We are hiring! Executive Assistant post

We are looking for a values driven individual to work with us to support our incredible HeadsUp4HTs community!

The HeadsUp4HTs community is led by James Pope and Kate Smith, two former Headteachers, with a mission to ensure ALL Headteachers are given the support to be the leaders they set out to be!

HeadsUp4HTs is part of InspirEducate, and is a network of Headteachers and school leaders supporting and lifting each other up. We champion the profession and provide several layers of support to our community, including coaching packages, Local Authority support and peer support spaces, all with an intentional wellbeing focus.

As the network grows, we are looking for a values aligned individual to support us with;

Managing our busy diaries

Community communication

Network engagement

The role is ideal for someone with executive administration or personal administration experience. Ideally, this is someone who already works in the education sector. You’ll need to be Google Drive and social media savvy and a working knowledge of MailChimp and Canva would be desirable, but not essential.

The role will be virtual, flexible and for a fixed term, whilst we navigate our community in a new direction.

Initially, we anticipate the role to be between 10-20 hours per week on an hourly rate to be negotiated.

We aim to nurture a working relationship that values and respects each other’s differences, that promotes authenticity, equality, diversity, and that supports individuals to develop bring their best selves to their role.

If you are interested in working with us, then please email support@headsup4hts.co.uk and book in a chat with Kate. In the meantime, take a look around our website to get a feel for who we are and what we do.

 


Think Piece: Peer Coaching Support

Our Peer Coaching sessions are an integral way that we support our network. 

In essence, these are safe spaces, or coaching circles, which are completely confidential and judgement free. We carve out time to come together with other like minded and values based leaders to share our authentic selves, our challenges and our triumphs.

‘We all had a chance to speak. As usual, I felt nervous about sharing a part of myself with others, but James and the other Heads had put my mind at ease with their reassuring nods, smiles and championing chatter in the chat function. Within the first session I felt part of an extraordinary community.’

The support sessions recognise that Headship and school leadership can often be isolating. We aim to bring people together, to help them to make connections and allow them to share their own experiences of leadership. In doing so, we resonate, lift each other up and grow stronger knowing that it’s safe to share and that there’s always someone who has been through a similar experience or someone who can offer advice and support.

One member share their experience of joining the support session here

‘Each week my cup is refilled as I meet with people like me. Heads who sometimes struggle, Heads who are finding it tough, Heads who are courageous in their pursuit of a better education, for their own communities and beyond. Within this group, I have a voice. I am valued and listened to. I am supported and I don’t have to wear a mask.’

There are Headteachers and school leaders from all different backgrounds, schools and all with various levels of experience. Everyone is welcome.

We frame each session by reminding ourselves why we are there, and reassuring everyone that they are in safe hands. We often focus on a a question and sometimes it’s as simple as ‘How are you? No really, how are you?’ This gets everyone thinking and gives us an opportunity to truly reflect, without the fear of judgement or of a toxic accountability system looming over. We keep the sessions in a light and celebratory space, often championing, celebrating and cheering on those in the group. That said, we also rally round when someone is experiencing a difficult time.

The sessions are really fun and informal, some Headteachers pop in from time to time and others attend every week, keeping their own wellbeing bucket full. We always say ‘come when it serves you to do so’. We are here, each week, ready to hold you in that space.

In each session, our members' voices are all welcome; you can contribute, listen, drink coffee, and share your stories. Guaranteed, you will leave feeling part of a dedicated and values-based network.


Think Piece: Boundaries

Boundaries are personal limits that we set around ourselves, the responsibility of enforcing that boundary will fall on us. Boundaries keep us aligned with our core values and our own personal choices around the way we choose to live our lives and conduct ourselves both personally and professionally.

Boundaries help to keep you safe, in control and can empower you to make healthy choices and take personal responsibility.

Consciously appreciating your own personal and professional boundaries can help to support your wellbeing, physically and mentally, from day one. Setting boundaries requires a deep understanding of your personal and professional needs and expectations; knowing what serves you well in order that you can thrive in the role.

