Education Executive October 2022

EDUCATION

EXECUTIVE

OCTOBER 2022

Digital wrap edition

SUPPORTING BUSINESS AND F INANCIAL EXCELLENCE IN SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES

Utilising paid social media adverts to drive pupil numbers How to use social media adverts to advertise your school’s open evening

P A R W L A T I G DI ALSO INSIDE THIS MONTH: DEALING WITH OTHER PEOPLE’S OPINIONS

Top tips on how to react to someone else’s opinions

WHAT IS ‘PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY?’

How do school business leaders embed psychological safety into practice?

DISPOSE OF POOR WASTE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

Why taking the time to sort through your waste is beneficial

The leaves are beginning to brown, the nights are drawing in and pumpkin spice lattes are back; this can only mean one thing – Autumn is here.

Autumn and October arriving also meant our EdExec LIVE North event was back on October 6 in Manchester. The day was a great success, packed full of informative seminars, networking and even a live recording of an SBL podcast…go to page 24 to read our review of the day!

Although Autumn can bring miserable weather and darker days, it also brings an excuse to spend your free time wrapped in blankets eating comfort food – swings and roundabouts! Whatever your opinion on the season may be, it is always good to try and find some positives in it.

Talking of opinions, in this October issue Laura Williams gives her advice on how to navigate other people’s opinions, especially ones you may not have asked for or agreed with. You may well just want to put an unwanted opinion in the bin with the rest of the rubbish but, before you do, Helen Burge tells us why taking the time to sort through your waste is beneficial for both your school and the world around you.

As the days starts to get drearier, there is a chance our mental health will be impacted by the worsening weather. Dr Fiona AubreySmith discusses how you can support student mental health. What is ‘psychological safety’, and how can SBLs embed it in their teams? Andrew Blench explains how you can create a positive team culture - which is more crucial than ever as pressures on schools only continue to mount.

Pupil numbers are always a concern, especially now as budgets get tighter. David Carne explains how using social media adverts led to record numbers attending his school’s open evening - and how your school could do the same. Connecting with your community is another great way to market your school and Simon Hepburn has advice on how you can use an upcoming school anniversary to create stronger community ties.

In our ICT MATTERS section, Gary Henderson gives his top tips to build your school’s cyber resilience.

As always, we’d love to hear any suggestions you have for the magazine. If you’d like to get involved with EdExec, or if you’d like us to cover a certain topic, please do let us know. Contact eleanor@ intelligentmedia.co.uk or tweet @edexec with ideas, opinions or success stories.

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!

Contributors

Editor’s comment

ELEANOR POTTER EDITOR

Is your school doing something wonderful? Do you have an opinion or experience you’d like to share? A story suggestion? Or some advice you’d like to share with your peers? Get in touch – email eleanor@ intelligentmedia.co.uk

ELEANOR POTTER Editor Education Executive

LAURA WILLIAMS

School leadership coach, trainer and SBL podcast host L J Business of Education

SIMON HEPBURN

Founder Marketing Advice for Schools

HELEN BURGE

Deputy COO The Priory Learning Trust

DR FIONA AUBREY-SMITH Director One Life Learning

DAVID CARNE

School business professional and executive coach Cardinal Griffin Catholic College

ANDREW BLENCH

School business management consultant and coach School Business Partner

GARY HENDERSON

ANME ambassador and director of IT Millfield School

GET YOUR DAILY DOSE OF SBM NEWS, ADVICE AND GUIDANCE AT

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EDUCATION EXECUTIVE

NEWS & VIEWS

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NEWS Latest school business management news in brief

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NEWS REPORT Social mobility tsar casts doubt over grammar school revival in England

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SPOTLIGHT ON Academy transfers and funding LEADERSHIP BY EXAMPLE

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DEALING WITH OTHER PEOPLE’S OPINIONS Laura Williams on how to navigate receiving other people’s opinions

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DISPOSE OF POOR WASTE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES Why taking the time to sort through your waste is beneficial twice over

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SCHOOL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT SELF-ASSESSMENT CHECKLIST Managing resources effectively and identifying any needed adjustments

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SUPPORTING STUDENT MENTAL HEALTH How your school can proactively address, and look after, student mental health

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EDEXEC LIVE NORTH 2022 – THE REVIEW A summary of a successful day of learning and networking

MANAGEMENT

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UTILISING PAID SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTS TO DRIVE PUPIL NUMBERS Using social media adverts to promote your school’s open evening

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WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY? How do school business leaders embed ‘psychological safety’ into practice?

