Educational Leadership - Head Teacher's Leadership Academy Gathering, Nov 2008
Educational Leadership - Head Teacher's Leadership Academy Gathering, Nov 2008
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19 December 2008
By Ginny Clark
What a remarkable sight - 40 adults kicking off their shoes and launching themselves into the exciting task of creating personal collages with the same level of youthful enthusiasm they might expect to witness in the classrooms of their own schools ...
All of these heads and deputes met together in Crieff at the end of November for a very unique purpose, the Columba 1400 Head Teacher Leadership Academy (HTLA) Gathering.
For each and every one who attended this fantastic event, this was a chance, not just to make friends, to network and to exchange valuable information, but also to evaluate and take stock of both achievements and goals.
They came from nursery, primary and secondary schools all over Scotland, and from local and central Government offices. But what these 40 people had in common, was that shared experience of having taken part in Columba 1400’s HTLA programme in Staffin, on the Isle of Skye.
Inspiring hope, building confidence and releasing potential, Columba 1400’s central aim remains the challenge of making a positive impact upon the lives of Scotland’s young people.
Crucial to helping those young people - particularly those from tough realities - find the strength to make the choices that are right for them, is the guidance and support they experience at school.
That’s why, in 2003, Columba 1400 first introduced the HTLA, an innovative and inspirational programme for heads, deputes and strategic leaders, focusing on re-engaging vocation and purpose around individual core values.
Like all Columban programmes, the HTLA is both creatively developed and delivered, yet it is also designed to promote clear and tangible results. By unlocking their own leadership potential, those who take part can go on to enable others. HTLA represents the first steps on a fascinating journey of individual and shared discovery.
The Columban experience can be cathartic, effecting real change in the lives of those who embrace it. For the graduates of the HTLA, that process also helps them to access some powerful resources - the knowledge and tools they already possess. Five years, more than 250 HTLA participants and 50 Ambassador Leadership Academy schools later, the gathering in Crieff provided time and space for some of these HTLA graduates to reflect upon and celebrate those journeys.
While Norman Drummond, Founding Chairman of Columba 1400, had further words of encouragement and inspiration for them, he too was inspired by the stories that he heard at this unique event.
“During the Cuban crisis, John F Kennedy reminded us that the Chinese use two strokes to write the word “crisis”, one for danger and one for opportunity,” he said.
“We should therefore try to recognise that in these times of economic crisis, social capital - rather than financial capital - has never been more important.
“With our schools central to so many young people’s lives, especially those from tough realities, what an important responsibility our teachers have at this time.”
Norman said he was delighted that many of those who attended the event were now signing up to become Columban Ambassadors and were prepared to organise gatherings of leaders in their own localities.
“I always come away from any meeting of HTLA graduates feeling a tremendous sense of confidence in the talent, goodness and purpose of the great people leading our schools,” he said. “I also know what fine men and women are working in education across Scotland. When good people come together with other good people, great things can and do happen.”
“Is it possible to have a new social covenant about faith, hope and love? A social covenant between Scotland’s educators and her people can lead to a deeper relationship and a more acute sense of community, with genuine selfless responsibility for future generations.”
By providing the HTLA graduates with the opportunity to explore exactly these kinds of themes and topics, the Crieff event also allowed them to ask important questions about their leadership.
According to Nicola Richards, Chief Executive of Columba 1400, this process was not only hugely successful, but also clearly whetted the collective appetite for taking ideas forward.
“Everyone in the room shares a core purpose to ensure the potential of Scotland’s young people is fully realised,” she said. “The leadership of the school sets the cultural tone of the whole school and can therefore have a significant impact on the young people. It reaffirmed that schools can be vibrant places where young people’s voices are heard.
“The approach we use in all our leadership programmes is shaped by the quotation from John Buchan: ‘Our task is not to put the greatness back into humanity but to elicit it for the greatness is there already’. For us, drawing out the potential and capacity that is there already is often more profound than purely curriculum or exam-based approaches. “The HTLA is an antidote to some of those dominant themes, and for many of the teachers who take part, it is like a reawakening of their vocation, which at its heart is about encouraging children to learn and grow.”
“I came away from the Crieff event feeling incredibly humbled. It is such a privilege for us to work with these great people, to see the immediate trust between them, many of whom had never met each other before. Yet their trust of the Columba experience seemed to allow them to move quickly into a space where they could talk ‘heart to heart’ at a much deeper level than is usually the case. It was very powerful.”
“By the end, there was a real sense of fellowship, a shared and renewed desire to go back and continue their great work within their schools.”
What the HTLA graduates contributed and discussed at the gathering strengthened their sense of purpose, and will form the basis of positive future strategies.
Reenergised and uplifted, these leaders are ready for their next important steps ...
