I’m a big believer in the mantra ‘recruit good people and let them get on with it’. If you give people- and pupils- trust and agency, won’t they usually rise to it?
Yet, can the autonomy of a teaching job actually weigh down those who are starting out?
What can a HoD do to turn a trainee’s tendency to be perfectionist, inefficient, isolated etc. into productive and sustainable professional growth?
Model a healthy work-life balance
- Be a role model for sensible work habits, e.g. not answering emails after 6pm in the evening
- Check in little and often- just a hello first thing in the morning, or mustering the department for lunch
- Plan more substantial chances to reflect on progress- weekly, monthly, at the end of every term?
- Shield them from extra-curricular overload, and ward off those colleagues keen to ship out responsibilities to new teachers
- Take an interest in their life outside school
Strategic timetabling
- What are your strong areas of subject knowledge?
- What coursebooks do you know from your own schooling?
- Exam classes come with higher stakes and specification demands- how many can you manage in your first year?
- Which course would you like to review/ re-write/ produce from scratch?
- Who else will be teaching that course or class? What scope is there for team-teaching? Team-planning?
- What courses are best resourced in the department?
- Will you feel more liberated and empowered or overwhelmed?
- When in the week can we get together and check in on courses and classes?
Harness the talents in department
- Flush out great resources from the previous year and archive them accessibly
- Schemes of work: review and if necessary re-write collaboratively
- Open-door observation policy: regular, non-judgemental, only positive feedback
- Paired observations for the whole department: a new teacher is an opportunity for everyone to develop
- ‘Show-and-tell’ time in department meetings: 5 minutes to share a good resource or practice
- Plan time to socialise together at least once a term- even if you end up talking shop
Become better classicists
- Establish a period for reading new texts together, at pace, and ideally new authors. Use the subject expertise within the department- some colleagues will prefer helping on this than on pedagogy
- Proactively offer CPD courses; books; trip-leading opportunities
- Invite them to bring in their university contacts for guest lectures, conferences etc.
Your first line manager is crucial to your early career happiness and professional fulfillment. You need quality time to reflect and experiment. Creativity, independence- these can thrive or wither.
So what does your HoD need to be above all?
- Organised?
- Personable?
- Intellectual?
- Sympathetic?
- Sociable?
- Rigorous?
- Approachable?
- Persuasive?
Or something else all together…?
Comment below and share what you valued most in an early line manager.