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CELEBRATING YOUR WAY TO STRONGER CONNECTIONS Ways to use an upcoming school anniversary to connect with your community

16 ICT MATTERS

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SWITCHED ON The latest news and views from the world of ICT and edtech

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TECHNO GEEK Building your school’s cyber resilience

Education Executive is the first business management magazine written exclusively for school business managers and bursars, bringing you the latest issues affecting your role, from finance to premises, procurement to HR. EdExec delivers the lowdown on all the hottest topics in education management right here, every month.

@EdExec Design

Graphic designer Amanda Lancaster alancasterdesign.com

Editorial

Editor Ellie Potter eleanor@intelligentmedia.co.uk

Sales

info@intelligentmedia.co.uk

Publisher

LIVE IT

42 LIVE IT

Close your eyes. Inhale. Count to five… now exhale. Time to take a few moments out for some light and interesting reading – a wellearned break from numbers and statistics

Vicki Baloch vicki@intelligentmedia.co.uk

NEWS AND VIEWS

NEWS

NEWS

The latest news and views from the world of education

School excursions in danger of being scrapped to pay teaching staff increase School trips could be cancelled to help cope with rising energy bills. While the government has claimed to increase school funding amidst the energy crisis by recommending energy deals, financial stability in schools is still in dire need of help. Head teacher of Shenley Academy, Jane Bartlett, annually organises educational field trips to Bletchley Park so students can learn about code breakers in World War II. However, rising transportation costs has made the trip uncertain. “These are students whose parents cannot afford to take them to museums, art galleries and places like Bletchley Park, or to travel abroad to different countries to experience the culture,” says Jane.

The field trip cuts stem from the fact that the five per cent increase in teachers pay in England comes from the school’s current budget.

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Our school couldn’t operate without her

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October 2022

@dragonlovingLFC: Finally getting to the point where I can see the wood for the trees #sbm #sbl

Schools in England risk losing TAs to supermarkets over ‘chronic’ low pay A report has found that the cost of living crisis is driving teaching assistants into other work, and budget cuts will mean fewer of them. Schools in England risk ‘haemorrhaging’ vital teaching assistants to better-paid jobs in supermarkets and other vacancies because of the cost of living crisis, with recruitment becoming increasingly difficult.

Headteachers have also said that cuts to school budgets and promised staff pay rises – that will not be funded by the government – will put schools in a desperate situation, and many will have to cut TA roles, taking away support for some of the most vulnerable children.

The most effective actions taken by schools to retain TAs were ‘including them in the school community and school processes, such as lesson planning, and investing in, and supporting, their development as classroom professionals’ the report states.

NEWS

NEWS AND VIEWS

Cost crisis grows as parents fill funding gap Headteachers have raised the alarm about a looming funding crisis in schools, with some parents urged to make donations, and parent-teacher associations on standby to plug funding gaps for classroom essentials. As energy bills and wage costs rise, school leaders say money from PTA fundraising efforts will be needed to cover core costs rather than ‘nice to have’ extras; in affluent areas, where PTAs are able to raise huge sums, it could even be used to save jobs and help pay bills. Elsewhere, schools say PTAs will struggle to raise funds this winter as the cost of living crisis hits households. Simon Kidwell, the principal of Hartford Manor primary school in Cheshire, said his school would not be asking parents for additional donations. “The PTA are very, very, aware that parents don’t have the same money available.”

Mental health counsellors in schools ‘save millions a year’ Schools that provide children with one-to-one mental health counsellors save the taxpayer millions of pounds, a report suggests. An analysis of the Place2Be school counselling service found that it generates up to £36m in benefits each year. The research, from Pro Bono Economics, found Place2Be’s one-toone counselling generates eight pounds in benefits for every one pound spent; in primary schools across the UK this means it generates up to £36m in long-term benefits each year.

These include higher wages and better employment outcomes for children in later life, as well as reduced costs to taxpayers from lower truancy and crime rates and less need for mental health support, the report said.

