You know how its important to think outside the box in school management? Well here's a little gem that might help school leaders in dveloping Health & safety policies!!
Incubation Times and Infectivity - Patient UK
Because you never know when you will be called upon to act as an epidemiologist - one of your many roles as a Head!
Friday, February 16, 2007
More On The Headship Crisis
In attempting to work through what it takes to aspire to headship, I have to wonder about the current bad press that the role of the Head is getting. Take this blog from Mr Read's 'How Not To Teach'. It is a distillation of the recent debate on the paucity of applicants for headships in the state sector.
His links make for interesting, and frightening, reading & I include them here as a ready reference:
Falling
numbers of applicants
The psychological effects on Heads
Health survey
Numbers
aspiring to headship
As someone aspiring to headship from the Independent Sector it is clear that the lack of contact with the classroom is a big factor in the alienation that Heads may feel. They become desk jockeys that no amount of Leadership Training ever prepares you for. If we are to be prepared for Headship I feel that we must be prepared for they administration that defines the role. That then will provide us with a very different skill set from the one that has been previously promoted.
As Mr. Read puts it...
However it has to be that unique blend of pedagogoue & pedant which makes for a sucessful head. And the NCSL must look to how this can be done & not march on with motivational courses which inspire but do not prepare.
His links make for interesting, and frightening, reading & I include them here as a ready reference:
Falling
numbers of applicants
The psychological effects on Heads
Health survey
Numbers
aspiring to headship
As someone aspiring to headship from the Independent Sector it is clear that the lack of contact with the classroom is a big factor in the alienation that Heads may feel. They become desk jockeys that no amount of Leadership Training ever prepares you for. If we are to be prepared for Headship I feel that we must be prepared for they administration that defines the role. That then will provide us with a very different skill set from the one that has been previously promoted.
As Mr. Read puts it...
With workload and hours a major issue it probably wasn’t brilliant timing
to demand that prospective Heads have to pass the National Professional
Qualification for Headteachers. Its supporters claim that it’s a rigorous course
that will prepare candidates for the managerial qualities needed in a modern
education system. An alternative view is that that the paper-laden NPQH is there
to churn out a line of lobotomised robots who will uncritically implement every
directive from the DfES rather than produce excellent pedagogues who can inspire
and enthuse a new generation of teachers.
However it has to be that unique blend of pedagogoue & pedant which makes for a sucessful head. And the NCSL must look to how this can be done & not march on with motivational courses which inspire but do not prepare.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Snow Day
When it snows...
With the excitement of our current snowy, winter wonderland, here is some advice to those who feel that they ought to add to the choas on the roads...
...stay home & build a snowman
Snow Day 07 on Vimeo
With the excitement of our current snowy, winter wonderland, here is some advice to those who feel that they ought to add to the choas on the roads...
...stay home & build a snowman
Snow Day 07 on Vimeo
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