So my other late night last week was senior team bonding. Wednesday evening Julia, an assistant head, and I car-pooled over to Nigel the deputy’s house. Matthew the Head and Sarah the Bursar also came along.
We each brought a dish – none of us knew what the other was bringing and so we might have ended up having to eat 5 puddings (oh how terrible that would have been!)
Originally – we were going to analyse our dishes as part of bonding process; we’d also planned to do some work on the school SEF but neither happened in the end and I don’t think it mattered because we learnt a lot about each other just by chatting together in a relaxed atmosphere well away from staff or students.
So what does it say about Nigel that he rang Julia and I to say he was running late at the shops buying the food for his dish. I could have stomached this if his dish had been complicated but it was bruschetta ! Admittedly it was absolutely gorgeous, sharp but creamy buffalo mozzarella and crème fraiche with lemon zest and olive oil plus black olives on the side. I guess as he’s the pastoral person the smooth, calming influence is about right!
I made sure my dish was hot and spicy but that’s all I’ve got say on that!
Anyway – we couldn’t help but talk about it in the staff room as we joined together for briefing and I think it came as a bit of a surprise that the senior leaders meet outside of school or that we needed to bond! I think it’s especially important as we’re about to interview for another assistant head to ‘complete’ the team.