Since taking up my first senior position within a secondary school, twenty years ago, I have had a desire to learn more about and develop my skills and knowledge as a school leader. As my experience grew, I became more and more fascinated in how I could design and shape school policy in order to provide the best educational experiences for young people. I still live by this core value but found that the changing context of school leadership moved me further away from being able to do this as a Headteacher – spending too much time and effort on financial and operational matters. I know that this experience is not unique and wanted to share my own experience of living through and eventually moving on from Headship in order to help others who may find themselves in a similar context.
I took up my second headship in September 2016. I took over at a large and recently merged secondary school which had just gone through two rounds of significant restructure. In addition to this, in the few months before taking up the position, the school received a Financial Notice to Improve (FNTI) for failing to file its end of year accounts on time and being unable to set a balanced budget. On top of this I also inherited a Progress 8 score of less than -0.5 which put us in a vulnerable position with OFSTED. Two months into post, I had to suspend and ultimately dismiss the Finance Director. This process took five months and in the interim I undertook the role of both Principal and Finance Director. I worked closely with the ESFA in trying to stabilise the finances but it was clear that the significantly reduced budget would not support the structure of the new school and its failing buildings. The need to focus on keeping the school afloat was a huge strain on my time and that of the trustees. Following another poor set of examination outcomes in 2017 we were still below the floor target and our seven terms of ‘grace’ for the new school was almost up. We had made great progress in creating a real positive ethos in the school and the local community, teaching and learning was better, behaviour was much improved but this had still not impacted positively on outcomes. Although no real surprise, it was still devastating, when in May 2018, we were placed in Special Measures. The HMI at the time was clear that the fundamentals of setting the school up in the first place had not been put in place and that myself and the trustees were too distracted by finances/ESFA and not focussed enough on school improvement. As a leader, I felt about as bad as you can get; Special Measures, FNTI and below the floor target. The report wasn’t published until the school holidays and so myself and a few leaders and trustees carried this news around behind our poker faces – ironically many staff and parents were of the belief that we had probably done OK as the local reputation was increasingly positive.
As a consequence, the DFE and ESFA informed us that we needed to join a trust ‘as a matter of urgency’ in the summer of 2018. Further financial difficulties, no deal on joining a trust, further decaying buildings, another business manager coming and going, two very positive (but draining) OFSTED monitoring visits and the start of a global pandemic meant that by Spring of 2020, I decided that I needed to move on from Headship and reconnect with my family and the life I left behind. I had originally kept going because I knew that we were on the right path and that by the Spring of 2020 we would have come out of Special Measures and would be looking forward to outcomes more in line with national averages. When schools were closed, inspections suspended (quite rightly) I knew this wouldn’t happen.
Among fellow heads in Leicestershire, I was known for my resilience and overcoming difficulties. I had even presented to them on a couple of occasions about working with difficult financial situations. It is true that I had learnt how to keep on going but I have learnt that this can also be damaging. Whilst you are working to ignore the parts that are ‘hurting’ you could be missing the signals that you need to address some aspect of damage.
With the benefit of hindsight and some distance from this experience, I have learnt that I should have demanded more support early on, that by trying to be the one who solves the problems and keeps everything (and everyone else) going, I was attempting the impossible. There are reasons why the Headship and the Business Manager roles are normally undertaken by two people! I have learnt that I should have insisted to the ESFA/DFE and my trustees that I couldn’t solve all of it, or carry the weight of responsibility for it all. Too many others were happy to stand by and watch me take it all on, because I presented a front of being OK to do so.
Above all, I have learnt that your fundamental values, in my case, ‘to provide the best educational experiences for young people’ should not be compromised by lack of resource and support.
If I was parachuted into my own experience as an advisor, I would have been frustrated how the three aspects of our educational department, the ESFA, OFSTED and the DFE could exert such conflicting priorities on an individual or school. Each demanded we spend more time focussing on their particular aspect of concern, and criticised us for focussing too much on the others.
When a school such as mine gets itself into difficulties, every agency should be on hand to lend support but not compete for their own priorities.
At one of the lowest points I reached out to James Pope who was always available to lend a virtual ear. Whilst this was invaluable, it is a shame that ‘the system’ still doesn’t acknowledge or support school leaders in difficulties.
Five months since walking away from headship for the last time I am in a much better place. I now work within an excellent Trust as School Improvement Lead, I am able to focus 100% on teaching and learning, leadership, CPD and school improvement. I find that I am able to use the best bits of my school leadership experience and I enjoy the fact of being able to work within my capabilities rather than constantly on the edge of incompetence.