Ask yourself:

What are your boundaries when it comes to professional relationships?

To workload?

In responding to the expectations of the professionals that you work with?

In ensuring that your personal life has value equal to (minimum!) or above that of your professional life?

Essentially, setting yourself boundaries is a way of actively respecting your own wellbeing and keeping you safe, so get familiar with them and bring them to life. Consider how you will articulate these to those you work with, and your family and friends too and how you’ll hold yourself accountable.

It’s important to remember that boundaries can change too, so it’s important to revisit them and make adjustments to ensure they serve you. You can never ‘over’ communicate your boundaries to others either, clear and consistent communication is key.


OFSTED Experiences: Impact upon SLT can’t be underestimated

Ofsted, an acronym that will strike fear into even the most hardened of staff. We knew the call was coming, like so many other schools, it had been coming for over two years and casting our eyes towards the impending visit was the focus of many, many SLT discussions. We gathered as much information as we could about what the visit would look like and what would happen over the two days. We prepared and then prepared some more. Then one of our schools within our small trust received the call within the first few weeks of the Autumn term. We listened and reflected upon their experience and threw in a touch more preparation for good measure. The visit crept ever closer. A month or so later and another school in our trust received the call. Closer still it came. Then, at the beginning of November, it was our turn. This is our experience.

I count myself very lucky to be the deputy headteacher of a large, two form entry primary school in the North-West of England. Our school is a diverse community school with provision from 3-11. We serve a disadvantaged area and have 50% pupil premium. Our EAL numbers are similar, with over 30 languages spoken by our school population. I have been at the school for 4 years and was successfully promoted to DHT from AHT in February 2021. It had been a while since I experienced an Ofsted inspection and I had certainly never taken in part in one as a member of SLT. Unchartered territory indeed.

When the initial call came, our HT was not on site. Completely normal, as he works across two schools but afterwards, I was told the colour completely drained out of my face when the call was put through! Nerves kicked in but so did all the preparation we had done. I knew what this call would entail as well as the following one. I wrote down everything we needed to know and arranged the time for the longer call. An hour or so later the call from the inspector came and we had composed ourselves as an SLT to begin the process of painting the picture of our school. The phone call, which we were worried about, turned out to not be the experience we expected. The Ofsted inspector gave us snippets of information about himself and we were quick to identify that he had garnered a lot of information about us already from the website. We were very happy that the recent hard work we had put into the school website had paid off! Heallowed us to select the subjects we wanted deep dives into and allowed the conversation to move in the way we wanted it to. We were able to begin showcasing all the things that make our school the amazing place that it is but also acknowledge that we knew exactly where we were heading and what we continued to work on.

The rest of that grey Monday passed uneventfully as we rallied round our staff, tidied up, perfected the Ofsted folderand of course got the fancy biscuits out! The school displays were refined by our committed staff, planning was polished off and at 8pm we exited the school building nerves janglingbut the shared determination to make the most of our moment ran through our veins. The morning of the first day staff were in school early but the importance of supporting everyone was high on my agenda. Conversations to check in, guide and reassure took place and at 8am we were ready.

The experience over the two days was a positive one. There were, of course, moments where the nerves surfaced. Our history lead, being new to the role, was nervous about the deep dive into their subject. Our curriculum lead AHT successfully supported them through it and they came out of the afternoon positive and fired up for where they would take their subject next. Our Maths lead was much the same, new to role and nervous about the deep dive. However, once again, it was a positive and successful experience which showcased all their hard work with our Maths curriculum.

Our notoriously hard to engage parents reflected us positively (well, mostly positively!) on the parent view survey and we were overjoyed to hear that all staff had reported back that they were proud to be members of our school community. Our children shone throughout the two days, with honesty, enthusiasm, and positivity for our school. They acknowledged that bullying does happen as our school but also that staff deal with it well. They talked about their love of reading and happily shared books with the inspector. In every sense of the word, they were wonderful.

