Why is the headteacher hiding?

30 MINUTE MAKEOVER

The head has been hiding in her office for weeks and you’re concerned that you and your colleagues are not getting the support you need. It’s a delicate situation, but Sue Cowley has a plan of action…

Before …

Usma is a Year 6 teacher at a large primary school in a deprived area. Some of the children behave in an extremely challenging way, and Usma feels that the staff are not getting enough support in dealing with them. The headteacher has started staying mainly in her office and she is rarely seen in the corridors or in the playground any more. The behaviour policy is not working well, because no one follows through on serious incidents. Usma wants to know if there’s anything that she can do to improve her situation without upsetting anyone.

The makeover

As Usma has realised, this is a tricky situation to handle and we advise her to proceed carefully. Many headteachers are under a great deal of stress, with changes to the inspection regime, huge pressure to show results, and a massive workload to handle as well. It could be that the headteacher has ‘gone to ground’ because she is overwhelmed. However, Usma’s concerns are important and clearly need to be dealt with.

We recommend that Usma has a quiet word with a colleague who is close to the headteacher, to check that she is coping. When senior managers hide away from staff, this is often a good indicator that something is wrong. We suggest that Usma speaks in confidence to a colleague – perhaps the deputy head – about her concerns. It may be that the headteacher needs some additional support. She could get this from various places: a local headteacher’s network, the National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL), the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), the LEA or the school’s governing body, who are responsible for her appraisal and performance management.

It may be that the headteacher would benefit from a visit to her GP. We tend to think of headteachers as distant figureheads, cushioned from the realities of the classroom. They are, of course, human beings and subject to exactly the same fears, concerns and stresses as the rest of us. We recommend that Usma looks first at the human aspects of her headteacher’s situation.

Evidence matters, particularly when you are dealing with challenging behaviour. Where the school can build up a full profile of a child’s behavioural problems, this can be the key to getting the appropriate support for the child. Written evidence can also push senior staff into giving a situation the
attention it merits.

If Usma doesn’t do so already, we suggest that she starts to log the behaviour incidents that take place in her classroom. She should note the time and date of the incident, who was involved and what action she took. She could then send a photocopy of her report to her key stage co- ordinator, to the school’s SENCO, and also to the senior management team. This will ensure that the children get the help they need, and it will push senior staff to reinforce the school behaviour policy.

The best headteachers have a visible presence around the school. Often, they still have at least some teaching contact with the children as well. Clearly Usma’s headteacher is struggling with this part of her role at the moment.

We wondered whether Usma could find some small ways to remind her headteacher about the joys of her role? She could ask her headteacher whether she can send her children to show her their work, as a special reward. This might serve as a useful reminder that, in the end, the job is all about the children.

After ...

Usma had a quiet chat with the deputy head, who was able to pass on staff concerns in confidence to the headteacher. The head has joined a local network of other headteachers, who can offer her advice and support. The deputy agreed that Usma should start to record behaviour incidents in detail, and she has said that she will talk with senior staff about how these could be followed through more effectively. When Usma asked, the headteacher readily agreed that she could send her children to her to show their work. The children reported back that the headteacher had seemed really pleased to see their learning, and that she had a smile on her face when they left her office