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October 2022

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NEWS AND VIEWS

NEWS REPORT

Social mobility tsar casts doubt over grammar school revival in England As reported by the Guardian, KATHARINE BIRBALSINGH says disadvantaged pupils with few resources struggle to win places

T

he UK’s social mobility ‘tsar’ has cast doubt on Liz to reflect the benefits that many got from grammar schools, in Truss’s plans to revive grammar schools in England, the wider education system. And so we’re definitely going to arguing that they mainly benefit children whose families be beavering away at that, and see where we get to.” can afford to coach them to pass entrance exams.

Birbalsingh said she looked forward to hearing how Katharine Birbalsingh, the headteacher named last year by Malthouse planned to address the selection problem, which Truss as chair of the government’s Social Mobility Commission, she suggested “didn’t exist” in 1975. The creation of new said selective schools educated few disadvantaged or working-class grammar schools has been banned in England since 1998, pupils because they struggled to win places. but Truss is said to be keen to repeal “The problem with grammar schools the ban. nowadays is that, because there’s such an Campaigners against selection industry around preparing children to get say the tests favour those who have Campaigners into grammar schools, if you don’t have been privately tutored or who attend against selection the resources or wherewithal to prepare independent schools, leaving few places your child to get in, then you can be left for children from poorer backgrounds. say the tests out,” Birbalsingh said in an interview “The problem with exams is they favour those with LBC’s Nick Ferrari. never test raw ability. They are often who have been “You look at grammar schools and testing the preparation for them, which think, ‘How many children from deprived is right and proper,” Birbalsingh said. privately tutored backgrounds are there? How many “But, if you haven’t had that kind of working-class children are there?’ There preparation, how are you meant to aren’t so many, these days. compete with those who have? That’s “It’s not wrong to suggest that, in the past, grammar the problem with grammar schools.” schools would propel certain working-class children forward.

Birbalsingh is the founder of the Michaela Community I’m not sure they do that so much nowadays.”

School in Wembley, north-west London, known for its firm Kit Malthouse, the education secretary, said that Truss discipline and high academic standards – which has led her to wanted to “address the strong desire in quite a lot of parents be known ‘Britain’s strictest headteacher’.

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October 2022

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NEWS AND VIEWS

SPOTLIGHT ON

SPOTLIGHT ON

Academy transfers and funding These statistics analyse the number of academies that have moved trusts from the financial year 2013-14 to 2021-22 and the total grant funding provided Percentage of academies where grant funding was provided for transfers during 2021-22: 23%

Percentage of academies that moved trust in England during 2021-22: 1.8%

Total number of academies that have moved trust during 2021-22: 176

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October 2022

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TEAM MANAGEMENT

Dealing with other people‘s opinions LAURA WILLIAMS, school leadership coach, trainer and SBL podcast host, discusses how best to react to other people’s opinions so that you can stop the dreaded imposter syndrome from creeping in

A

few months ago I was shopping in Tesco and I overheard a little girl telling her mum that she wasn’t going to eat the food her mum had just put in the trolley because she didn’t like it. Mum, rather amused, rationalised that, as she hadn’t tried it before, she couldn’t know whether she truly liked it or not. The little girl was not having any of it, and a full-on (light-hearted and cute) debate ensued that lasted for two whole aisles.

At the time, I was shopping with my mum, and she laughed and said that I was the same when I was younger; a little girl with big opinions who loved a debate.

Of course, that’s exactly how my mum wanted me to be – and it’s true; I’m never short of an opinion, nor the confidence to share it! When you’re young, sharing your opinions, loud and unfiltered, it is

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October 2022

considered cute and funny but, as you get older, you learn the importance of timing (definitely an art!) and how to share your opinions in a more professional and tactful way.

However...

NOT EVERYBODY DEVELOPS THIS SKILL I guarantee that you know someone who is not only full of opinions but has the worst timing, worst delivery and worst articulation ever. Do they do this on purpose? Probably not - but if someone gives you their unfiltered, unsolicited - and potentially unkind - opinion straight out of the gate (on a regular basis) this can be a real confidence knocker.

Because sometimes, when someone hits us with an opinion, it feels like judgement.

