They’ll See The Genius Behind It!

The next time you’re wilting in a poorly executed Inset, spare a thought for your well-meaning leader, says The Primary Head...

Planning an Inset can be difficult. Lofty ambitions often descend into settling for whatever’s easiest to manage. I tend to fall into the trap of not thinking broadly enough. I’ll have a brilliant idea to solve a particular issue, then, the night before, I’ll realise support staff or the EYFS team will have absolutely nothing to do. This leaves me with two options: run around looking for middle leaders in the hope they can save my bacon, or buy loads of cakes and avoid making eye contact with any poor member of staff who is feeling undervalued.

Whatever the motivation – revolution or convenience – there are, in my experience, three types of Inset: the guest, the initiative and the catch-up.

The guest

This can be high risk (it’s normally high cost, too, come to think of it) and involves booking an outsider: an expert to teach, motivate and inspire the staff. The head’s dream is that, in one day, this person will have the educational Midas touch, transforming tired, stuck-in-a-rut teachers into energetic and free-thinking practitioners with the click of a PowerPoint. The fear is that the guest will come out like some CBeebies presenter and annoy everyone with his energy and ‘jokes’. As I clock all the unimpressed faces and rolling eyeballs, I can see the £2800 I convinced the bursar to spend on this clown swirling down the drain. It’s a shame, because all I wanted was to get the staff excited and motivated, but I can see that they have other things on their mind.

The initiative

I don’t need a speaker this time because I can do it. I’ll stand up and present a ‘new dawn’. It’s all been carefully thought out by SLT and none of us can fail to see how it won’t transform the school. We plan the day really well, too. There’s time to listen and learn, time to discuss, and then loads of time in the afternoon to start putting ideas into action. It’s perfect.

It starts badly when I realise the school’s version of PowerPoint is different to the one I have at home. As a result, none of the nice graphics have loaded properly and the font has reverted to Comic Sans, which makes me heave every time I click onto the next slide. Then I realise The Great Idea doesn’t sound as simple now that I’m actually speaking it out loud. There are the questions – the annoying, niggly, not-part-of-the-big-picture questions. The SLT, I notice, remain mute at this point, leaving me to respond to such weighty educational issues as “Will it interfere with PE timetables?”, “But I have PPA on that day” and “So is this instead of, or as well as, maths?”.

I solider on, knowing that when they split up in the afternoon and start planning it out, they’ll see the genius behind it. At 2:30pm when I go for a wander, I notice that every teacher has decided to delay planning until next week and, for now, if it’s OK with me, they’ll carry on backing display boards.

The catch-up

Sometimes a whole day given over to this is no bad thing. Especially at the beginning or end of the school year, when teachers can organise their classrooms, establish systems with their new teaching teams and really map out the year ahead. This is a strategic decision. Staff will welcome the space to breathe and ‘get their houses in order’. This day has nothing, nothing to do with the fact that I’m too tired to try and think of anything and haven’t looked at the school development plan since I printed it out for governors last term. No, no, no: it’s a strategic decision.

Sometimes you get lucky, and by that I of course mean that sometimes all your meticulous planning comes together: your guest was perfect (and affordable); the idea is sound; and all staff are involved and excited by the changes ahead. I’ve managed it once or twice – which I admit isn’t a great ratio, but I’ll keep trying. So, this September, when you’re half listening to an energised speaker frothing at the mouth with excitement, or struggling to comprehend a convoluted SLT ‘plan for the future’, or just wandering around your classroom thinking ‘I could be in bed now’, spare a thought for the head that planned the day. It’s probably panning out worse for him.