“Don’t do it Simon!”

My Deputy was quite sure that it was a terrible idea.

I looked out of the window in the airless training room and inwardly fumed.

“They need to know!” I countered, “We’d been through it a hundred times! If they’d stuck to the bloody script we wouldn’t be here!”

“It’s still a terrible idea!” My Deputy protested.

She was right.

I ignored her.

My 10 Biggest mistakes as Headteacher.

I have now been a Headteacher for nearly 12 years (longer than I was a teacher). However, to this day I wince at the chaos which my unguarded actions have caused.

I (hopefully) have gotten more right than wrong. But as Head, when you mess up, the consequences can be profound.

A careless word? An impetuous action  – driven by pride, fear, ego (or a combination of all three)? These may be an inevitable part of the human condition but this does not mean that we should not guard against them – reflecting on our errors and trying not to make the same mistake twice.

So in order to spare you some of the blushes (and apologies) which I’ve had to endure over the years, here are my 10 greatest mistakes as a Headteacher…

1. Starting sentences with “In my  last school…”

To become a Headteacher, it is probably safe to say (one would hope) that you are/ were a pretty good teacher. The clue is in the title: Head – Teacher. Your job is to know how teaching works. 

So as you stride purposefully into your first Headship, please spare yourself the horror of jumping to the conclusion that everything your last school did was wonderful and everything your current school does is crap.

I moved from a Deputy Headship in  an affluent market town to a headship in an an outer suburb of Bristol. The calculus was easy (in my head at least). My previous school got better results and therefore must have all the answers. All I had to do was bring all the things we did at my last school and deposit it at my new school and all would be well.

Except that was a terrible idea.

“At my last school we…” is perhaps the most irritating sentence opener for any staff member when a new HT rocks up. It suggests that their practice is backward and needs correcting and will cause heckles to rise before you’ve re-arranged your office.

Your new school is not your last school. Almost everything (culture, parents, children, staff) will be completely different.

I’m not saying that you can’t adopt proven ideas from past experience (of course you should). But don’t just assume that transplanting these to the new setting will be met with a parade – it won’t. And you need your new staff on side.

2. Allowing mob rule.

I sat in the staff meeting and looked at the gaunt and drawn faces which surrounded me. The anonymous staff survey had identified a small but vocal group of (2) staff who really didn’t like what was happening in the school. Trying to be diplomatic, I organised a staff meeting where people could discuss their concerns (anonymously in groups to begin with) so that we could get to the bottom of this small nub of dissatisfaction.

What followed was a coup by a small group of 1-2 staff with loud voices. And I let it happen, and, in the name of democracy, staff morale was trashed as others were rocked by the (often personal) gripes of the individuals. I didn’t push back and agonized about what I could do differently to assuage these concerns.  In so doing, I allowed an unrepresentative group to hold court and affect the mood in camp for many months.

As a Headteacher you’ll never be short of people telling you what you should or shouldn’t do.

The more precarious the situation, the more shrill the voices from every side will become. Every teacher/ parent/ LA officer will know exactly what needs to be done to solve this problem or that poorly behaved child. And they might be right. However, whilst it is our job as leaders to hear everyone (this is essential), we should not to be blown this way and that by the whim of every voice within the school community.

Listen, consider and then decide. Then stick to the plan.

3. Not listening.

Sometimes as a school leader I have become so entrenched in a course of action that I have been oblivious to the mood in camp – and the mood in camp can make or break a school.

Whilst I wouldn’t let the grumblings of a tiny minority distract me from an action which I believed to be right, I have in the past come unstuck which I have plowed ahead with something without checking that the staff and community are in step (or have been persuaded to be so).

When introducing anything new, it is always good to check how people feel about it, spending time selling the idea and reassuring other through open discussion.

“Just do it!” might be a good slogan for Nike, but I’ve found it to be a disastrous approach to change management.

4. Ignoring poor behaviours.

“The standard you walk past is the standard you accept.” – this sums up everything.