That feeling of being judged, and

being found wanting, is something that I know many fellow SBLs struggle with – it hits us right in that spot; the spot where imposter syndrome lives. So here’s my take on how to deal with other people’s opinions – especially if you find yourself feeling judged and vulnerable.

LOOK AT WHO THE PERSON IS ● Is it someone you know, trust, love and respect? ● Are

they an expert in the topic they have an opinion about? ● Have

they got a good reason to believe their input will be useful to you?

LOOK AT WHAT THEY’VE SAID ● Is what they’ve said true? ● S ure, their delivery might sting, but do they have a point? ● I s there anything you can learn or use to help you be better or do better?

TEAM MANAGEMENT

CONSIDER WHY THEY’VE SAID IT ● D o they care about you, or what you’re trying to achieve? ● Are they trying to help you? ● W hat is their motivation for sharing their opinion with you?

If someone is sharing an opinion that is not only personal, but also negative, it’s more likely that not only will you remember it, you’ll believe it – because you’ll dismiss anything positive.

DO NOT FALL INTO THIS TRAP! ● Opinions are subjective. ● Opinions are not facts. ● Take them or leave them.

LITERALLY, TAKE WHAT’S USEFUL AND DUMP THE REST Of course, it’s normal to reflect on comments, and question ourselves (and we absolutely should!) especially if someone’s opinion doesn’t sit with our own – but don’t lose perspective.

An opinion, is just that – an opinion. It may not have been shared at the best time, or in the best way, it may even feel brutal and unfair – but it’s worth remembering that just because it has been said, doesn’t make it true.

Even if the person who said it is paid more than you, it doesn’t mean that they’re right.

So, the next time you come across someone with opinion-based verbal diarrhoea, wang a mental ‘warning’ label on what they’ve said and remember that, when all is said and done, the only opinion that truly counts is yours.

Being able to create a superhero shield to help you deal with and, where necessary, deflect negative opinion is an essential survival skill in the SBL role.

We need to be able to filter accordingly without absorbing inaccurate, negative and toxic views that paralyse us and make us feel ‘less’. Struggling with our own negative thoughts about ourselves or our performance is bad enough without worrying about what others might be thinking as well!

So, let’s talk about imposter syndrome.

It’s something I speak to SBLs about a lot. It’s not SBL-specific but because we are often the ‘only ones’ in our schools, that feeling that we don’t deserve to be there, or that we’re about to be found out, can become overwhelming, isolating and, at times, debilitating.

We keep the school running, but we’re not in charge and because we do a bit of everything, it can make us question if we’re really good at anything. If you’ve ever felt like this, then here’s the best tip I’ve ever come across (and it works!)

“Shine your light out, not in” – Marie Forleo Instead of focusing on why you feel like an imposter, focus on other people and how you can help them; how you can add value, how you can make an impact?

When you shine out, and you take

LEADERSHIP BY EXAMPLE

An opinion, is just that – an opinion

concrete action to help others, to do what needs to be done and to do it to the best of your ability, you are proving yourself wrong and, in this situation, that’s a good thing. When you shine out and not in, those imposter feelings are not the focus of your attention and overlooking them will diminish them.

The truth is that feeling like an imposter DOES NOT mean you are one! You want to be your best, you want to do the best for your school because you care and caring about your school, the work you do and how well you do it, doesn’t make you bad at it. (Sounds silly now I’ve said that right?!) Caring about how well you do your job means that you’re self-aware – you question yourself, you want to find out what you need to know so you can do the right thing and do it well.

And that’s a superpower right there. …And let me tell you a little secret – all of us feel like an imposter at times and every single SBL - yes, including you – is a bona fide superhero.

Remember: “We are only what we do, not what we say we are” – Isadore Sharp (“Nor are we what other people say we are!” – Me)

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LEADERSHIP BY EXAMPLE

S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y

Dispose of poor waste management practices

Nearing the end of our series which focuses on how to address each area of the Eco Schools Award, HELEN BURGE, deputy COO at The Priory Learning Trust, emphasises why taking the time to sort through your waste is beneficial for both your school and the world around you

H

ow do you know you’re approaching the half-term holidays? By spotting the skip in the staff car park!

Of course, there are loads of other indicators that a half-term is nearing, but a big one has to be the start of the clearing out of cupboards of resources and paperwork. Long forgotten items, some needing repair, that had been stored safely at the back of the cupboard are brought out into daylight and judgements made on their future fate.