The inspection was a hard two days, but it was also hugely positive. The check ins with the HT reassured us we were on a strong path but the nagging doubt never really left us until we received the final feedback. Leaders at all levels were identified as outward facing with a focus on learning from evidence and research. Our hard work to celebrate the diversity and individuality of our school was recognised and our staff training and development offer was praised. It is important to note that the inspector gave us time to showcase the areas we wanted to and it was clear he had taken time to read the documents we had left out for him to look through. It very much felt like a very fair process- he listened to everything we had to say.

The impact upon our SLT cannot be underestimated. To have our hard work on, what had been key areas for us,acknowledged was hugely gratifying and a sense of success was most definitely felt. We were very honest with the inspector and made it clear from the very beginning what our strengths and weaknesses were. We acknowledged that we knew our curriculum was not embedded completely and when this was our area for improvement, it was no shock. In fact, we were keen to take his feedback and run with it. When the final report came through and the success shared with the school community it was clear that the nerves had been worth it.

Our Ofsted our experience was not the fearsome event that others have endured. Understandably, this does raise concerns over the consistency of inspections, but I also do not want to play down the challenge of the two days. They were hard and upon reflection our collective SLT synopsis is that we are glad we won’t have another visit on our hands anytime soon! They were long, very busy days with a certain level of worry regarding the outcome hanging over our heads. Our school was well prepared for the inspection but so was our mindset. We were open to the experience, open to feedback and open to the inspector coming into our school to judge us. This helped the experience to be a success. The culture of our school is one of openness and community. We work together to drive our school forward, for the better, for every staff member inour school and ultimately the children we serve.

 

 

Debbie Christiansen

@MissC_DHT


OFSTED Experiences: Approachable but thorough

I am writing this to support any other headteachers who may be waiting for the OFSTED call!

I have been headteacher at my school for 7 years and joined initially as acting head. We had our first inspection a couple of months after joining and were put into Requires Improvement. We worked hard, and 2 years later were OFSTEDed again and regained our Good judgement. That was 5 years ago and we were expecting OFSTED anytime from last April, so had a long wait! Obviously lockdown slowed down their progress in catching up with inspections.

We had been expecting “The Call” in Summer term, but they didn’t call until September. I had Covid and was in my last 2 days of isolation when the call came. I asked if they could call me at home, which they did. I tried to defer until I was back in school, but they said that a headteacher being ill was not a reason for deferral, as the school is open, so they were coming in. I therefore called my leadership team and let them know that OFSTED were coming in. We then did a Teams meeting call with the lead inspector, myself and my assistant heads. The lead inspector was sympathetic that I would not be there and was flexible to allow me to join meetings from home. We agreed a timetable for the first day, with times for online meetings and also what they were going to be doing in school. We talked about deep dives and agreed on reading, maths, geography and history. These would all take place on day one with the format being meeting with curriculum leader, seeing the subject in class being taught, looking in books and speaking with the children. These all needed to tie together -  what the subject leader said, relating to how this was taught in class, speaking with the classteacher about their subject knowledge, then seeing outcomes in books and then speaking to the children about what they could remember about the subject, what they had done before and what they liked/disliked.

The inspector had a brief outline and we then made sure that the timetable was more detailed – including where each of the inspectors would be, where they were based, who they were seeing, with timings. This meant that we knew where they would all be at any time. They were pleased to have this on their arrival on the first day as it was clear. They offered to introduce themselves to the staff first thing, which they did, and the staff were very welcoming and smiley! This made a good first impression.

The inspectors kept asking about staff well-being during the inspection and each meeting they had with a member of the senior team, they asked again. They were approachable but also very thorough!

It soon became clear that our Year 3 children and reading were a focus for them and phonics. The children coming into Year 3 had missed a large amount of their phonics due to lockdowns and we did not have a synthetic phonics programme in place. We agreed that this was something that we needed to improve on and so they decided to do some more deep dives in the curriculum – PE, art, science and ICT were then looked into. As the curriculum was all sound and my staff could all speak about their subjects with enthusiasm – intent of their curriculum, how it was implemented across the school and also what impact they had – this was all key!

