In case you missed it… recent highlights from NCSL in Dialogue, talk2learn’s online community for national education debate:
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"You can’t just be creative on Friday afternoon, when all the ‘proper work’ has been finished."The view of Chris Chivers, a special needs coordinator and former headteacher, struck a chord with school leaders who took part in a Leadership Network discussion on creativity in talk2learn.
Investigating the reality of working life for today’s headteachers, the College’s Wellbeing project aims to explore, among other things, what headteachers do to maintain a sound work-life balance while managing the day-to-day challenges of the job.
"You can’t just be creative on Friday afternoon, when all the ‘proper work’ has been finished."
The view of Chris Chivers, a special needs coordinator and former headteacher, struck a chord with school leaders who took part in a Leadership Network discussion on creativity in talk2learn. Many agreed that allowing children the latitude to work creatively opened up new dimensions to their learning right across the curriculum.
Some schools had seized on a revamp of their curriculum as an opportunity to put creativity at the heart of the whole system.
Richard Sutton-Smith’s large primary school has abandoned subjects and now builds all its thematic and cross-curricular work around four faculties: Basic Skills, Arts, Technologies and Humanities/ Values. Staff begin each term with a creative and cross-curricular brainstorm then flesh out the plans for each subject area. "These plans are aimed to motivate pupils," he said. "In our context, a vital part has been to introduce an extended homework task for every other topic to draw on the power and excitement of home learning."
One note of caution was sounded by Jane Donati, headteacher of an infant and nursery school, who warned against unbridled enthusiasm for ‘creativity’ in the absence of a concrete definition of what it means in teaching and learning:
Although I am in favour of creativity in certain fields and as part of independent learning, the term is too wide and open to misinterpretation. Many will remember that it gathered a very bad reputation in the past as it became a licence to let children discover learning and ignored the part of teaching in the whole equation.
Calvin Kipling, deputy headteacher at a secondary school, also voiced concern. A curriculum which values problem-solving and thinking skills would be entirely appropriate, he agreed, but it is ill-suited to the current regime of testing:
"While the role of tests is not on the table to be debated, we can have as creative a curriculum as we like but if it doesn’t ‘raise standards’ by that measure it will fail."
But Susan Foster-agg, a first school headteacher, felt that schools should not allow past experience to stand in their way. Her school has WOW days dedicated to getting children enthused about a new work topic, as well as more ‘hands-on’ activities, problem solving and children’s reflections on their learning. A flexible timetable hasalso been introduced in which subjects are ‘chunked’ together:
"For example in one week staff might teach lessons in geography on fault lines alongside science experiments about how a volcano works, then create clay models of a volcano.
"Learning is clearer for children and their knowledge base is deeper as a result," she explained. "Creativity can be ‘woolly’ but we now have the national curriculum to ensure that we do not return to the woolly days."
Investigating the reality of working life for today’s headteachers, the College’s Wellbeing project aims to explore, among other things, what headteachers do to maintain a sound work-life balance while managing the day-to-day challenges of the job.
In talk2learn’s debate on the subject, nursery headteacher Joanne O’Raw said most people probably recognised that headship demanded something special, beyond the basic job description and set hours.
"I don’t suppose you would want to be a head unless you were prepared to go that extra mile but being the head you can create the type of climate you would like to work in." added Iain Gilmour, a new primary headteacher. Her own tactics for a sound work-life balance included cycling to work – "it gives me time to wake up and wind down. It also means I have to ration the work I bring home so I don’t work all night."
Close scrutiny of how headteachers and leadership teams actually use their time is a good way to assess effectiveness, as well as gauge whether the work-life balance is right, said primary headteacher Darra McFadyen.
Stephen Webb, headteacher of a large primary school, was surprised to find that taking on work of a different kind had acted as a pressure valve for the relentlessness of running a school. "Bizarrely, I find the work as a consultant has had a positively invigorating impact and hence has helped to diffuse the demands of full-time headship," he said.
A headteacher who has a healthy work-life balance also acts as a role-model for staff – something that many contributors felt was important.
"I definitely have a life outside school and encourage my staff to have the same," said Dave Vero, who leads a small rural first school. "It is great to see the difference in them when they realise they don’t have to work till 5pm just because they always have done."
It also helps to have the backing of governors, added Iain Gilmour. "The governors agreed with my request to move meetings from a 6pm start time to 4pm. "One parent-governor saw me walking home one day at 4pm and said it was great to see me showing people that you don’t have to work all hours."