The teens’ gambit
As adults, we tend to juggle many balls day in and day out and we try and find aids to support with ‘easing the load’. Sometimes it’s very easy at times to look down on younger people and think ‘what do you have to worry about’ or ‘what’s really on your plate’?
I find it interesting, because we forget how things once were as teenagers. And the reality is that we were just as busy, but our struggles were different: juggling friendships, personal lives and educational demands.
I think Mark Miller has hit the nail on the head with his latest blog for Bradford Research School, under the title of ‘Playing chess without a board’. We ask students to hold various things in mind but, as Miller reminds us, our memories aren’t built for overload.
So what do we do to support them? Miller discusses some strategies such as checklists and worked examples which could help alleviate the mental strain. If anything, I’ll be taking note and using some of these myself.
Clause and effect
In the week that Labour MP Josh MacAlister presented his private members’ bill to parliament on tougher regulations for young people and smartphones, this blog by Miriam Rahali, Beeban Kidron and Sonia Livingstone couldn’t be more timely.
MacAlister wants to see schools transformed into phone-free zones, and rather than revisit now well-rehearsed controversies over the idea, this blog presents evidence from the authors’ new report, ‘Smartphone policies in schools – What does the evidence say?’.
The trio assess the effectiveness of smartphone bans, the range of schools’ approaches and their various effects.
What I found most fascinating was the point made in reference to policies of schools in relation to their current Ofsted gradings. In my opinion, the difference is really a matter of language used and actions taken. It’s annotated as schools who were rated ‘Outstanding’ were likely to ‘impose’ strict phone bans as opposed to schools ‘needing improvement’, ‘suggesting’ that phones shouldn’t be used.
I had never really considered how the manifestation of rules and the language used in them, despite trying to achieve the same outcome, can have a different effects. In the grand scheme of things, lots more factors play into how a policy is received, but as a governor I will certainly be much more aware of the lessons to be learned here.
Perhaps MacAlister can learn something here too.
Trust me, I’m a head
And finally this week, I found this blog from ‘Old Primary Head’ Brian Walton a refreshing perspective. I was unfamiliar with his blog until this week, but indeed this appears to be his style.
I’ll be honest: when I first saw the title, ‘Lessons learned in school leadership: Joining a multi academy trust’, I was almost certain that the blog would depict an experience that was all honey and roses. I’m happy to report I was wrong.
Walton’s account of the experiences and lessons he learned from joining a trust did a great job of dispelling misconceptions I had about the process. He speaks candidly about topics such as communication, picking the right size of trust, and ensuring the trust works for the schools needs rather than making the needs of the MAT work for the school.
Most importantly, Walton makes a big deal of autonomy in decision-making processes.
Reading of the relief that comes from getting the choice right and no longer having to decide or act on every minor detail (letting the trust do its job of supporting the school) made me think back to some of the World Mental Health Day events I attended last week.
A common point that came up there was that sometimes spreading the load can halve the stress. As Walton quite rightly says, longevity in leadership is centred on spreading the challenges as evenly as possible.
I, for one, will definitely take note of that.
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