Thursday 19 November 2015

Why a mixed Pre-Prep in a Girls-Only School?

Girls-only education offers fantastic benefits for girls aged 7 – 18, specifically because it avoids gender bias of several kinds which work against them in mixed junior or senior school classrooms:
·       * Choice of lessons, specialities and topics perceived as ‘boys choices’ such as mathematics, sciences, football etc. In co-ed settings girls will tend to opt away from these.

·       * Lessons pitched to less linguistic learners (as boys tend to be) and potential disruption from more physical learners (as boys are as they reach aged 9 – 10).

·      *  Confidence being encouraged in louder and more physical children (often boys) and less attention given to the quiet diligent learner (usually girls), who may chose not to participate.

These are all reasons why many girls older will perform far better within the single sex arena once they are working independently.

However this is completely turned on its head for younger pupils (aged 2 -7) for whom developing confidence and learning strategies are vitally important. In these foundation years girls will need to develop resilient strategies for dealing with all social and learning situations to empower them to develop the best independent learning techniques in the next phase.  

In these younger years, when they still have the support of classroom assistants and very experiential learning programmes, and are supported both socially and academically, all the girls and boys are entitled to a safe environment where they can explore activities and knowledge across the whole learning range. In co-ed settings girls are still likely to mix more naturally with other girls, but the stereotypical gender bias is not so strong, and thus they are likely to have opportunities at their disposal to work in construction, messy play and physical activities, because there is an interest among the class which may not be evident in a girls-only setting. Girls also typically prefer to work towards praise from the teacher, and can develop an antipathy to managing on their own. In a mixed class they will experience a more robust learning model from the boys – which can help to shape their confidence. An ironic twist is that there may be an offer of more traditional boys’ activities which are available to girls, such as martial arts and rugby – which in a girls-only setting, may have been perceived as not suitable for them.

In summary, my view which is supported by the early year’s framework, is that a good pre-prep school should offer all-round activities and exposure for all children, to give them the best possible basic skills for learning and for developing confidence. By mixing with boys at this stage girls will get the very best of both worlds. Beyond the education I also believe that a caring setting that shares family values would wish to consider young families holistically and to understand that modern life and all of its transport and logistical difficulties, requires a little kindness and support for parents who are managing very young children. 

Friday 6 November 2015

What is the role of the Head? When should I contact the Head?

The Head is the lead professional in the school.

Heads are accountable for the educational, social, and financial outcomes of the school. They are effectively the chief executives of a large and complex organisation and will have overall responsibility for the leadership and vision, staffing and managing the school, and for budgets and financial security. Heads work for the governing body, and will have been appointed for their expertise in the educational field, and an aptitude for seeing a whole organisation which needs to be guided and steered to success in a host of ways. A good Head will understand the cogs that need to turn in order to create a successful learning environment for all pupils, and will know that the daily expertise for financial management and smooth running of the school needs to be delegated into the safe hands of competent, confident trusted senior colleagues whom they will oversee and meet with regularly. The school is an educational establishment, but it is in fact a business which has successful education at its core. Decision making, critical thinking, wise judgement and leadership are the backbone of a good Headship – not presence at every event or rapid agreement to the latest idea or things that work in other schools, nor trying to please themselves or other individual stakeholders.

Heads are expected to manage all staff indirectly or directly, including developing teaching and other responsibilities, maintaining effective systems and planning into the future. They need to ensure that there is adequate challenge and experience for the succession of new leaders in the school in every department. Many schools will employ hundreds of people even though the teaching staff may be relatively small, and the Head is effectively the face of the employer.  

Children are of course central to the Head's mission, and it is likely that many hours will be spent reviewing pupil progress, teaching plans and child welfare with the director of studies and the teachers, and visiting classes, doing weekly learning walks and talking to children. This also extends to seeing children who have excelled in any way so they can be praised and congratulated personally (and also those who need a sterner word).

The educational direction of the school, underpinned by research and experience, as well as deep knowledge of the learning in each classroom, is firmly under the direction of the Head. They will be supported by a leadership team for educational aspects - often someone in charge of academics, someone with pastoral responsibilities and perhaps someone with responsibility for particular age groups such as nursery or sixth form. These people will meet regularly, often formally, and more than once a week, to share issues and to make decisions. Outcomes will also be discussed and at each meeting the key questions, “What is best for the children?” and, “What might enhance the learning?” are asked and considered. Parental concerns or individual pupils may well be discussed, but the team has a responsibility to all children in the school, and will seek to understand the widest possible picture.  

As the lead teacher of the school Heads will usually take assemblies and give a strong lead in behaviour management. In a faith school, alongside the chaplain, the Head will be a faith leader, and will give witness to those beliefs valued by the school. Often they will be central to any services and groups in this role.

