Hertford Youth Conference

St Joseph’s In The Park: roles & responsibilities

From time to time, something happens, in planning an event, that is greater and more successful than anticipated.  More than the sum of its parts.  On the face of it, bringing together disparate groups of schools, from different locations (one who journeyed for 2 hours around the M25) of different ages (Years 5, 6, 7, 11 & 13) would appear to contradict any sense of structure and cohesion.

Roding Valley HS: commitment to a cause

The first Hertford Youth Conference brought together six schools with representative groups from each, the purpose to share their experiences of developing Social Responsibility through collaboration.  Jane Sartin, Hertford Town Councillor and former Mayor, was present to speak about the journey that led to a life in public service.  Several of the schools work with Jodie Collins and the charity Beyond Ourselves to raise money to support 3 community schools in northern Zambia, making visits or participating in the sponsorship programme.  Other schools spoke about the action taken, collaborative projects that they set up or the impact that it has had on them and their schools.

Tea & cake: brings everyone together

The conference was arranged around the “Teachmeet” style of gathering, moving quickly with no-one speaking for more than about 10 minutes (young people or adults).  There were questions for each group from the floor and a chance to “network” over tea and cake.  It was designated a “conference” and we wanted to make it feel as though the “delegates” were there to both share and learn.

Cranleigh: transformative experiential learning

And this is where the inspiration started to become clear:  the line between child and adult became blurred.  We were interested in hearing from each delegate.  They all had something interesting to say.  They didn’t have to speak for too long.  There were a variety of experiences to be shared.  They learned how to present effectively.  There were differing perspectives and interesting and novel ideas to “take away”.  But there was one shared goal: to do something in your life to make a change.

Stormont: the doggy dash…fund raising with gusto

And this caught the imagination of everyone present.  The Year 5’s wanted to hear about the older students’ adventures.  The 6th formers loved being with much younger children and even gathered some valuable ideas.  The audience listened to the presenters and willed each group to be confident and do their best.  The presenters, perhaps buoyed up by seeing others go before them or recognising that they didn’t have to speak for too long, showed no nerves and were as confident and articulate as they could possibly be.

6th form from Cranleigh. Junior 4 from St Joe’s

As I told them at the start, this first conference was going to be very experimental; we were stepping into unknown territory.  However the outcome was quite exceptional.  Having one shared purpose, with adults and young people all speaking to the idea about service, smudged the traditional dividing lines between the age groups.  There was no “command and control”; we were all there to develop our understanding, to be inspired by others and share our own inspirations.  It was magical.

And we will do it again next year!

My thanks go to: Jane Sartin, Jodie Collins, Jane Elson, Sandie Ash and the staff and pupils from Roding Valley High School, Cranleigh, Simon Balle, Stormont, Abel Smith and St Joseph’s In The Park.  And in particular to Liz Beaumont and Helen Boyd-Carpenter, without whose administrative skills this would never have taken place in the first place!

Pick a number, any number…

So what is it about numbers and lists that compel writers to offer us “5 steps…, “4 things…”, “10 claims…”,  “7 habits…”, providing us advice in all aspects of our lives?  Of course, we want to understand and benefit from the wisdom and knowledge of others.  However, in our sound-bitten world a series of headings and a paragraph or two of explanation appears to prevail.

For some time I have been interested in these lists, in particular those about leadership, and what has fascinated me is the direction in which they lead.  There is always a degree of overlap, with similar and indeed identical elements appearing in a wide range of lists that provide guidance on how to become a better leader.  Values, moral purpose, personal well-being, communication, trust, professional development and data analysis, among others, appear in lists that indicate the traits which would lead to effective performance.

So, to understand where exactly these lists lead us I took a look at a number of them, starting with 10 things (although Tubbs & Schulz go much higher) and working my way down to one (hopefully).

