Showing posts with label Diary of a deputy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Diary of a deputy. Show all posts

Saturday 15 September 2018

Diary of a Deputy - Week 3: Happy Tired


On Wednesday night I had the realisation that starting at a new school in September is way more tiring than returning to a school you've been working at for a while. I checked in with people on Twitter to see if this was a common experience and yes, it seems that it is:
After an accidental lie down and after being uncharacterisitcally useless at the children's bedtime (bless my wife for her understanding) I did some reading (finished off potential The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe replacement: Pier's Torday's There May Be A Castle and cried a fair bit at it) and then fell asleep half way through catching up on the Bake Off.

Many of the good folk over on Twitter pointed out that the cognitive overload that comes with starting at a new place of work can indeed be quite exhausting.

There are so many new people to meet and get to know: colleagues, children and parents. And it is more than just meeting them - I want to make a good impression too, and trying to be that aware of oneself all the time appears to be mentally draining. But in a job that I do believe has so much of a foundation on relationships, it's so important and worthwhile to make that effort.

And then there's all the new routines, strategies and systems to get used to: playtimes, schemes of work, the way that finance works, who does what, how to log into this, that and the other... the list would go on and on. Couple that with the fact that as a senior leader you're supposed to be the one who knows everything and you find yourself saying the same things a lot of times:
The other tiring thing is that when you enjoy a job so much you work hard at it. The whirlwind of senior leadership in a primary school is an exhilarating ride. It certainly makes me appreciate all the senior leaders I've been under before - it's as if the backdrop has fallen and I can suddenly see all the behind-the-scenes work that goes on. And for teachers taking the main stage with the children this is exactly what is needed - they need to be unhindered in their most important task. Certainly a learning point for me this week: I'll be donning the all black outfit of the stagehand and doing my best to make sure the show goes on uninterrupted.

I also must mention my last school - it has been nice to bump into old colleagues as a few of them have been at my new place this week. I also received word of a mention of me in their staff meeting this week:

Teacher 1 (new literacy lead): So obviously you all use the Reading Roles which was started up by Aidan, who's no longer with us.
Teacher 2: May his soul rest in peace. Amen.

Gone (even if slightly cruelly killed off) but not forgotten, which is always nice to know. I walked past there this afternoon on my way to a meeting at another school and the familiar sight of the place where I spent the best four years of my career to date did warm my heart. Although I'm rather too busy to think about it very much at the moment I know I will never forget what I learned and acheived alongside a really brilliant team whilst there.

Nostalgia over; back to now. It's Thursday night - one more day at school containing PPA with the year 5 teachers and then coaching/mentoring with them in the afternoon whilst they take their NQT/leadership time. Must remember not to overload them - they're new too AND have a full teaching timetable so are bound to be even more tired than I am!

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The end to the week was great. A good friend of mine has started working at a school just down the road so we arranged to meet to catch up and debrief about new jobs, summer hols and building work. Between us we visited three cafes (all closed) and a pub (no card machine) before finding somewhere that was neither closed nor living in the past. It's this sort of thing that helps to make sure that work and life are balanced.

Plus, on the way home three of my most favourite songs were on the radio: Concrete Schoolyard by Jurassic 5, Goddess on a Hiway by Mercury Rev and Tell Me A Tale by Michael Kiwanuka. That makes for real good feels, even when you've just done a £50 shop in two hand baskets because you forgot a trolley pound. Music is my aeroplane.

The working week rounded off nicely with more socialising at our friends' house down the road - food, friendship and an ongoing game of guess the 90s tune and artist. After a tiring week being with people I love is as restful and revitalising for me as stopping at home.

Saturday morning breakfast is being cooked, the tunes are on (our summer anthem Saturday Sun by Vance Joy) and the Yorkshire Dales are calling us.

Saturday 8 September 2018

Diary of a Deputy Week 2: On Track

Friday again! There was no time midweek to catch up with any thoughts - evenings were filled with preparing for my littlest daughter's fifth birthday (wrapping all the presents family had ordered from the Internet),  making a presentation about year 5 for the parents and finishing of a piece entitled Metacognition and Primary Maths for the October issue of Teach Primary - perhaps it will appear in print with a more snappy title, but hopefully it will be a useful piece for the readers. I also managed to squeeze out a blog post here on my own blog which details an approach to writing characters that we have been trialling in year 5. I also managed to finish reading the forthcoming 'Powering Up Children' by Guy Claxton and Becky Carlzon - a really thought-provoking book with lots of implications for the approach to teaching and learning my new school has.