Sometimes, when tired, worn down by a term’s worth of niggles or when the morale of the team is low, I have been guilty of cowardice.

Not in big things, but in choosing not to call out the little behaviours of others which run counter to the team’s values (or, more often, the NEW values which you are trying to get the team to adopt).

In the moment, when that member of staff shuffles past you, late and wearing all the things you’d said staff shouldn’t wear, and proceed to take their hot coffee into their messy classroom, I (to my shame – and in my tiredness) have walked on past, not wanting a confrontation when the mood in camp is already fragile.

However, this has never worked out well. All it does is tell that staff member that all the things you clarified about expectations in staff meetings etc are up for grabs and can be ignored. What’s more, all the other staff who are working hard to keep their classrooms tidy and get to places on time feel let down by you and your influence with them is eroded.

Whilst ‘swallowing the frog’ and confronting that member of staff (politely and respectfully – but directly) may be uncomfortable in the moment, if you have made your expectations clear and these have been agreed by the team, then confront them you must. Otherwise, your authority and credibility are at risk – and the new expected standard will be defined as what can be ‘got away with’.

5. Beating around the bush.

So, I know I’ve got to speak to a member of staff about a thorny issue. I know that what I need to tell them is likely to  upset them and I want to be kind and respectful.

So I call them in. We have a bit of chit-chat, gradually draw the conversation round to what I want to discuss and then try to dress it up in euphemisms so as not to hurt their feelings. I have found myself doing this on numerous occasions over the years.

At best the staff member leaves confused and not really sure what they have done or need to address. At worst, they twig that they’ve done sometime which isn’t good – but because I’ve not addressed it directly, they leave with an uneasy feeling that I am cross with them, but they don’t know why.

I have learnt through many such interactions that plain speaking (which must always be respectful) is the only way to properly deal with these difficult conversations. By saying what your concerns are directly and then allowing the staff member to respond to them before agreeing a course of action, both you and they leave the room clear about what the issues are and what must be done about them.

This may sound more brutal and confronting. However, in my experience, clear communication actually reduces the stress of these meetings and brings about a better outcome.

6. Exchanging snarky emails with parents (or staff).

We’ve all been there. We make the mistake of opening an email from an angry parent at 9:30pm on a Friday evening which accuses you of being a terrible person for not allowing their child to kick their class-mates. The message is heavy on assertion and light on factual content. 

You fume – and then pen a riposte which shreds their ridiculous claims and chastises them for their ignorance.

I once spent a whole weekend playing angry email ping-pong with a parent who was cross that I’d failed to write the weekly newsletter that week (the only time in 7 years this has happened). We dueled like Georgian fops, each email littered with witty and hurtful digs at the others’ ridiculous position.

It resolved nothing of course.

No matter how angry or hurtful the emailer’s remarks, I have learnt over the years that the best thing to do when you get an angry email is to pick up the phone and speak to them in person (or better still invite them in).

It takes the average person 7 minutes of ranting to get something off their chest so I let them talk until they have talked themselves out. I apologise for any wrong-doing (or for their hurt feelings if there is no wrong-doing) and then we devise a way forward.

The vast majority of complainers will respond well to this face-to-face approach. Some won’t, but at least you’ll have tried, and in so doing will still be stood on the high moral ground.

7. Micro-managing

When I took over my current school it was in difficulty. Outcomes were poor, most teaching was judged inadequate and the county Education Officer was convinced that it was on the verge of being placed in Special Measures.

Things needed doing, and doing fast and to an extent this resulted in a certain amount of micromanaging. There was no room for individual ideas and ‘trying things out’ – we had to stick to the rigid Teaching and Learning approach which I’d imposed.

There will be times of crisis in a school when it is appropriate to be a directive leader. When the ship is sinking, the captain doesn’t need to get the crew together and form a focus group to discuss the best way to get into the lifeboats – sometimes, in these instances it is okay for people just to be told what to do.

