Bouncing Back

I was initially going to write a ranty blog about private schools and Middlesbrough based on today’s education headlines, but I felt that might not be terribly constructive, so I thought I’d write something a little more reflective instead.

In May 2016 I resigned from my Assistant Headteacher that I’d been doing since Easter 2015 without a job to go. It was a pretty scary time and the previous period had been an extremely unhappy one. I ended up taking a job as a mainscale history teacher a little bit after this, did that for two years before taking a Head of History job (my current post) starting in September 2018. This was something I spoke about at the New Voices 2019 conference and I don’t want to rehash all that again in great deal.

Instead, I wanted to take the story on from there a little bit, because I was recently appointed to an Assistant Principal position that I will take up next month. I hope that by doing so it might give a little hope to people also struggling through career difficulties. In particular, I want to go through why I feel a lot better prepared for senior leadership this time, than perhaps I was last time, and how the unanticipated six year career ‘detour’ I took helped with that.

I know a lot more about schools

When I took the SLT post first time around, I was joining my third school, and had been teaching for a period of six years. I wasn’t on edutwitter, didn’t know my Christodoulou’s from my Kirschner’s, and what I thought I knew was based on my own limited experience rather than any wider evidence. Therefore when I encountered ideas that I was uncomfortable with, I simply didn’t know enough to push back. The worst example of this was when I failed to push back on a graded work scrutiny being done about subjects taught by my colleagues conducted by our partner school in the Sixth Form partnership we were involved in. An egregious error and not one I would make now. But I hadn’t read up on the flaws in graded observations and work scrutinies, that I now know was out there at the time.

Since that time, I’ve immersed myself in the wider educational debates that are out there. I feel much more equipped to navigate the different areas of knowledge that a school leader needs to have. I also feel gratified by things I’ve read by people like Stuart Lock and David Didau that point out that school leadership itself is a domain that requires a lot of knowledge, rather than being aware of a few Dave Brailsford quotes and certain ‘intangible’ qualities.

I’ve also had the chance to network with people outside of the organisations I’ve worked in who have provided me with really valuable insights and support in all sorts of ways — this has helped sharpen my knowledge considerably.

I’ve also worked in two further schools, as a teacher and middle leader, so I’ve encountered more scenarios that make me better prepared for taking this new position on. Some of the problems schools encounter are quite similar, which in many ways is reassuring, while others are more particular to individual schools. But fundamentally having a greater range of experiences to draw on, and having worked with a broader range of colleagues, I think is helpful. Knowledge is power, after all.

I’ve been aggressive in pursuing my own interests

When I took the History teacher job in 2016, one of the things I was committed to doing was really immersing myself back in the subject, and the subject community. I joined the Historical Association, I started reading more History and I spent a lot of time creating resources to support my teaching (especially given that this coincided with the new GCSE). From there I joined twitter, and started this blog, and became a Head of History, and spoke at a few online conferences and so on and so forth. I did the Korean War HA fellowship and got to go to Athens as part of that. I like my subject a lot and it’s been great to indulge.

Now I’ve taken this new job and there’s the wrench of leaving the subject specificity behind a little bit. However I’m hopeful that in the new job there’ll be the chance to promote that love of subject amongst teachers of different subjects in a way that was maybe still a little bit unfashionable in 2015/16, when it was expected that meetings would be more about data or the whole school fad of the month than about what we were actually teaching. I’ll also have more of a chance to learn about other subjects which is also an interesting academic exercise in and of itself.

I’ve been pretty honest about my situation

One of the things I’ve been anxious about in applying for jobs in the run up to, and since my 2016, was how it would look on my CV. Would I be perceived as a leadership failure? Someone not up to scratch? It’s clearly a standout feature of any application I have submitted since then. One thing I realised was that I couldn’t control what other people thought about it, and that the best thing to be was to be honest and up front about the situation. That took time and some wise people around me to help me see that — in some of my job applications I definitely let that knock to my confidence affect how I interviewed to my own detriment.

The other thing was to draw out the positives from the experience. I didn’t take any time off while things were going to hell in a handcart for me. I learned a huge amount. I survived and stuck at the job and the profession despite things being crap. Ultimately going through this setback made me a stronger teacher, leader and person for the experience. I think I’m better placed to deal with the ‘weight’ of the job than I was before.

I’ve also tried to be candid in ways that ensured that any job I got, I didn’t get under false pretences. Schools were going to see me as I am which meant being clear about my strengths and my areas for development. Admittedly that’s a bit of a luxury — if you’re desperate for a job because there’s no income round the corner, it’s easy to see why people would try and give people the version of themselves that they think the employer wants to see.

I’m pretty lucky in a lot of ways

While posting this I’ve got to be mindful of the advantages I do have that have helped me to bounce back from my earlier career setback. My teaching has never really been questioned and I’ve always been able to deliver good results on the whole. I’m well qualified with a strong ‘academic CV’ for want of a better phrase. I think I generally come across fairly well in person and don’t suffer so much from interview nerves (not to say I’m always a great interview — I’ve interviewed for plenty of jobs I’ve not got!) I’ve got an incredibly supportive family and set of friends behind me as well.

I’m sure I’ll have more reflections on this as I begin my new job. Forgive me for the slightly personal nature of this blog, but I hope someone somewhere might take something useful from this.