BPP Leadership Reflection

I am about to go on a 3 day leadership course with some readings (The Leadership Challenge, - James Kouzes, Reflective Action - Robert E Quinn, Leadership is Authenticity, Not Style - Bill George) in Cromwell and thought that a reflection of my leadership and the leadership around me based on our BPP would be an effective thing to do. 

Model the Way - this refers to our BPP on working as a team and having courageous conversations if mentors are not following as they should be. Regular honest conversations helps the team meet our teamwork BPP, which usually happens when I share honest examples of where I can do better - the next step is ensuring I change my habits so the team see I believe in our BPP.  SLT have a similar role if they say something needs to happen that they follow it too in practice ie it is very demanding and you can feel physically and emotionally drained by having to keep this is up 24/7.

Encourage the Heart - our BPP has a lot of focus on recognition and I took that as recognising achievements and successes. During our planning meeting I encouraged the team to put into place a Concept project about Visual Arts which is something they were all very keen to do, so much so, that you could feel the 'buzz' in the room. It will be interesting how the concept term pans out with this enthusiasm and how this impacts the rest of the habitat. Giving mentors opportunity to work in areas they are passionate about can not be underestimated ie subjects, student age-range and other mentors (teams.) SLT have the vital job of creating teams that they will believe will thrive and grow, and they have us currently looking at our personalities as a team. 

Corporate culture as one that, 'promotes hard work and continued success while also encouraging work-life balance and individualism'

The environment we work in complicates this. Hard work can be obvious ie plans and being at school. In our habitat, a lot of hard work is invisible - so much so that that mentors do not even recognise it. Working continuously alongside and taking on extra work for the greater good is unavoidable and exhausting. Dealing with extra student issues beyond a single cell environment is an expectation, I am in charge of 92 students, fact. The idea that you are sharing this number ie 23 is not the reality. For example, many parents will hunt me down or other mentors because thats who they want. We teach all students at one stage or another, and even though we have improved, we have regular conversations about the learning of one student.  Recently, we have made some great progress as a team, and team members are beginning to find the work life balance that is acceptable. Recognising the 'hard work' and ensuring mentors go home to disconnect has become acceptable and necessary if we are going to succeed in this environment. We are all different and allowing mentors to have time to be an individual in and out of school is vital.

Enables Other to Act - this is a real strength at SPS. The freedom or opportunity for freedom can be a little overwhelming at times but as time wears on we began to embrace it. As long as the 'why' has been established, we have the opportunity to do anything we want which is also vital to 'Encourage the Heart.'  I have enabled others by empowering (building trust over time) them to take leadership opportunities when it presents itself in the habitat or across the school. All members of my team are not afraid to lead and I have coached them to lead some inquiries in our habitat, which came from areas that interested them. 

Challenge the Process - this is probably my biggest challenge. Rachel and I are very similar in our expectations for students in behaviour and learning, and we are following a traditional math, literacy and writing approach. We did drop a concept time so we had to blend our learning during Literacy and Writing, which is positive. Through observations and reflections, we eventually changed our practice so two mentors is running guided reading sessions which freed us up to be more open in our 'Literacy' sessions. We have created an environment where risk taking is possible and due to our collaborative approach there is 'intelligent failure' attitude towards it and all members are willing to make suggestions.

Inspire a Shared Vision - my approach to this is to ensure we regularly visit particular areas I believe are important ie formative assessment, values/capacities and our inquiries. Every week in our team meeting these areas will be referred to and discussed. This consistent approach has become part of what we do and ensure we are making some shifts no matter how small. 

Reflection Term 3

Not sure where reflection of Term 2 went and it seems like a lifetime ago and an incredible amount has changed, so I can't retrospectively write about it! My blog on the 'permanent crisis' is probably a good temperature check of where we were. I'll focus on T3, as this has been an incredibly tough term for the team but we have come out with a huge amount of shift in our practice and leadership capabilities.

My DR - to provide a range of opportunities for feedback from my team - has developed into feedback from team and SLT. Feedback works both ways and it is much about me finding the confidence to give feedback to team members and SLT.  Our team completed some great work on 'feedback' and we have integrated our individual inquiries into this process of giving honest feedback to the team. This has worked incredibly well, by providing team members to observe the habitat and reflect on their inquiry they have given honest feedback which has brought up some positive changes ie lack of clarity of the capacities and Alice providing laminated solo sheets which are now being used in the habitat. 

My confidence to unpack 'difficult conversations' has been a huge lift from my shoulders. How to deal with certain scenarios required simple words like using 'you' and moving responsibility back to others as opposed to falling into the blame game.  I have completed some very difficult conversations where I had state the problem as opposed to teasing it out and not following it through as it wasn't mentioned. 

Action: keep having the difficult conversations (if needed!), follow the coaching approach to tease out clarity with other mentors, plan questions ahead, continue with habitat approach to feedback (based around our inquiries)

'Professional Reading' - I would like to articulate my thinking/beliefs succinctly supported by a wide range of professional reading.

I have become more purposeful in my reading. I was a little keen to read anything and everything to fulfil this DR but quickly realised I need purpose. We have done a lot of reading around Clarity in the Classroom and slowly working my way through Quiet Leadership. I am on a 3 day course during the holidays around leadership which has readings so I will blog about those once read and the course is finished. Really looking forward to solely focussing on my leadership capabilities. 

Action:  complete readings for leadership course and reflect, keep dipping into quiet leadership, stay focused on relevant reading ie difficult conversations (will see how the course goes - chat with Ben about possible books)

'Learning the Level' - we have made huge strides with our learning around the age group. Having our focus on formative assessment and creating our progress pebbles has ensured we have unpacked everything that we teach. Creating the pebbles makes you consider the stage carefully and by creating each pebble you are having to look at the range. Making it visible in the habitat means you have it to get it right as students, mentors and parents see it! It is placed under scrutiny the moment its up, which is a good thing. Our exploration of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation has explored many facets around this age group and using research has helped us create a balanced approach to meeting the needs of all the students. The stickers have clearly helped the younger students, and by collecting student voice, the older students have appreciated the approach by needs a more intrinsic approach. Displaying the pebbles and working towards the next level has been very successful for the very able mathematicians and has really moved forward. 

Action:  continue inquiry into intrinsic and extrinsic motivation (students needs will change and so will our approach), continue to create pebble across all areas of the curriculum (only maths and reading so far) 

‘To empower my team to drive the vision of Shotover Primary School’

This means I believe the students are the ‘heart’ of every decision - shared values and expectations are being met - ‘clarity in the classroom’ - progress pebbles - clear vision (identify principles of learning

Our weekly focus on progress pebbles has kept it in focus and staff meetings based around clarity in the classroom has helped push our progress with the pebbles. The team are using them regularly now and creating their own on more regular basis.

Grow Mentors Capabilities - Provide opportunities for team members to lead the meeting -

After our regular mentor meetings themes came through with each person. We clarified teacher inquiries and they have become a focal point each week which a mentor has lead. This involves an observation of the habitat and following a process of describing what is happening, what is not happening and what next. Mentors have all become involved in groups/activities outside the habitat.