However, old habits die hard and I have been known to keep using this ‘command and control’ model longer than is necessary which results in a deskilled and demotivated staff who don’t bother suggesting solutions as they know that the only solutions which will be adopted will come from the SLT.

Whilst I will always want to know that ideas are evidence-based and result in excellent outcomes, I have finally arrived at a point where I know that, if properly guided, my staff will come up with approaches which are far better than I could have dreamed up myself.

8. Taking my eye off the ball

After some cracking results, I had spent the past year swaggering around like some kind of pirate. Only a year into my Headship at my once-failing school and the KS2 SATs results had shot up. 

Job done. Mission accomplished!

Until the next year’s SATs results came in…

They were rubbish again.

It was a classic error: assuming that all was well when actually there was much left to do. I had rowed back on monitoring and was basking in the warm glow of what amounted to little more than a short-lived bounce.

It is a error I made once and once alone. I still remember sitting in the end of year governors’ meeting trying to explain why the victory parade had been so short lived.

From that day to this, no matter how good the results were the previous year, I have been deeply paranoid about the quality of everything in my school. I have learnt the hard way that the only way of knowing that standards have been maintained is making monitoring a full-time job. We are only as good as we are today. So we as an SLT check books, learning, standards – all the time (usually something every week). This is not about not trusting staff – I trust them completely – but I need to know that it’s going to be okay and take action where things are starting to go off the boil.

It’s the only way to ensure success.

9. Panic

“Right! What we do is we make another TLR so we can get somebody good!”

Just twice in my time as Headteacher, I believe I have completely taken leave of my senses (this and the final mistake below).

It was the year of the rubbish SATs results and I could no longer blame the previous administration for these poor outcomes. To make matters worse, both of my current Year 6 teachers had just got jobs in other schools, so the we faced an uncertain future with no experienced Y6 teachers to conjurer up some better results with which to steady the ship.

So I panicked. And on a whim decided to completely restructure my leadership team in order to acquiesce to the demands of one particular candidate (who didn’t apply anyway).

Thankfully I have a forgiving SLT who are still with me 6 years later and who have overlooked this moment of madness.

Because making stuff up on the spot like this has unintended consequences and is about as far from strategic planning as you can get.

We got through it, but it caused all sorts of problems. So please – don’t panic.

10. Blaming the team.

So back to where we started…

I ignored my Deputy’s pleas to not go back for the staff meeting and not confront the staff for their poor teaching the day before when the Local Authority inspected the school.

I was in the second year of my first Headship and, a year on, teaching was still poor. The LA had observed all the teachers and they seemed to have forgotten everything which we had worked on for the past year. Teaching was once again judged inadequate and my leadership was under question. And I was (and I’m sorry to use these words Mum and Dad) pissed off!

Why had they not just done the things we’d talked about a hundred times now?

What was so hard about giving the children appropriate work and expecting them to complete it in a timely fashion??

I just didn’t get it.

And I was going to tell them just how annoyed I was by their rubbish performance!

And I did.

It was a car crash.

You see, it appears that a school leader telling their staff that they have failed and that they should have done better does nothing to actually improve teaching. Or staff morale. Or outcomes.

What followed was an angry and exhausting meeting for all involved. They  didn’t need me telling them that things weren’t great – they knew! What they did need was a leader not embroiled in their own emotional response to events, who could lead them safely through to a better outcome.

My actions probably set us back by 2 months. It took a long time (and a LOT of cake, chocolates and biscuits) to re-earn their trust. We did it in the end (the school was judged ‘Good’ by OFSTED less than a year later – with the Leadership of Teaching and Learning judged ‘Outstanding’) but that was despite my actions at that meeting – not because of them.

So there you have it. A small collection of my biggest mistakes. Do I wish I hadn’t made them? Certainly! Am I likely to make more again? Sadly, yes.

We all make mistakes; that’s just life. However, we get to chose whether to acknowledge them and then learn from them.

Good luck facing up to yours!