Now that we have explored agency through the trifecta (marking, planning and admin), the next part of the series will look at agency through the lens of ‘the little things.’

I regularly – even daily – hear absolute horror stories about how adults are treated in schools.

Let’s be real – there’s knowing what’s going on and there is ‘I have issues with power & control.’  If power and control are your thing, I can’t help.  None of this will make sense to you.  You are likely in the wrong job.  However, I suspect that the vast majority of us aren’t in this job for that – so let me be helpful 🙂

It is true – my staff can take their PPA wherever they want.  I truly don’t care.  On site.  Off site.  At home.  In the pub. They are grown adults that understand the importance and complexity of their work.  And the truth is – 90% of the time their PPA is spent with their teaching partner or professional growth partner, in school and on site.  But they have the freedom to decide.  This freedom to control their less structured professional time in a job that is very, very structured and controlled (bells tell you where to be and when to be there for goodness sake!) is important for their psychological well being. It sends the message that I respect them as professionals and believe they are able to determine how to use their time most effectively.  When it comes to actions and words – telling people you value their well being, but controlling them like children is misaligned.  It is our responsibility as leaders to create the kind of professional conditions that make professional decisions making a no-brainer.  This is complex and involves support and development – it involves creating and aligning shared standards.

Many leaders look at me with a sense of terror when I say things like I don’t collect in this or that, or I let them choose.  When you work alongside teachers as co-leaders, what you find is that your original standard was too low. They surpass it. What you originally thought was ‘quality first teaching’ in maths becomes substandard; what you thought would be the learning from a study of advanced learners and challenge is now too basic, too broad; what you believed to be the best you could get quickly becomes the beginning.  The wonderful Lyssy Bolton once said to me: ‘you can mandate mediocrity. you must unleash greatness.’

Release time is a sensitive subject for many leaders.
‘There are only 195 school days – which means 175 days off!’ 
It is true – we do have lots of time off.  And it is also true that the work should bring you joy.  And if what we are saying is that the work is so bad/stressful/unpleasant that the days off are required – perhaps we need to examine our practices a little more seriously.  But I am not talking about that.  I do give my entire staff the option of taking up to 6 well being days in a school year.  1 of the days is a paid day.  The other 5 are unpaid.  All are optional. They can be taken in a row or one or two here or there.  We ask people to avoid either side of a term break and not to have the majority of a team out on the same day.
Why do I do this?  Because this is just a job. It is an important one – but it is just a job.  Life happens.  Sometimes you have relatives visiting during term time.  Sometimes it is nice to go to the shopping mall in the middle of the day.  Sometimes it is nice to have a long weekend away. Sometimes it is just nice to stay in bed and watch Netflix and not feel guilty. You can do this in virtually every.other.job.  Why not teaching? And – just like the PPA where you want – I don’t have an empty school every week.  Today I have a teacher in Germany. Extra day to visit the Christmas markets. And last week she drove to out to the Kent Downs (3 hours each way!) on her own time to deliver our cockrels to a farm and on Friday she organised an after-school ‘christmas decorating event’ that brought us all together.  Ebbs and flows.  Give and take. Balance.

On top of this, it is a ££ saver.  A day of supply in London costs less than the daily cost of a teacher M3 and above.  My staff are almost exclusively above M3, so any day they take as a well being day saves us money. It has also contributed to drastically reduced sick leave – the few years before we started this approach have all been high 200s or low 300s in terms of days lost to sickness.  This year, 136 on our census.  So, if you’re not up for my crazy, hippie leadership, maybe the business side of things will make you think twice.  That is between 16-20k savings on sickness that is reinvested in to the school (not to mention all we save on daily rates!).

Staff can also begin their day when it suits them and end their day when it suits them. I read about schools that have arrival and departure times – ‘you must be here no later than’ and ‘must not leave before’.  I don’t get it. And what I do get makes me frustrated. If you have to tell people how long they have to be in the building for fear they may run for the doors, you probably need to take a deeper look at your culture.

Most teachers at Three Bridges are here at around 7.30/8.00 and the school is virtually empty by 4.15. It has been this way for years. It is still a really long day.  Take off time for lunch and being social – and I still wish they worked less.  But – and this is a big one for me – they get to decide.  I listened to Dr Becky Allen talk about a school experiment whereby we open the school and 8.30 and close it at 4.30. No work outside of those hours.  A lovely idea!  The only issue I take with it is that it limits teacher-choice.  There are times its just more convenient to work at home.  Sometimes arriving at 8.30 and leaving at 315 is necessary – maybe that is what works best for your childcare/home arrangement.  Personally – I don’t bring work home (often).  I like to do my work at work (even if it means staying later) and then enjoy my time at home without interruption. There are days I know I need to leave at 3.30, so I come in earlier than 8.30 to get started if I need to.  Not having those options or that flexibility in my day would make me anxious. My belief is that as long as work/life harmony are spoken about regularly and we ask people how they are doing, giving them the freedom to choose when and where to work is crucial.

And if I think that the work seems to be taking over someone’s life, I ask how I can help.  Because if I have done my job well, work shouldn’t take over. Things should be clear.  There should be time for the work to get done. Resources should be easy to access and use.  Preparation should be minimal and fit in to PPA.

I believe it is my job to support staff in developing a healthy balance of ‘this is just a job’ and ‘this is a really important job’.  And I can say what I like – but as in everything we do as leaders – its in what we do; who we are – that speaks loudest. What we see is that its the little things – often times the things we overlook – that matter most.

Simples. (but complicated!)