that she had
concluded that headship was ‘a marathon not a sprint’. Furthermore, excellent
as the NPQH preparation was, it could never cover the day to day continual
twists of school life. All those unplanned, unexpected areas & events that
no training can prepare you for.
Here are listed ‘one hour in the life of headship’, all
before 8.30am:
·
School caretaker, collecting the school minibus
has not informed anyone & is waiting to be picked up from the MOT garage.
·
Cycle safety officer arrives, unscheduled and
the key member of staff is not in school. Keys to said bike shed need to be
located.
·
Informed that the drains are blocked and need
immediate action, possible baby wipe overload.
Now STATS, Educational Standards, NC Planning &Ofsted, Performances
management and Safeguarding, you expect in headship. Teaching & Learning
Strategies, Behavioural Management, Dyslexia Awareness, Setting the Vision,
strategic management and effective School Improvement Partnerships, are all
predicted.
But baby wipes and bike sheds, now that’s in a
different league. In headship, as in teaching, you’ve got to love it to do it
well.