The skip fills up fast – there’s a bit of a rush to ensure their waste gets in the skip before it gets too full. Stuff is also

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hidden, so no-one can see them putting it in the skip – you know, when people realise that they’ve found something that should have gone home with a child a couple of years ago, or when they’ve found something they’ve assured their colleague wasn’t in their cupboard!

They’ve been thrown, out of sight, out of mind. However, as Annie Leonard, executive director of Greenpeace USA says, “There is no such thing as ‘away’.

When you throw something away, it must go somewhere.”

You may spot plastic polly-pockets and folders, still full of old learning schemes and phonics worksheets tipped

S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y

LEADERSHIP BY EXAMPLE

The school pays hundreds of pounds for the disposal of this mix of recyclable items to go into landfill into the skip; games with missing bits, broken plastic boxes, jammed laminators, cardboard boxes, computers with old operating systems no longer being maintained, defunct light bulb tubes, Coomber cassette players - you name it, it ends up in the skip rather than in the appropriate stream of waste management.

The school pays hundreds of pounds for the disposal of this mix of recyclable items to go into landfill - which took an afternoon to put in a skip and could be recycled for a fraction of the cost if managed properly. Plus, often, another skip may be required as the caretaker needed one for all the holiday jobs they have planned. Sound familiar to your school?

Sorting this material into waste management streams before it leaves the school site is the most effective way of ensuring the waste is recycled and landfill is reduced. Completing a waste stream audit might help focus your attention on your school’s priorities in relation to waste management, so collect the information about bin size, frequency of collection, cost, etc. for all your waste stream items in one spreadsheet and then use this to create your own waste management priorities.

Give a reminder to staff that some

Click here to access where printer cartridges and batteries can be recycled documents should be disposed of via the confidential waste route and check your retention schedule too; you might be able to clear some space by shredding unneeded archive materials and some items may have a value to someone else.

Any items that have a plug, use batteries, need charging or have a picture of a crossed out wheelie bin on are known as Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and should not be disposed of in the bin or skip, but can be recycled at your local recycling centre, donated to charities (look at www.computers4charity.org) or you could contact the supplier for advice – many have recycle schemes and trade in opportunities. Printer cartridges and batteries can all be recycled easily using schemes like https://www. therecyclingfactory.com/business and https:// www.bigbatteryhunt.co.uk/.

Some of these schemes can actually generate a small amount of additional funding for the school. In fact, many items can generate income, or make a difference for others in the UK and

around the world, such as the https:// crisppacketproject.com/ which turns crisp packets into survival items or can be recycled by https://www.terracycle.com/ en-GB/about-terracycle/.

One of the schools in our trust has a ‘Preloved Prom’ and ‘Somewhere Special’ service. They collect donations of prom dresses, suits and accessories and house them in a beautiful room within the school, available for all to borrow for their special occasions. All our schools recycle preloved uniforms and, at the end of Term 6, some of our primary school children donate their school shoes to https://www.educatethekids.com/ for the pupils of Jolaurabi School in Kenya.

Many of these items would have been thrown away, if not in 2022 then in future years, but there was still some use and value in them. Let us manage our school resources the best we can - which includes after we have finished using them.

October 2022 13

LEADERSHIP BY EXAMPLE

COMPLIANCE

School resource management selfassessment checklist This self-assessment checklist helps academy trusts check that they are managing resources effectively and identify any adjustments they need to make SUBMIT YOUR CHECKLIST The deadline for academy trusts to submit their 2022to-2023 checklist is 15 March 2023. You will be asked to use the online form to submit your return. A 2022-to2023 version of the form will be available from January 2023. The 2022-to-2023 checklist support notes provide guidance on the questions.

OVERVIEW All academy trusts which have an open academy must complete the self-assessment checklist each year. The checklist helps governing bodies and trust boards to: ● c heck they have appropriate financial management and governance arrangements; ● c heck they are meeting the right standards to achieve a good level of financial health and resource management; ● i dentify areas for change to make sure resources are used to support high-quality teaching and the best education outcomes for pupils.

The checklist was previously part of the school resource management self-assessment tool (SRMSAT).