I spent the evening on Google searching for lists on leadership traits put forward by writers and key thinkers.  Its not terribly scientific, although I tried to ensure that I focused on sources that had greater gravitas and reliability.  What emerged from this evening’s exercise was a gradual distillation of key elements or traits and the revisiting of the classic study undertaken by Kurt Lewin in 1939.  This distillation lead inevitably to what leadership is, and always has been, at its very core from ancient times through to our oft-revised, present day models.

So here is my reading list.  I apologise for #2 – although the Two Things Game is enlightening.  It starts with 10 and works its way down to the core leadership competency.

• 10 strong claims about successful school leadership
• 9 things successful people do differently
• 8 qualities that make leaders memorable
• 7 skills/traits of effective leadership
• 6 leadership styles and when you should use them
• 5 most important leadership qualities that every leaders hold posses,
• 4 leadership skills you need, no matter how high you rank
• 3 key leadership styles (the classical model)
• The 2 things game (cheating a little, but rather funny)

And so finally, running through these numbers gave me the opportunity to tune out the “noise” about leaders and leadership into the essence summed up in this LinkedIn post by Eliot Frick “The one thing you can do to not suck“: Forget Yourself.

As with the power of giving, which I’ve written about previously, the single, immutable trait of all successful leaders, and indeed successful humans, is the understanding of the primacy of the needs of others.  We cannot lead with any kind of conviction or sustainability if we serve ourselves and our own interests first.  We must be, as leaders, duty bound to place the needs of our organisations, our staff teams and our clients (the children, and to a lesser extent their parents, in our schools) before our own.

This is why within the “10 strong claims about successful school leadership”, identified by the National College for Teaching & Leadership, lie the “8 key dimensions of successful leadership” and, at the heart of these, the well-being and achievement of our students.

Simon Sinek, sums it up most succinctly.  When one is the most important number, that “one” is not you…

On Confidence.

Listening to speakers today at the Wellington/Marlborough Prep Heads Conference on building the reputation of schools, leads to reflections on both the value of independent education and how we can instill confidence in our communities and beyond. As a sector we offer the “flavour of the cocktail of life” and possess the power to be of enormous influence in what that flavour is. This from Geordie Greig, Editor of the Mail on Sunday. With that power comes the responsibility to ensure that there is a positivity to the experiences of the pupils, parents and staff. Confidence in a school comes from confidence of the school itself. And that falls to the leaders.

Steve Munby, formerly of NCSL now CEO of CfBT, who I have heard speak passionately and eloquently before, was given a platform at Wellington to share research that has been carried out over many years on the qualities of good heads. He points to 5 key factors:

Authenticity: “pull on the mantle of leadership with confidence…but not with the crown as well.” It is the combination of confidence and humility that defines the best leaders.
Indomitability and compassion: “Keep on noticing what needs changing.” The best leaders carry on setting high standards.
Hold courageous conversations: “Don’t fail to hold people to account.” All children deserve to have the very best learning experience possible at schools and the challenge and support for teachers is essential.
Great Heads are Learners: The oft quoted figure of 10,000 hours (first postulated by Anders Ericsson and popularised by Malcolm Gladwell) is what is required “to assimilate all one needs to know to achieve mastery.” – Daniel Levitin
Great Heads Build confidence and tell the story: the staff team looks to a head for guidance and support. The right words, at the right time, spoken in the right way provide solace, motivation and a sense of well-being.

Steve concluded by sharing the work of Viviane Robinson on Student Centred Leadership on what good heads do to make a difference. There are, again, 5 qualities and they are, in order of impact:

Leading teacher learning & development (twice as important as all the others): turn commitment into a habit not by going on a course but by supporting and coaching
Establishing goals and expectations
Ensure quality teaching
Resourcing strategically
Ensuring a safe and orderly environment

So there is the challenge to our sector and Anthony Seldon was candid in emphasising the need for our schools to professionalise more effectively. The encouraging thing is that, for me, there seems to be a wave of energy and enthusiasm for headship as described by Steve Munby and we are looking at an exciting and creative time for leadership in Independent Schools.