I like this song from Steve Azar. I like a lot of his songs. The title of this one makes me smile. I am, like a lot of us, so many different people in my life. For the last six weeks or so I have mostly been a wife, mum, sister, daughter and friend. I have not been a Head Teacher. That all changed on Monday when it was time to start the new session.
It is too easy to say that during the summer I am not a Head Teacher, of course I am. This job is a way of life! Things pop into my head at all sorts of times of the day, situations prompting me think of things and people at school. However, when I return it is always the same; although I feel as though I have never been away I take a few days to remember names, conversations and where I left things! (Always put in places for safe keeping then never found). This session we are up and running with some new faces to the team and the welcome return of the awfully clever DHT. Our young people are back and have started with an enthusiasm which we will work to harness positively! The school was full of chatter and smiles and laughter as people got caught up with news and events. For lots of our young people it is a chance to see friends again who they may not see often out of school. We all swapped stories of things we’d done and although those of us who stayed at home didn’t have the best of the sunshine, there were lots of examples of great days out and about.
I was lucky enough to be away for most of the summer where the weather was sunnier. I have to say that I really enjoyed doing very little and letting the days drift along. That is a real luxury for any working person. No bells, deadlines or meetings. No hard questions either! The title says that I don’t have to be me till Monday and I think that is a really good philosophy. I am trying hard to strike balances in my life and also supporting the balances of school and home for the people I work with and for. I know that it can be hard, and balance is about juggling and prioritising time and tasks. You can’t manage time but you can manage what you do with it. We are having our first collegiate time of the new session tomorrow as a staff. Our focus areas and developments were all decided before the summer so we knew where we thought we’d be going on this stage of our journey. We always allow for diversions and the odd pothole, but we do all need to be involved on where we are going to. We involve our young people and we are getting better at sharing the learning, the steps, the pathways with them and using their ideas and opinions too. This session one of our focus areas is continuing to increase the number of parents and families who continuously engage with the work of the school through a variety of strategies. On Monday at our first working together session we will be discussing ideas and plans more fully and agreeing strategies and timelines. It is going to be a challenge but it is going to be interesting and engaging. One strategy we are taking is rolling out class dojo for all classes. This has already proved successful last session when a couple of senior classes trialled it. It is only one aspect of a busy session but it is exciting to see the possibilities and how these may evolve and support our learning community.
However, this is my out of hours work finished for this weekend and I am off to do some cooking and maybe even catch some tennis. School will begin again tomorrow.