Have I been a bit negative recently? I’m reading Libby’s post about her being called a miserable cow and wondering if I’m in danger of being called the same because of my conveyance of my current school experiences!
Uplifting
I’m just starting to plan a very positive school event and I thought I’d try to sound a bit more upbeat. I’m planning the final fine detail for our Year 6 transition Parents evening and the subsequent pupil induction day. It’s so uplifting to think about the new group of pupils who are about to join us.
They don’t know any of us (at most they know of us through siblings); for the most part they will be lively, enthusiastic and a breath of fresh air and in a fortnight’s time I’ll completely loose my cynical edge for a couple of hours as we pray for the five years we’ll spend together.
In my plans I’m using staff roles as they will be from September and so it’s also made me think about the fact that I’ll be a Deputy Head in a few months’ time. That always brings a smile to my face (mainly a wry one as I wonder how I managed to fool so many people into thinking I was up to it); the new senior team business cards have been ordered and the team is forging forwards. Our new Assistant Headteacher is already attending meetings and is beginning to find her feet.
Logistics
Anyway, back to the transition events: I don’t think I realised when I first started teaching how much of a logistics expert I would become. I’ve just spent at least 20 minutes thinking about which doorway it’s better for parents to come into as they’ll be coming from the playground (which we turn into a car park for the evening). I’ve also spelt out for the caretakers – Exactly how I want the 350 chairs in the hall to be grouped (there are 5 Houses so that worked out well even without my being a Mathematician), – what time I want the welcome signs put up by (5.30pm and not a minute later) Whilst for the ICT technician – Which events he can use for the PowerPoint presentation loop to be played as parents and Year 6 enter the hall. – How I want to position the projector screen and the chairs for the senior leadership and Heads of House on the stage – The list goes on, I won’t bother you with the detail but it got me wondering about my anally retentive qualities (as I type I’m also online treating myself to a filofax so that I can keep my to-do list, planner and diary all in one place)
Are men up to it?
There’s something about management roles that require a close eye for detail and I have a rather sexist view of a man’s ability to get it right. Perhaps I’m just looking back to how my husband coped as my then fiancé trying to help with the wedding plans; or my previous boss who couldn’t organise the proverbial in a brewery (I had a magnet on my filing cabinet asking people if they wanted to speak to “the man in charge or the woman who knows what’s going on”); ………….. I’m getting negative again and I really didn’t mean to! Seriously though, there are big differences between leading a team and managing an event but I think that by the time you get to senior leadership level you should have a good mastery of both, no matter what your gender, and yet when I look at the faces around our SLT table the divide seems quite clear.
What’s it look like in your school?