Heads also manage staff, including performance management, quality assurance and disciplinary or capability issues. The Head will have a team led by the Bursar (or financial controller or similar title) who run financial, administrative and estates management, and a team of support staff and maintenance workers as well as contract staff for catering and cleaning. The Head will also oversee and evaluate the work of these non-teaching groups through regular briefings and updates. Any building work, planning, facilities and contract changes are likely also to fall under this purview and it is vital that the Head be fully up to date with anything that spends the budget provided by parents’ fees, to ensure that everything is of reasonable educational merit and will work for the best advantage of all pupils. Independent Schools are charitable foundations and so the achievement of the schools’ charitable aims and its public benefit also fall under the remit of the Head.

Thus the Head's day is likely to be filled with regular meetings regarding the various aspects of running a school as well as dealing with queries from stakeholders within the school. It is important that a Head is able to build relationships of trust with all they work with, and to be able to delegate tasks, ensure that everything is properly completed in line with school policy, and ensure that nothing slips between the cracks. Often there are offsite meetings with Professional Bodies (GSA, CISC, IAPS, ISI) which they are expected to attend in order to remain within those organisations. In addition there are regular formal internal meetings with a series of Governors’ committees in each area that enable a constant and accurate report to the entire Governing body. Sadly, the days of knocking on the Head’s door and finding them free to see someone on an ad-hoc basis are gone.

On occasion an issue that is raised to a member of the leadership team (or the Head’s PA) by a parent, staff member or child is sufficiently concerning to be brought immediately to the Head, who will investigate and act as appropriate, and within very clear regulatory guidelines. In cases of difficulty the Governors' advice may be sought, but also professional bodies that schools belong to such as GSA, IAPS and many others. Child protection is key and at any one time the Head will be dealing with a number of painful and complex cases with the child protection officer of the school and external agencies. All of these are likely to fill the gaps in a very busy schedule.

Heads will also contend with hundreds of emails each day, which require precise attention and response or redirection if the school is to remain at the cutting edge of educational success. If you send an email to the Head it is probably best to send it via the Head’s PA so that it can either be forwarded to the Head or passed to someone who is available at shorter notice or more suitable to answer you. Do not be too surprised if the reply to a concern or query therefore comes from another respondent: the Head and PA will always make sure that the person best suited to answer is the person who does so. This is not to push items away but to ensure that the organisation has leadership in depth and that everything is not channelled via the Head, which would impede reasonable decision making, proper accountability and certainly delay prompt action. Similarly, most Heads will welcome feedback, but are unlikely to make sweeping changes to systems that already suit the schools’ way of working and match the aims of what is best and expected for the children, despite the fact that it inconveniences or disappoints one or two parents who have an opinion about how something ought to run to suit them or their children (or mirrors something seen as appropriate in another school). The PA will also be trained to know when it is the best time to consider particular requests, as questions about lunch or uniform are unlikely to be useful topics raised in the midst of long booked strategic planning for pupil safeguarding or building developments, all of which may be fully timetabled into the Head’s diary. Typically a Head will have a week’s calendar ahead fully booked, so only the most urgent issues will be able to be fitted in sooner. Critical issues such as teacher conduct, child protection or safety should be brought immediately to the Head’s attention via the PA, and urgent Academic or Pastoral concerns should be taken immediately to the pastoral/academic deputies or assistant heads or director of studies/head of department as appropriate, who will deal with these, involving the Head as necessary.

Heads are also expected to read, review and analyse educational research and literature to allow progress and improvement. This is used to shape the academic vision through short and long term plans and changes in the school, and will form part of the agenda for weekly meeting with teaching staff which allow educational ideas to come to fruition, and then to be properly evaluated and adapted.

Heads' professional, legal and ethical responsibilities are laid down in professional standards regulations and Heads are accountable for all that happens in the school. Therefore monitoring, evaluating and critical thinking are part of each Head’s week too, as ensuring success, consistency and rigour in the school is a key professional  expectation.  The Head usually joins in with parent committee meetings when possible and will be involved in marketing, writing articles and attending courses in addition to local educational initiatives with maintained schools and feeder schools. Many Heads like to meet and/or tour prospective parents and to visit any establishments that sends children to the school. If the Head is widely known and respected they will be expected to serve on other governing bodies as educationalists, and offer consultancy and assorted wisdom and support to other Heads and professionals including recruitment and wider training and quality assurance.

Beyond this Heads always enjoy seeing their own pupils on the sports field and in the theatre and concert arena wherever and whenever possible. If you are lucky you may catch a glimpse of this rare creature as they escape from their office early or late in the day to greet pupils and parents, partly because they remember how much they liked teaching in the first place. It may be reassuring to see the Head and to have a chance to catch them and chat, but it is worth remembering that when they are not seen it is likely they are working on behalf of you and your children to their fullest ability.


In their ‘free time’ Heads eat lunch (usually while preparing for the next meeting…).