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value for money; protecting the public purse.

● ●

As you’re completing your self-assessment checklist, you may find it useful to refer to: ● t he 2022 to 2023 checklist support notes; ● t he Academies Trust Handbook; ● t he Governance Handbook; ● g uidance on operating an academy trust as a going concern; ● i nformation on integrated curriculum and financial planning; ● g uidance on good estate management in schools; ● t he school resource management collection.

SELF-ASSESSMENT DASHBOARD The self-assessment dashboard helps trusts to complete their checklists. To find your self-assessment dashboard: ● s earch for your school(s) on the schools financial benchmarking service; ● c lick on ‘start a comparison’; ● c lick on ‘self-assessment dashboard’.

WHO NEEDS TO COMPLETE THE SELF-ASSESSMENT CHECKLIST? All academy trusts which have an open academy on 31 December 2022 must complete and submit a 2022-to2023 self-assessment checklist. Local authority maintained schools should use the schools’ financial value standard.

Guidance on completing the self-assessment dashboard is available. The dashboard provides red, amber or green (RAG) ratings against a school’s data. This indicates how its spending and characteristics compare with similar schools, or nationally recognised bandings, and includes possible follow-up actions.

The dashboard was previously part of the SRMSAT.

COMPLETE YOUR CHECKLIST The checklist covers six areas: ● g overnance; ● t rust strategy; ● s etting the annual budget; ● s taffing;

CONTACT THE DFE Send feedback on the checklist and guidance to :school. resourcemanagement@education.gov.uk.

If you’d like to receive occasional updates from DfE on school resource management sign up to the DfE’s school business professional contact list.

October 2022

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LEADERSHIP BY EXAMPLE

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October 2022 15

LEADERSHIP BY EXAMPLE

STUDENT WELLBEING

Supporting student mental health In this long read, DR FIONA AUBREY-SMITH explores how your school can proactively address, and look after, student mental health

I

n the aftermath of the COVID pandemic it is no secret that young people in our schools are facing even more significant mental health challenges than before. In a survey of young people undertaken by Mind 68% of students reported being absent from school due to mental health and anxiety.

Whilst this may be a well-known challenge facing schools, there remains a gap between knowing about the issue and being able to provide appropriate support; for example, just over three-in-five children (62%) said that they felt they had little or no support from their school with their mental health.

Perhaps disturbingly, nearly half (48%) of young people attending school reported that they had been disciplined at school for behaviours which they felt were directly related to their mental health. In the most severe cases, young people reported being physically restrained and put in isolation away from their friends – issues which compounded their existing anxieties and suffering.

As set out in Section 78 of the Education Act (2002) and the Academies Act (2010), schools have statutory

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October 2022

duties to ‘promote the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school and of society, and prepare pupils at the school for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life’. So school leaders are, therefore, presented with a challenge to overcome; if we recognise that student mental health is an issue affecting the majority of our students, as well as a statutory requirement, and we hear what young people are saying to us - that they do not feel that they are receiving appropriate understanding or support - what can be done?

ONE SCHOOL’S EXPERIENCE Raynham Primary School, in Edmonton, reflected upon exactly this challenge. As Elizabeth Coffi, one of the teaching team at that time explains, “Staff reported that children’s anxiety relating to the challenges they faced at home often presented as being unable to focus for extended periods of time, being unable to regulate emotions, or seeking negative attention from peers and adults; for some children it was as

STUDENT WELLBEING

LEADERSHIP BY EXAMPLE

Once the mindfulness work was embedded the school then moved on to focus on how our thoughts can have a physical and mental impact on each of us simple as being unable to motivate themselves. These issues often became more pronounced after a weekend or holiday.”

Hannah Brown, another member of the teaching team at that time, continues, “Some pupils said, ‘I’ll never be able to do it’ or avoided doing something because they’d failed at it in the past. Feelings like this related to what these children believed about what made them ‘good’ at something – whether school work, sport, or even their ability to manage their emotions and behaviour. Some children tended to give up on challenging tasks easily, or avoid tasks they failed at before - believing that being ‘good’ at a particular activity was a fixed state, and was something they couldn’t control.”

