Look after your Head
Look after your head
Recent time have been hard for everyone. Headteachers, in particular, have weathered some truly testing storms admirably whilst carrying the weight of their school communities’ health and safety on their shoulders. I, for one, could not have managed that without breaking down into a blubbering mess. I’ve been thinking though: who looks after the heads? I’ve had the pleasure of speaking to many school leaders, both digitally and in person, and often the subject of ‘loneliness’ can come up: being a head can be a lonely place to be, especially when you’re fighting battles that nobody in our profession is trained for.
I’ve read blogs, books and had training on ‘managing up’, but I haven’t seen much on ‘supporting up’. I imagine many of us do this for those around us or those we line manage without thinking about it, but in these challenging times I believe we need to make a conscious effort to look after our heads. Within this blog I will suggest some strategies to support your school leaders as they do their very best to navigate these unchartered waters:
Checking in and asking how someone is doing can have a significant impact on the trajectory of their day. Popping by with a cuppa and a smile can bring people out of dark spots quickly. In my experience, the kindest heads always bounce these questions back and ask how you are, so persevere and make sure you check in properly!
Heads are making incredibly difficult decisions – some potentially life or death – and need their school communities to be 100% behind them. When a decision has been made, we should do our best to see it through as positively as possible. We, as school staff, are able to be islands of calm in a world of panic and it is our duty to always do our best.
Many people are at breaking point. Tempers are short and patience is wearing increasingly thin. There are going to be decisions made that not everybody agrees on, however there are suitable ways, times and places to have these conversations. A private conversation with your head can clarify things both for yourself and them – I’m sure they would appreciate your input and if you have reacted in a certain way then the chances are that other people have too. Challenging publicly and harshly or, heaven forbid, bitching about decisions in the background, can eat away at the foundations of a school’s spirit and demoralise many.
Sneaking your head a bar of chocolate or a sweet treat can go an awfully long way. If you head is tied up in meetings, especially endless Governing Body discussions, having a sweet treat on their desk can give them the energy boost they need to power on. Brownies definitely work best in my experience!
Asking what you can do to help can significantly reduce the pressures and stresses on a head. Even if it’s something small, like a phone call or a lunch duty. That extra 5 minutes of thinking space can have a really positive impact when heads are trying to juggle so much at once.
This one relies on you having a great relationship with your head. Many heads are working ridiculous hours, often staying awake to try and catch up on midnight Government guidance. Sometimes heads need someone to pop in and suggest they call it a day and head home to rest, then they can tackle problems with a fresh mind in the morning. This is easier said than done as so many people are worrying about things, however it can get really unhealthy and stressful when we start losing time with our loved ones. Alongside this, I would strongly advise leaving them alone on evenings and weekends – that email can wait until the morning!
It takes no time at all to pop across and say well done to someone. A (distanced) pat on the back and a thank you can take the weight of worry off a headteacher’s shoulders as every decision they make will be coupled with the self-doubt of “Am I doing this right? Is it safe? Is it the best way?”
I am sure many of us do all of these things already with those we line manage and work alongside, but often the head can be in a lonely place trying to keep everyone happy and healthy without anyone checking in on them. After reading this blog, try out one or two strategies and give your head a much needed boost.
How Are You?
“We see the things they will never see” Oasis – Live Forever
It has been the most extraordinary 6 months. Against a backdrop of uncertainty, fudged guidance, rapidly changing parameters and unhelpful rhetoric Headteachers have put their ‘game face’ on and led their schools and communities.
As is, increasingly, the norm, every decision is scrutinised and laid open to public debate, on social media, in the playground and in the staffroom… an echo of the wider societal problem created by social media and the ‘meme informed expertise’ culture. A slow erosion of trust in the skills and expertise of Headteachers, school leaders and school staff.
It’s infuriating!
In normal times it is hard enough to explain the sheer breadth of the work that goes into running a school: Educational leader; Business leader; community leader all coming with their own accountability and risk management. During Covid-19 the responsibilities of the Headteacher, have been expanded to include Public Health leader and all-round buffer to the complex consequences of the pandemic.
As a Headteacher you soak it all up… most are modest to the core and therefore quietly get on with it. It seems that no-one is interested in the pressures and the stress and to try to explain does little to overcome the well-established tropes about teachers… we accept that few will understand. HTs remain silent, accepting that “We see the things they will never see”.
The problem is that this quiet and stoic resilience becomes the norm and everyone assumes all is well… until it isn’t – “oops, we’ve broken our Headteacher, where can we find another one?”
Who is asking “How are you?” of our leaders?
It’s a question I have asked and been asked countless times in the last 6 months, in conversations with Headteachers and leaders across the country. In the current climate it seems important to ask but inevitably it is only a pre-cursor to the actual content of the call/online meeting, a nicety to start the conversation off. As time is so precious it’s quickly brushed aside with something along the lines of ‘yeah, Ok’. There is an unspoken agreement not to delve too deeply into the actual answer, both parties realising that to go there would be to open Pandora’s jar.
“Ok” will suffice.
It begs the question, who is actually checking how our school leaders are? Who is taking the time to make the question “How are you?” the reason for the conversation?
At HeadsUp we don’t think it’s Ok.
We think to be a Headteacher is the best job in the world, but we recognise the risks, many of us have been there and have the scars to prove it. Many of us have walked along the cliff edge, only to blown away by an unexpected and unforeseen gust of wind…
We believe it is time to be intentional in supporting the well-being of our school leaders and at the same time create a new narrative about this brilliant subset of the education profession.
