Talkin' 'bout my cerebration.

Recently our long serving principal announce his retirement.  Our current (acting) principal has spoken at staff and HOD-Admin meetings about preparing for change.  I think his initial presentation to staff was generally misinterpreted, his follow up discussion to HODs more focused and understandable.  His main point is that regardless of who is eventually appointed principal it is illogical to assume they will lead and manage as our retired principal did.  In other words, we need to prepare for change, change that is inevitably going to happen but at this point is difficult to predict.  The acting principal has suggested that when a new principal is appointed it would be easy for them to target the “low hanging fruit.”  It was this comment of low hanging fruit that drew most criticism from the general staff, however the point he was trying to make is relevant.  The obvious underperforming elements of a school would be easily noticeable by new leadership and be a logical target for refinement.

So do I have any “low hanging fruit.”  Most definitely.  We were asked to consider his reflections, or cultural observations, that he categorised as “pillars” and “dark matter.”  His point of dark matter was that it may be occurring, but it is not obvious as a consistent, whole school approach or evidence is lacking.  The dark matter as identified is;

• focus on data driven improvement
• strategy
• shared accountability
• holistic behaviour management
• performance development

I definitely have some things to consider in this list.  Data driven improvement across the faculty is lacking.  We have mechanisms to review data, but it is mostly achievement data.  I think there is other data we can gather and reflect upon for improvement.  I need a process for this to occur to ensure my staff engage and take this seriously, because at this point most don’t.  There is very little reflection on student achievement, student satisfaction and student engagement.  The vast majority of our reflection and refinement is based on teacher opinion, a system which is lacking in my opinion.

Use of data could be tied into strategy.  As could performance planning.  Currently there are a number of things happening separately not connected to a faculty improvement strategy – I can feel a mind map coming on!  I’ve been challenged to develop a school wide strategy for the advancement of digital pedagogy, so a faculty improvement strategy should be similar in design process.  The problem is our school wide strategies are disjointed.  These need to be refined before I can comprehensively develop a faculty level strategy.

There are definitely some challenges here for me as a leader and manager.  Combined with the Vocational Education rectification processes identified in a recent internal audit, development of documents for a tertiary credit partnership, review and planning for the Digital Pedagogy License Advanced Community and planning for 2010 – this is going to be one hell of a busy finish to my working year.