Jeff Brown, Head Teacher of Moffat Academy, in Dumfries and Galloway. Moffat Academy is unusual in having children aged 3-18, in nursery, primary and secondary. However, when Jeff arrived in 1988 as depute, there was no nursery, and it was still a four-year secondary. He was appointed head 18 months later. He participated in the HTLA in February 2004, following a time of great change for the school.
“We had to go through a reorganisation of the management structure,” he explains. “I set up a faculty structure, but this process created a lot of angst among colleagues, as it meant some losing positions and others being brought to work together.
“We were among the first schools to go through this process, so there were no other models, and we had to come up with the solutions ourselves. It was a very distressing period, when I worried about what I was doing and how it might affect the relationships I had built over many years. I was concerned about how I and the school would recover from this process, and move forward.
“Columba gave me the opportunity to think and reflect, around six months after this restructure had happened. It also gave me the chance to consider the importance of values and beliefs, in relation to the school, but also in relation to myself.
“It gave me the opportunity to look at my whole life - I was and am a workaholic, spending vast amounts of time in school. However, I came back from Columba with a clear mindset, strengthened and renewed, and able to create space in my own life.
“In terms of the school, we looked at how we would ensure the faculty system worked successfully, running courses in coaching, not just for the staff but also for the pupils. We also looked at how we could involve the children and young people more, and the head boy and girl, for instance, are now part of the management team. Pupil councils also have a more dynamic role, and the pupils generally are more active citizens in the school and community.
“Delegation has become important. This is all about growing people, and I’ve worked with staff on leadership, encouraging them to promote themselves. I was delighted when one of my deputes was recently appointed head at another school. We continue to run management courses at the school, where around 70% of staff will actually turn up!”
Jeff says he found the Crieff gathering “inspirational”.
”It gave me the chance to reconnect with helpful and supportive people,” he said. “It also gave me a chance to share what I was doing, in particular a group that were looking at the HMIE process, where I have been involved in recent years. I couldn’t share details, but I could share the message about offering praise where you can, and about working together for a common aim.
“I found the whole event quite inspirational and went away feeling uplifted, inspired, and rejuvenated spiritually about our quest for quality in education. Cash is not the answer; giving people their head to do a job in quality education is what matters. We need to teach our children well. That’s what we’re here for.”
In 2005 the school received an excellent report from HMIE. Jeff himself was awarded an OBE for services to education in 2002 and this year was named Scottish Head Teacher of the Year - honours about which remains typically modest.
“Columba helped me to achieve that,” he says of the head teacher award. “I was delighted to be chosen, although it’s just as much a recognition for the school itself. What was so good about the honour, was that it was colleagues within the school who had nominated me. After those fears over our restructure, this was a wonderful outcome.”
Rosemary McGhee, Depute Head Teacher, Lossiemouth High School, in Moray is a graduate from Columba’s Ambassadors Leadership Academy and Coracle programmes, rather than the HTLA, but she is still a determined ambassador for leadership in life and in schools.
“We took our first group of staff and pupils to Skye in 2005 and all felt very privileged to be part of it,” she says. “It’s still a small percentage who can actually go to the leadership academy, so we wanted to make sure we did something valuable with that experience. The youngsters were also really keen to pass on what they had learned to others.
“So we have set up our own academies, taking other children away to various venues, where the original graduates acted as group leaders and tutors running the workshops themselves, taking real ownership of the process. They took it very seriously, remembering how emotional the process felt for them, feeling a real sense of responsibility. Each academy creates a new set of graduates, and we now have a core group of leaders in each year from s1 to s5.
“They all say it gives them a lot more confidence, and they regularly stand up and talk at assemblies and other events. When two inspectors came to us in connection with the School of Ambition, it was one of our pupils who delivered the presentation, not the head teacher.
“We also recognise that the pupils are transferring what they learn into their school work, in terms of focus and perseverance. We’re also begun rolling back the academy scheme to the primary seven pupils in our cluster primaries.
“Our focus now is looking at how we can expand into other organisations in our community, and have made a presentation to the local Rotary Club. As a result, we have Outfit Moray on board already. They are keen for our young people to help take their organisation forward, by providing training and leadership ideas.
“The Rotary have also given us £500 towards our next leadership academy and an anonymous donor, who heard our pupil leaders speak at the Rotary lunch, also donated £100”
Rosemary found the HTLA gathering provided a great chance to tell others what they had done at Lossiemouth - and to find out what they in turn had achieved.
“It was a really useful networking opportunity,” she said. “It was also great to share our goals and experiences.
“On the evening before the workshops, we were asked to make a collage from personal items that represented us in the past and now. I took a picture of myself in the first school I taught in plus another from a recent walking holiday in Madeira. Being in the outdoors is part of the Columba experience, and reflecting on your work-life balance helps to get a bit more harmony in your life. Going out in all weathers in Skye makes you less inclined to put things off back at home!