At HeadsUp we believe that:
- school leadership is the most challenging and most rewarding job in education
- Headteachers do not get the recognition, positive feedback or support that they deserve
- Education has become overly focussed on deficit and negativity when there are so many inspirational moments happening everyday, in every school in the country and we are missing them
- the application of accountability systems and school performance tables have led to large numbers of Headteachers being ‘scapegoated’ out of education - cliff edge accountability and ‘football manager’ syndrome
- the time is right to challenge and reframe the perception and treatment of HTs
- it is time to celebrate and promote values-led leadership and the emotional intelligences of school leadership
- if we are to see real cultural shift and progress in the way we educate our young people then HTs should be free to deliver their vision and their strategy for their community.
Our Vision:
“All Headteachers, past, present and future, are given permission to be the leaders they set out to be”
Our Mission:
- celebrate the skills, experiences and vulnerabilities of school leaders
- provide ‘crisis’ coaching support to those HTs being treated unethically
- provide guidance and advice to HTs who are unsure of their future career options
- highlight the issue of ‘disappeared’ HTs
- challenge the systems and organisations that are driving the unethical treatment of HTs
- campaign for system wide mentoring and coaching support for HTs free at point of access.
Our offer:
- someone to talk to at times of crisis - coaching and advice
- a supportive network of like-minded values-led leaders who can share their successes and concerns without judgement or accountability through access to weekly HeadsUp network Video Call events
- The time and space to think about a future model of education through regular themed network Video call events and HeadsUp conferences
- The opportunity to share our stories, anonymously or otherwise, so that we and the system can learn from them
- Leadership advice and training that focus on the emotional intelligences of HTs and the tools to put this into practice within your organisations.
At HeadsUp we do see the things that they will never see.
The HeadsUp network is run by InspirEDucate. The Network support offer is free of cost, due to the generosity of the HeadsUp collaborators and Partners who support our work.
What We Have Found Out So Far
It is an unfortunate fact of life that careers do not always work out as planned. On occasion, this can result in a headteacher moving on from their post. There is a perception that once someone has left a headship in difficult circumstances there is no way back. On the evidence of the many conversations I have had in recent months the truth is very different. The good news is that in nearly every case there is a positive outcome. This narrative needs to be articulated more often.
HeadsUp (@HeadsUp4HTs) is a free support service set up by former headteacher James Pope. It is led by headteachers for the benefit of their peers. Initially the remit was to support those in crisis, particularly colleagues either in the process of leaving or had recently moved on with no idea of what might come next. Over time this has extended to those who can see the end coming in the near future, are wrestling with their conscience about whether to stay or go or just need someone to listen. After engaging with Heads Up some of those headteachers went on to leave their posts, but usually of their own volition and feeling they had made a positive choice. As one who made contact put it “if you want to leave it will be for a reason, listen to yourself.” Others stayed in post with a clearer sense of what they really wanted and turned a corner.
There is an overwhelming consensus amongst those who have experienced difficult circumstances that it is wise to take some time out if at all possible. For some it was a couple of months, for others a year. Few stuck to their original plan and found their instincts guiding them. Almost all realised that their final months in post had taken more out of them than they thought. During this time one person realised that he had “done too much bargaining with myself” in their previous post and “compromised on things I shouldn’t have. This was not obvious to me at the time”.
Some applied for headship posts too soon and without being in the right frame of mind. It was only at interview the realisation came that they had not invested enough in their recovery. Others found a hybrid position, where the opportunity arose to work on a part-time or interim basis at an equivalent level to their previous post. ‘Dipping a toe back in’ was a theme and commonly led to a surge in confidence. Sometimes this led to a realisation about what they definitely wanted to do, and sometimes the opposite, but all valued the experience.
For everyone came an opportunity to reassess their lives and their health and see what they really wanted for the years ahead. After years of working with multi-agency teams, plenty found it second nature to organise a team around themselves of family, friends and specialists such as coaches, counsellors and mentors. As another put it “bouncing back requires resources”, particularly if what was described by many as a “burning sense of injustice” could still flicker from time to time. One commented that “you aren’t the best person to comment on your own well-being”. The most difficult moments were often not those anticipated in advance. For some it can “take longer to process the nature of the departure more than leaving itself”, particularly “when everyone else goes back for the next term and you don’t.”
Some concluded that they wanted to get back into headship, and others opted for a change of tack. For the former group the much feared reputational damage was not the issue they had imagined (“people know less about your story than you think”), even when a simple internet search showed the details. There are those who found themselves waiting for a job longer than they might have expected and others, to their surprise, got a job they really wanted at their first attempt. The kudos of having once been chosen to run a school, despite other circumstances, outweighed more recent events particularly when they could describe their positive impact and “own their truth.” Those who held out against “downgrading yourself in terms of your own expectations”, including an inaccurate assumption that they would have to take a step backwards to move forward, reaped the rewards in the end.
For those who wanted to look elsewhere the possibilities turned out to be broader than anticipated. The modern educational landscape offers more in terms of career opportunities than was the case ten years ago. Networks and contacts came through as vital time and again, emphasising the importance of building them on the way up. Some gained permanent work as a result, others a growing range of assignments. Those whose career had all been in one organisation found it could be more difficult to get going, but never impossible in the end. Some found their “capacity to work and absorb pressure”, was a significant asset in other settings. A high proportion of their knowledge and skills was also transferable beyond a headteacher’s desk.
HeadsUp’s services are now growing to a broader agenda that is now pro-active as well as reactive. It is becoming a network that enables heads to sustain each other in the job for longer and where coaching and professional development are on offer. It also encourages heads to be ‘positive disrupters’ in the education system and think beyond how they lead and look beyond a narrow range of accountability measures. Having peers to talk to beyond sector, local authority or MAT boundaries can make all the difference.
Alex Atherton (@alexatherton100) is a former headteacher.
James Pope (@popejames) leads Heads Up.