Project decision

Following from the last session, I thought about what I wanted to do and felt that my initial idea was too far removed from my day to day job and wasn't really relevant at the moment with what I want to achieve at the moment. Therefore, following discussions with my Head Of Department, it was suggested that I look at the performance of boys in ICT in Years 9, 10 11. This will involve me analysing the performance of boys after each set of data is produced. This will lead to leading the department in looking at which interventions we can put in place to help to bridge the gap between boys and girls achievement.

Introduction and first day reflections

Introduction
The main expectations I had and indeed have for the course are that:

• I will develop an understanding of the personal qualities that I need to become an effective leader.
• I will learn from the experience of others.
• I will develop strategies to overcome common issues with leadership.

We began by listing what we thought were effective leadership qualities. My list consisted of the following:

• Role model
• Experienced
• Problem solver
• Calmness under pressure
• Innovator
• Good people skills
• Human/compassion
• Organised
• Delegator
• Knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of the members of their team
• Utilising the strengths and addressing the weaknesses of their team

These qualities were those which I thought were the most important.

The Chief inspector believed that outstanding schools had strong governance and leadership.
In my opinion, a school's leadership flows from the top of the hierarchy (the Headteacher) to the bottom of the leadership hierarchy (Middle Leaders). Without the leaders at the bottom, the leaders at top would struggle to do an effective job. Furthermore, the leaders at the top of the hierarchy must be sure that the Middle Leaders are effective in leading their teams in order for the whole school to progress effectively.

Effective leaders:

• Motivate people to develop new ideas
• Shapes their department, their team
• Opens up new horizons for themselves and their team
• Behaves with emotional intelligence, knowing how to deal with difficult situations
• Does the right thing
• Concerned with ends and the future direction of their department/team/school
• Empowers people
• Is dynamic

I can relate to an occasion where I felt effectively led, by a former Headteacher who recognised my skills pastorally and appointed me a Head Of House (Head of year equivalent at that particular school) even though at the time I was Learning Mentor and the other Heads of House were members of Teaching staff, so it was a risky step by the Headteacher. This decision by the Headteacher motivated me to develop new ideas,  it allowed her to shape her team, also it opened up new horizons and opportunities  for me and my career. Most of all, this empowered  me and allowed me to feel like a highly valued member of staff who became extremely motivated by this decision and gave me lots of confidence as to  my standing within the school.

Kolb Learning Style

I carried out a questionnaire to determine my learning style. My  'kite' was very much pointing towards 'Active Experimentation' which was summarised by:

• Showing the ability to get things done
• Taking risks
• Influencing people through actions

This also pointed towards a Converging Style. The main points to this style are:

• Problem solving
• Making decisions based on finding solutions to questions
• Technical issues preferred over social ones
• Experimenting with techniques

These traits do relate to me, although I don't necessarily prefer technical issues over social ones.

A Converging Style of learning means that I should work on:

• Creating new ways of thinking and doing
• Experimenting with new ideas
• Choosing the best solution
• Setting goals
• Making decisions

The main areas that I feel to progress in are:

• Initiating and getting things done
• Adapting to situations
• Reflection
• Being imaginative
• Brainstorming

I'm not totally sure of what I want to do for my project. I currently feel that we could add some Maths to form times, to develop the basic mathematical skills of our tutees. I currently use the Maths weekly tests with my form during a "Reading or Maths" morning on a Wednesday. Some pupils ask for the Maths rather than wanting to read. The Maths tests are 25 questions long and are available in a range of ability levels. This could be an activity that could be managed and rolled out to progress tutors, in a similar way to the PSHE in the 'News, but probably without the teacher needing to do anything to plan. As I am not a Maths teacher however, I'm not sure that this would be a good focus for myself.

Another idea would be to work with the very able pupils, but I am unsure of how that would involve leadership.

Plenty to think about before November.