“It was so good to reconnect with the Columba philosophy at the Crieff event, as sometimes the daily routine can get in the way. Just having that shared understanding of what you have been through, that sense of commitment and appreciation, it’s unique.”
Hugh Scullion, Depute Head Teacher, Our Lady and St Patrick’s High School, in West Dunbartonshire participated in the HTLA in 2006, Hugh returned to Skye in 2007 with a group of pupils for an Ambassadors academy. A few months later, the school set up their own leadership academy, taking a group of pupils to Auchengillan Outdoor Centre along with staff and youngsters who had been on the original Columba course. Since then there have been several more courses, with 32 youngsters going through the programme each time, at Rowardennan youth hostel and at the Pilgrimage Centre in Luss. As at Lossiemouth, this continues to create new groups of leaders and tutors for the school.
“Our programme is very much values-based, just like Columba,” said Hugh. “As a consequence, we have a number of projects that allow the pupils to make the most of opportunities for leadership. One group is involved in designing and producing motivational posters for use throughout the school, they have also made smaller laminate versions, for handing out like business cards.
“Another group worked hard raising money for Kenya, a country which suffered a number of problems. We have links with a community there, and there had been riots around the compound where the nuns lived and worked, with the result that many people had sought refuge there. The children helped raise awareness by speaking at assembly and writing letters to various people including Tony Blair and George Bush. They raised money by making ribbons that combined tartan with the colours of the Kenyan flag.
“One group is collecting and recycling ink cartridges and mobile phones, giving the proceeds to Childline. The pupils have gone to speak to partner primaries to raise awareness, about recycling and about the charity, and persuaded a local supermarket to set up boxes for collections.
“Sixth years, who attended our programme in June 2008, have been working with staff to help first years on anti-bullying. This group, and another that had set up a dance class, combined their talents to choreograph and make an anti-bullying DVD that won a national prize.”
Telling these stories at Crieff was important to Hugh, who found he also learned from the stories of others.
“I’ve picked up ideas on building upon what we have already started, with the children actually creating and delivering workshops,” he said.
“The event was important for seeing what has been achieved so far, and thinking about what comes next. I particularly found Norman’s speech very inspiring.”
Irene Thomson, Head Teacher, Goodlyburn Primary School, Perth & Kinross.
The issue of “what comes next” is also important to Irene, who participated in the HTLA in 2005. It was an experience that was to have a deep and significant impact upon both her personal and professional life.
“The gathering was a great opportunity for Columban graduates to get together and discuss the future of leadership in Scotland,” she said. “In typical Columban fashion, a good discussion developed while everyone was taking part in a number of group activities. Now we’re looking at how we can continue to work together, by linking with other Columban graduates to further develop practice, and part of trying to move the issue of leadership forward is to plan a special presentation to the First Minister.
“Throughout the event at Crieff, we talked about how the Columban experience had affected us in different ways, and when Norman Drummond spoke, it was about the power of faith, hope and love.
“When you are in Skye you are encouraged to look inwards at your own resources and everyone at the gathering felt they had benefited from this process. It certainly helps that you are in a quiet setting, and this allows you to consider your values, beliefs and goals, and how you have viewed them in your own working life. It also allows you to examine your own work-life balance.
“Personally, I found this a profound experience. The HTLA reminds you why you went in to teaching in the first place. Columba 1400 asks us to reflect on a quote from Buchan - 'Our task is not to put the greatness back into humanity, but to elicit it for the greatness is there already'. Through reflection in practice on creativity and focus, perseverance, awareness, integrity and service, we help ourselves and others to review how we live and work, with the focus on creating a positive culture of success. “It changes the way you lead a school, it makes you realise the importance of a value and belief-based way of working. It’s about encouraging staff to reflect on their values, about helping everyone, staff and pupils, to be the best they can be.
“Some young people in our school have extreme difficulties. We listen to them, identify and build on their strengths, identify where they need help and support.
“Columba has had a direct impact on our school. It is calmer; the whole team is working together, improving practice, encouraging others. We are giving people responsibility and ownership of our school.
“The gathering was reaffirming. What we want to do now is set up a network of Columban graduates, develop a responsible leadership agenda and involve everyone in contributing a short piece to what will be a presentation to the First Minister.
“We need to raise awareness of how attending Columba has impacted on our schools and develop a Scottish leadership agenda, which is promoted internationally. There is a lot of good practice out there and it’s important to keep up the momentum - and ideally give every head teacher the opportunity to experience the Columba 1400 HTLA.”
This sense of momentum and the new connections created, echo Norman Drummond’s words, that ‘real lasting change happens one on one, one by one, and then in partnership.’
For more information about the Head Teachers Leadership Academy, please contact Anne Wexelstein.
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