Who should we be educating anyway?

The battle between teaching and leadership

I started this post about two weeks ago, towards the end of the summer holidays.  I started writing because all of the fantastic educational conversations and links to interesting articles had jump started my thinking about moving into headship.  It was originally titled: 'Do you know where you're going to?' and was a much more straightforward discussion about my future.

But since then, two really important things have happened - one on each side of the battle.

• I started teaching Y3 - and I love it.
• I think I've found THE job; the school were I can see myself as head

So what do I do now?  And then throw into the mix the loyalty issue; I am loyal to my current school - the children, my colleagues, my head, the parents and the wider community.

Education is not just about the school you are working in; it is about everyone - and especially every child.  I believe this totally. But does everyone? Will the governors of the school I am considering applying to become a head of see this.

If I am the right person for their school, will they share my attitude and see the importance of the school I am coming from having time to find and appoint a new deputy to support the fantastic work that is happening there? Will the education of children in a school a few miles away matter to them at all? Will the fact that there is certainly one child in my class who may struggle to deal with the idea of her teacher leaving in the middle of the year - it may add to her issues of abandonment - seem important?

And if the governors can't see these things, if I ask at final interview (assuming of course I am the right person) for them to consider leaving their fantastic Acting Head in post at least till Easter, will they hold this against me?  And if they do, was it actually the right school for me anyway?

Will I be fighting a battle about who we are actually educating: 240 children or as many children as we can influence?

Flying through an open door

The battle at the edge of the comfort zone

Three years ago, our Headteacher started the new school year by sharing a story with the staff about a fly and a window.  The premise of the story was a fly that kept crashing into a window many times when attempting to escape from a room.  Never does the fly turn around and fly out of the open door. 

I work in a fantastic school with the most committed colleagues, and we do well for our children, but if we want to do even better we need to find new ways of doing things, rather than just repeating the same ones and expecting different results.  This was the message she wanted everyone to take away.

That story has always stayed with me.  I like to do things differently, I have a low boredom threshold and crave new experiences to feel fulfilled; but I have several colleagues (and friends) that find change stressful - they don't get the same kick out of it as I do.  And sometimes, I get too hooked up in the changes and don't have time to fully reflect on their impact on my children.

I've read many blog posts and tweets over the past few weeks along the lines of 'try something new each week' and also about looking for completely different ways of doing things (such as having less chairs than children - sorry, can't remember whose that was!).  I like the fact that some of these new ideas people are hoping to try out don't have an ICT focus.

So I'm jumping on the bandwagon.  This term I will be trying out one new idea that's out of my comfort zone.  Something that I wouldn't naturally think of doing.  I think next week that one thing may well be teaching Y3 for the first time - I'm feeling pretty out of my comfort zone already!

But as well as trying out an idea, I'm going to really think about WHY I'm trying the idea; how I hope it will improve children's learning - and maybe pin that up on the classroom wall for me and the children to see.  I only have two days a week with the children, so maybe I'll decide to run things over a couple of weeks.  Perhaps my job share will want to join me - I'll soon find out how she feels about change!

And then of course I'll make sure I reflect on it - so I'm hoping many of my posts over the next months will show how I'm progressing.

Thanks to everyone who's inspired me - long may it continue!