Teach Secondary Issue 14.3

classroom life “IFACOLLEAGUE’S FAMILY MEMBER ISN’TWELL, I MIGHTSUGGEST REORGANISINGTHEIR TIMETABLEANDGIVING THEMFRIDAY AFTERNOONSOFF FORA COUPLE OFWEEKS.WE NEEDTOBE FLEXIBLE, BECAUSE LIFE JUST HAPPENS, DOESN’T IT?” – JULIA POLLEY, HEADTEACHER Julia Polley , headteacher at Wensleydale School and Sixth Form in Leyburn, North Yorkshire, tells us why she hasn’t used school supply services for the past five years... Leading by example W hen I first arrived at Wensleydale School and Sixth Form, it felt a little like stepping 15 years back in time. Given the school’s size and pupil roll of around 400, we were hugely overstaffed, with a leadership structure containing a seven-strong SLT and 12 middle leaders – including some ‘heads of department’ who oversaw departments consisting of just themselves. It was quite old fashioned in how it was run, withmultiple heads of house and a surplus of support staff. My immediate predecessor had died in post. The staff were understandably nervous that staffing numbers would be axed, but were also angry, having felt that no one had really ‘had their backs’ for some time. Getting on the bus As such, one of the first things I made clear to my new colleagues was that I wasn’t planning on being ‘an axe’, but that we did need to rationalise. My initial message to teaching staff has always been that they need to ‘get onmy bus’. Once they’re on, they can get off at any time – but they need to go wherever the bus goes, and in this case, we needed to make some changes. One piece of advice I’ve always adhered to is to not make massive, sweeping changes during the first year of a new headship. Inmy first year atWensleydale, I therefore talked to lots of people, held numerous one-to-one meetings and spent extensive amounts of time meeting with parents and the local community. Stepping back at the start for a while to observe, examine and analyse will be a considerable help later on – though at the same time, you also have to be able to lead purposefully and formulate a plan that you can communicate effectively. Open and honest We needed to streamline the school’s finances, carefully examine what was working and immediately attend to anything that wasn’t. One of the first fundamental changes was a restructuring of our staff – an involved process at the best of times, and evenmore complicated for us, as a maintained school. We drew up a new staffing structure, outlined how it would work, ensured that anyone who could be ring-fenced would be and did our best to make it an open and honest process. I’ve always sought to be honest with colleagues as much as possible, and avoided making promises that can’t be kept. In this instance, we simply couldn’t maintain an SLT of seven at a school with a pupil roll of around 400. We went through the standard consultation processes, and of course, it wasn’t easy. Some people were upset. Some staff were signed off long-term sick. There were capability assessments, settlement agreements for people moving on when that was the right thing to do. I certainly wasn’t out to ‘get’ anyone or trip anybody up. Rather, some people naturally stepped off the bus, because they knewwhere we were going wasn’t for them. The only criteria Around this time I introduced a system of regular one-to-one staff meetings that’s still in use today. These last around 15 minutes each, and are specifically focused on the individuals attending – what’s working well for them at the moment, what could be 24 teachwire.net/secondary