Getting the job done!

As I came out of Pizza Express Saturday lunch-time I managed to encounter something that’s apparently quite unusual – a friendly traffic warden.
 
I had parked on a double yellow line (as I do) and as I unlocked my car he said “you’re lucky, if I hadn’t started with that car in front you’d have a ticket already”. I said ‘Thanks’, smiled sweetly and drove away still smiling and slightly in shock.
 
Why am I telling you this (slightly dull) story? Because I was in Pizza Express in the name of work – yes on a Saturday afternoon, yes I did get a free cup of coffee out of it but I was dressed smartly, have a dozen or so Mothers Day related errands to run and I nearly got a £40 parking fine out of it!
 
Pizza Express is one of our specialist Music College partners; our school is putting on a production of West Side story, I (and the other members of the PTFA committee) wanted snacks to serve pre-curtain up and so there I was ready to beg the manager into supplying 25 portions of garlic dough balls and garlic bread for four nights on the trot.
 
Luckily I didn’t have to beg too hard, she likes the school and I managed to convince her it was good publicity. However it got me thinking about sponsorship, working hard and my definition of my “get it done, no matter what” style of leadership and the lengths schools go to secure sponsorship and support for ventures.
 
I was reading ‘Secondary Headship’ over the weekend; one article by Anne Clark told the story of the time she advertised in Private Eye to attract sponsorship. She was worried about the school governors frowning upon this, worried that the school’s surrounding community would not be happy to see their local Headteacher in the press. I’ll leave you to read the article to see how it turned out and what she’s learned from the experience 
 
I’m not a political person, (those of you that know me personally can confirm this) but I have to (once more) ask myself WHY and then I start to sound a bit political. 

·        Why are schools having to attract sponsorship to gain specialist status in the first place?

·        Why do I have to go begging for free napkins and garlic bread so that our production makes extra money for the PTFA so that they can support the school in buying things that government capitation won’t stretch to an probably ‘shouldn’t’ be used for anyway?

·        Why am I not in the sort of job where I have somebody else to do that sort of thing!