SEN was another focus and this was a strength here, with my SENCo completing a learning walk around schoo and being able to discuss children and their needs and show how children were being supported within class.

I carried out Teams meetings regarding safeguarding, the curriculum, single central register, SIP, SEF and PP strategy. We also discussed attendance and what we were doing to ensure good attendance at school. We met about behaviour and well-being.

The second day, I came into school and I was able to go round school with them, be on the playground etc.. They talked to parents before and after school and also children to discuss SMSC, behaviour, well-being…

The governors were invited in and could also discuss leadership of the school, how we had developed the curriculum, how they questioned me and asked about school improvement. They spoke with a representative from the local authority.

They continued to ask probing questions throughout the second day to ensure they had evidence for all of the hand book. We then sat down and went through the handbook and they discussed each point and whether they had evidence to say we were a good school for each point.

At the end of the second day, we invited governors in for feedback and I was allowed to have the leadership team there too. The feedback was all positive apart from phonics, but we got a good judgement. We were not allowed to tell staff anything until the report was published.

After 2 days of inspection the report that came out was a summary and very short, which upset some members of staff who felt that their hard work was not reported on.

That was our experience, hope it helps someone else!


Think Piece: Winging it and Flying!

Winging it and Flying!

 

When I recently reached three years of headship and received a ‘Linked In - Congratulations on your Work Anniversary’ message, I couldn’t help but reflect on whether I’m celebrating or just plain holding it together. What on earth have the last three years been all about?

 

Despite previous leadership experience, I was totally and completely naive to the realities of headship. Throw in a pandemic and I can truly say much of the last three years have been spent winging it!

 

I’m not one to hold on to negative experiences in life and like to look for the positive and opportunities in everything, so whilst I admit to winging it a lot of the time, I have learnt so much and prefer to see that the times of ‘winging it’ have actually given me wings to fly.

 

I summarise here my three greatest challenges, the opportunities they created and the key to successfully flying!

 

Challenge 1 - People

All of them: governors, staff, parents and pupils - relationships matter to me and because they matter, they have been one of my greatest challenges. How can you possibly get it right for everyone all the time? The demands on a headteacher to show up, be caring, interested and supportive for everyone feels nearly impossible. How do you learn to fly when everyone needs you for something different? You work with a trusted professional coach. Coaching has helped me develop a self-awareness and increased emotional intelligence to work effectively with others, taking into account their needs and balancing the needs of different groups and individuals.

 

Challenge 2 - Crisis management

Yes I do mean the pandemic and all the challenges it still continues to throw at us. How do you learn to fly in a crisis? You reach out. I have various networks of amazing headteachers and leaders in my local cluster of schools, across the local authority and across the nation through HeadsUp4Headteachers. They are like gold dust and offer the greatest medicine of all, connection, understanding and laughter.

 

Challenge 3 - My own resilience

I have had to dig deep many times, to the very bottom of who I am and who I want to be, to find the grit, determination and resilience to fight my way through the stress and tears of frustration to get up, again and again to face another uncertain day with a smile of my face and put others needs before my own needs. This takes its toll. So how do you learn to fly when the world is in chaos and you want to crawl back into bed and hide? You invest in self care and prioritise your own wellbeing. It is not an indulgence; it is a necessary skill of being an effective leader. You truly cannot give to others if your own reserves are depleted. Dance, run, sing, read, cook, knit… something different for everyone, but do it and do it for you!

 

When I write that I am ‘flying’, please don’t take this to mean that I have it all sussed and am doing a great job. I am doing the best job that I can. My direction of flight is often off track from the right pathway, I get it wrong, that’s for sure! Like I say and it is worth saying again; I am doing the best job that I can. Some may call that winging it, for me, I am flying!