Marva Rollins OBE, then headteacher of Raynham Primary School, engaged with the charity Success Club which was able to offer targeted support for children vulnerable to under-achievement. As Hannah explained, “We were conscious that there was a real need to teach the skills of self-regulation and self-control within our curriculum. Success Club supported us and children were explicitly taught how to collaborate, how to set goals and work towards them and, perhaps most importantly, the skill of mindfulness. Once a week there would be a one-hour session which always started with 10 minutes of guided mindfulness. Of course, to begin with, some children found this very difficult, but a few months into the programme it was those same children who were requesting ‘mindfulness time’. We therefore took the decision

to include focused mindfulness every day in order to embed these skills into everyday life so that the children became wellpractised.

“Sessions then covered collaborative working, where the children completed tasks as a team and were then asked to reflect on how they worked as a team, learning to give and receive feedback. In addition, there was big emphasis on teaching the children how to effectively set a goal, using daily, weekly and monthly targets to scaffold these, and strategies to hold themselves to account.”

Once the mindfulness work was embedded the school then moved on to focus on how our thoughts can have a physical and mental impact on each of us. “I vividly remember one of the early sessions where children were asked to write about a mistake that they had made recently, within a lesson, and to describe how that particular error made them feel,” recalls Elizabeth. “To my surprise, some children, shockingly, were expecting to fail, so the mistake confirmed their early negatives thoughts. This is despite the climate of ‘Yes we can’ which shaped the ethos of the school.

“Tony Dallas, who founded Success Club, had been guiding us through this process and asked them to crumple the paper and to imagine throwing it away. Following that, they un-crumpled the paper and each of the lines created represented the synaptic activity that happens in your brain when a mistake is made. Children were asked to colour each

October 2022 17

LEADERSHIP BY EXAMPLE

STUDENT WELLBEING

Schools have also found evidence of children sharing their mindfulness exercises with families at home, increasing family wellbeing and parental engagement

of the lines and stick this - now transformed - piece of paper into one of their maths or English books as a reminder to help them to use mistakes to strengthen your brain.”

PROFOUND EFFECT The impact of this approach to mindfulness has a profound effect on children. Schools such as Raynham report evidence of overall attainment, behaviour and attendance improving, as well as children becoming more confident, more resilient when faced with challenges (in particular, with SATs tests), able to set their own personal and academic goals, manage stress and problem-solve. Perhaps poignantly, given the source of anxieties for some children, schools have also found evidence of children sharing their mindfulness exercises with families at home, increasing family wellbeing and parental engagement.

“These benefits impacted both children and staff; embedding a sustainable model for both children’s and staff wellbeing,” explains Marva. “Most of us working with children and young people would recognise that our own states of mind affect and define the mood of the classroom.

It is important, therefore, to recognise that mindfulness plays a role in all of our lives – not just for our children and young people.”

As school leaders we set the tone. Our staff and students watch our responses, our stress regulation and reduction and our self-compassion. “Dealing with the mental health and wellbeing of the schools’ community is everyone’s responsibility,” Tony Dallas, former youth advisor to the

18

October 2022

office of the deputy prime minister, points out. “Many children, school staff and parents have pandemic stories to tell - they are all traumatised to some degree. The whole school needs time to heal together – which can be achieved by taking simple steps - creating mindful moments using shared techniques throughout the day, or using mindful timeout cards so that, if anyone is particularly anxious, they can have a three-minute breathing space.

“School staff and parents need to be given the proper support to create mindful classrooms and mindful homes.

This fully-inclusive approach erases the stigma around mental health and supports those who are most vulnerable.”

This is the first school year since 2018-19 that is not being overshadowed by the logistics of a pandemic - there is an opportunity for us all to reset how we think about ourselves, those we learn and work with, and our aspirations for the year ahead. Building on the experiences and insights of those who have seen such huge positive impact of mindfulness practices on the lives of young people most at risk of underachieving, perhaps this presents us with an opportunity to consider: 1. Engaging with mindfulness resources ourselves (see links below).

2. Exploring ways in which mindfulness programmes can be brought into school for the benefit of students, staff and parents (see links to funded programmes below).

USEFUL RESOURCES: Free online resources: 60 seconds to success Information about funded mindfulness programmes

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LEADERSHIP BY EXAMPLE

EDEXEC LIVE - THE REVIEW

EdExec LIVE South and North 2022 – the review Everything you need to know about what happened during our highly successful EdExec LIVE events in London on 9 June and Manchester on 6 October!