Days followed my official schedule - teaching afternoons in year 4 and 5, carrying out learning walks in the mornings, as well as co-planning with teachers in year 4 and 5. Wednesday evening saw me delivering training to the school's support staff on giving feedback (a favourite subject of mine, see herehere and here) before dashing off to celebrate with my daughter. On Thursday and Friday mornings I ran parent workshops for the new year 5 parents which, according to the feedback forms were recieved really well. There was lots of positivity surrounding the learning environment - particularly about the studio area we have set up where children have continuous access to a range of creative supplies, books and construction materials. We are still waiting on two bespoke woodwork benches, some shelving and some more general decorative items in order to complete the area - once that's done I'll be certainly sharing pictures of it and writing about how we use it, how we timetable for it, and so on. For now, check out the working Lego model of the earth and the moon that I've been working on in advance of a lesson next week:

I also discovered yesterday, and it was confirmed today, that the children have already done a unit on The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe back when they were in year 2 - they even went on the same trip I was planning. Whilst redoing the whole book in greater depth and at a year 5 level wouldn't be a bad idea, it's probably a better idea to replan the unit. Having spent a lot of money already on supporting non-fiction texts about woodlands, castles and mythical creatures I'm looking for something that covers those bases. We have a few ideas - one strong possibility I will set about reading this weekend once I've finished Ross Mackenzie's very exciting The Nowhere Emporium.

But, a positive to end on. And a big positive: I love my job. What a privilege to work in a school where children love to be and where parents are so involved and supportive of their child's learning journey. It has been so good to spend more time with the children, staff and parents this week - I feel there is a real community vibe and it makes me very excited (and dare I say, passionate) about working at what I believe to be a really unique and special school. I have to say though, I am rather tired.

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p.s. Just had an email to confirm that we have secured transport to take us on the trip we were supposed to go on last week (if you haven't read the first installment of my diary, you won't have read about how we turned up to the venue and we weren't booked in).

Friday 31 August 2018

Diary of a Deputy - Week 1: False Start?

It's Friday, I'm on the coach on the way back from year 5's first trip - the first trip I've organised as Deputy Head. We are coming back early because it happened. That thing we all fear will happen did happen.

I booked this trip back in June. But when we turned up today they didn't know we were coming. In fact all of the staff who work at the facility were on annual leave. The facility in question is housed within a local college building and, hats off to a variety of college staff, we managed to make something of the morning. Whilst I tried to work out what on earth had gone wrong and how we were going to make it all right the children had an enjoyable hour and a half learning. Next job: reschedule and work out how to explain it to the parents of the class who certainly won't be making the afternoon visit. Oh, and work overtime to remind myself that this wasn't my fault.

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I'm now sitting in the waiting room of the doctors' surgery. It's Friday afternoon. This week promised to be difficult from the off, I suppose. 

I set off on my bike on the first day and, two minutes away from home, realised that cycling one-handed on account of a shoulder problem I developed on holiday was not going to cut it. These Yorkshire hills require a whole-body approach to cycling. 

I headed back home (where my wife was busy broadcasting live baking on BBC Radio Leeds) to think through my options. I couldn't take the car - the lease company were picking it up later that day. We weren't getting a replacement until the day after. Public transport requires multiple vehicles and lots of walking and a journey time of over an hour (it takes 15 minutes in the car). Taxi it was. After setting off in the wrong direction I set the driver on the right course and once I'd handed over the princely sum of £13 I was through the school gates for my first day as deputy head.

After 12 minutes on hold to the doctors' (during which time I was informed that I'd moved from caller number 6 to the heady heights of caller number 5) I walked into a dead zone (the HR office) and lost my connection. My lovely wife, now finished with her brush with radio stardom, then spent a further half hour on the phone to secure me a physio appointment, hence my current location.

But, looking back, it's not at all been doom and gloom. In fact, I've been able to see the 'amusing' side of the less desirable events of my first week in post. It's been a brilliant week.

The first day, once I'd managed to get myself there, kicked off, predictably, with a whole staff meeting. My new school is a through school: nursery to 6th form = huge student body and a large staff. One apparent tradition is to welcome new staff at these well-attended meetings. When my name was called (and I wouldn't usually share this kind of thing for fear of sounding arrogant) the whole of the primary staff gave a huge cheer - louder than they had for any other. So, as long as they weren't taking the mick, and this wasn't some cruel joke, that welcome meant more to me then they might have intended. And the feeling of belonging it gave me has carried me through the week, even providing comfort when I turned up with 30 children and 4 members staff to a trip that wasn't even booked (wasn't my fault).

And it's not just that that means I'm finishing my first week as a Deputy Head feeling elated. My new year 5 team is showing all the signs of gelling and the children arrived glowing and smiley on Thursday morning, positive and ready to learn. We are trying out some new things: an out-of-class studio area where children have permanent access to a wide variety of resources, ways of teaching and timetabling that respond to the exact needs of the children and a holistic approach to learning that goes beyond the typical upper key stage two focus on maths and English, and beyond a focus on academic results. And the children have responded really well, particularly in how well they have used the studio to practise and demonstrate their knowledge and skills in a variety of ways. The teachers too have demonstrated adaptability, filling me with confidence that we will absolutely make a success of this year.

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False start? Not really. Barely even bumps in the road. It'll take a lot more than that to make me downhearted! Plus I now have a long piece of stretchy stuff, a suite of exercises for my possibly torn supraspinatus and a follow-up appointment in three weeks - hopefully I'm on the mend.

Lessons to be learned?

Phone ahead to make sure the trip venue know you're coming, preferably a few days in advance.
Don't be too optimistic about health - you might actually just need to admit you can't do certain things and that the advice of a professional needs to be sought (this is a told-you-so moment for my wife).