As always, the summer break already seems a long time ago, and the election even longer ago.
I won’t write about the latest press release from the DfE here, but the sense of anticipation was felt keenly on more than one social media platform on Sunday evening.
For all the start-of-term jitters also being expressed, there was a palpable difference from when the profession last awaited government updates on Sunday evening during the height of lockdown.
Compassion begins at home
On the theme of summer memories disappearing over the horizon (and the long shadow of professional traumas big and small), this blog is an excellent reminder to be kind to ourselves.
Written for headteachers, I’m certain that people in a variety of school roles will have spent time earmarked for relaxing, overthinking instead.
Here, leadership coach Helen Tarokh reminds us that irrespective of whether we experience our jobs as ‘just a job’ or as a driving force, we should do it with self-compassion.
Quoting Kristin Neff, Tarokh cites three key elements of achieving this, among them ‘reminding yourself that encountering pain is part of the shared human experience’.
This has not been far from my thoughts this summer. I’m sure we have all experienced pain at the coverage of the tragic events in Southport and horror at how some responded to them.
Being the helpers
The phrase ‘look for the helpers’ originated from US children’s TV show host Mr Rogers in the 80s. It’s a great way to reframe disaster into something more hopeful for young people, but as Joan Westenberg argues in this expletive-laden piece, it can be a debilitating one for adults.
Westenberg enjoins us instead to be the helpers, and I am encouraged by the many examples I’ve seen this summer – and over the years – of our profession doing just that. Rather than focus on those who saw tragedy as an excuse for rioting, I have noticed those who work in schools proactively seeking to be part of the solution.
Indeed, the Chartered College of Teaching has called for a working group to identify and share best practice in combating racism in schools, to find out what support schools need in order to do it effectively, and to inform the curriculum review on how the curriculum can support community-building.
The medium is the message
In a similar vein, this article is a shining example of teachers supporting teachers to be the best versions of our professional selves. And I only found it because I’ve started using a new platform, Headteacher Chat.
Perhaps because of changes to my own social media use or in my work patterns this summer, I escaped exposure to the routine of holiday outrage over the usual ‘hotly debated topics’. I didn’t miss it, and I don’t think I’m alone.
The riots have caused something of a shift in loyalties towards X (formerly Twitter). Amid clear disinformation from the very top of that platform, teachers have heeded their own leadership advice: ‘what we permit, we promote’.
The real social network
Over weeks of reading about new platforms and seeing earnest attempts to build and grow new networks elsewhere, I have found myself reconnecting with people who had all but disappeared from my feed – vanished by algorithms.
And out of that flurry of networking I came across this this blog from WomenEd research lead Rosie Boparai, which calls on us to reconnect with our inner activist and our inner researcher to generate real change for ourselves and our pupils.
As a collective, we have seen – and helped achieve – many victories over injustice. But we have also been complicit in (permitting, thus promoting) practices that have at best not engaged, and at worst undermined, our sense of compassion and self-compassion.
Change can be difficult and it can cause pain. It can be exciting, liberating and it can bring joy. Experienced together, positive changes as well as those we experience as loss open potential for development and growth.
I wish this for all of us at the start of a new academic year.
Your thoughts