Education for Empowerment

I can’t underestimate the impact a phone call had on me towards the end of the summer term last year. A local advisor called the school to ask if I would consider the possibility of a secondment for a term at another primary, who found themselves short of a member of their leadership team. To be honest I didn’t hesitate, as I’ve always thought of myself as someone who would put themselves in a position to either try something new or offer help wherever it was possible to do so. But the thought genuinely excited me to go somewhere else and gain an insight into life outside of my own bubble.

It’s very easy in all walks of life to get closeted away in our sense of importance/comfort and I wanted to embrace the idea of a different viewpoint and challenge. I was not to be disappointed as the experience proved to be some of the most rewarding and valuable of my career and one that I would wholeheartedly recommend for as many people as possible.

Within education we tend not to offer the opportunities for people to gain an idea of what happens away from our own context. We go on courses, occasionally deal with colleagues from other spheres, but to spend any length of time in another school doesn’t really happen. Time is always a factor and competition can be a real issue when local schools, who on the face of it offer each other support, can all too often be seen to be at odds with other local schools, comparing results, trying to increase numbers, raising their own profile within the local community, sometimes at other schools expense.

The same can be said of the recruitment process. Expertise and experience can be dismissed too readily, particularly when an individual allows their own ego and ideology to dominate the profile of their school and create a sense that the organisation is theirs, rather than a hub of learning that all have access to, irrespective of background or belief.

Working in another school for a term allowed me to test myself and challenge my own thinking. I had to quickly adapt to a slightly different way of working, establish a rapport with colleagues and understand the mood of the school and where I could offer the most support in the quickest amount of time. Most importantly I needed to build relationships with children and families that would create trust and a sense that I was very much a part of the school and was there for everyone. It’s very easy to understate the importance of creating a bond with the people you see everyday and those who you want to take on a journey with you. The single greatest piece of advice I could ever give would be to be genuine and open in who you are and to be clear in what your philosophy is, for others to then see.