W

e were so excited to welcome SBLs from all over the country to our EdExec LIVE events in London on 9 June, and Manchester on 6 October. SBLs travelled from far and wide to join us for what promised to be two great events – and that they were!

There was a real buzz in the atmosphere as people began to gather at both the RCGP building in London and the Raddison Blu Hotel in Manchester. Both venues were filled with SBLs reuniting for the first time since the last event, SBLs finally meeting in person after connecting online, and SBLs making brand-new friendships with colleagues they had never met in person or online before.

After settling in to the venue with a hot drink and refreshments (you can’t digest new ideas and advice on an empty stomach, after all!) SBLs were keen to start their days of learning. Both days featured a variety of seminars which were packed full of practical information and advice which the SBLs could take back and implement in their own schools.

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October 2022

Christalla Jamil – EdExec LIVE South

Being 10% braver to disrupt the status quo for SBLs

The morning began with Christalla’s impassioned seminar on the value of the SBL role. The status quo in education means that many school business leaders are not members of the senior leadership team or chief operation officers in trusts. Christalla described how SBL pay is not commensurate with the worth that SBLs bring to their schools. Although SBLs may not be officially recognised as school leaders within the school system, Christalla Jamil and WomenEd disagree; she told the delegates how they want to help us to disrupt all of this so SBLs are paid and recognised for the amazing work they do.

EDEXEC LIVE - THE REVIEW

LEADERSHIP BY EXAMPLE

A fantastic networking event.

Excellent CPD in the seminars and meeting up with other SBL Connect Twitter members - Mandy Hancock

Micon Metcalfe – EdExec LIVE South

Exploring the range of generalist and specialist career routes open to SBLs

The changes to the educational landscape over the past decade have seen the role of the SBL also change. Change represents opportunity and, in this session, Micon explored the generalist and specialist career routes open to SBLs, and the need for generalist business support at both school or multi academy trust level. Micon discussed why the school-based SBL role remains integral - in spite of ongoing structural changes. She encouraged SBLs to feel confident about the professional persona of their role.

Jonny Coates – EdExec LIVE South

Effective school estate management

Over the last few years good estate management in schools has been pushed up the DfE agenda, and the parameters change on a regular basis. In this

seminar Jonny asked delegates how highly estate management features in budget and operational priorities in their individual settings. He explained how you can strategically plan for the unforeseen circumstances that inevitably arise in all schools, and how you can maximise the school calendar or time available for projects.

Cheryl Campbell – EdExec LIVE South

Developing an anti-racism HR strategy in schools

Many schools are examining their workforces through a diversity lens and thinking about how to effect change. Rather than making kneejerk, token, appointments, in this seminar Cheryl explored how delegates could develop a strategy that meets the needs of their settings. Delegates are shared their experiences and challenges in their own specific contexts and examined what they wanted to achieve. All delegates took away practical tips to enable them to develop an effective anti-racism HR strategy in their own schools.

October 2022 21

LEADERSHIP BY EXAMPLE

EDEXEC LIVE - THE REVIEW

Brilliant event! I love attending; it’s worth the time out of school. Definitely my favourite conference! Andrea Howard

Gary Henderson – EdExec LIVE South

Dr Pooky Knightsmith – EdExec LIVE South

Preventing attacks: is your cyber security up to scratch?

Supporting student mental health

Schools are increasingly faced with cyber-attacks and cyber incidents. This mirrors the global trend of increasing levels of cyber threat, and comes at a time when the pandemic has driven more and better use of technology in schools. In this seminar Gary gave his top tips on how to develop user awareness and a strong organisational cyber security culture to help create awareness around cyber risk in delegates’ schools.

The past couple of years has pushed student mental health ever higher up our agendas. The COVID pandemic brought with it a shadow pandemic of mental ill health at a time when access to stretched specialist services was reduced; even now, it can be hard for school staff to know what to do or where to turn. In this seminar Pooky taught the delegates how to recognise the early warning signs that a student needs support and then talked through the steps they should then take once this has been identified.

Helen Burge – EdExec LIVE South

Creating a culture of sustainability in school

In this seminar Helen Burge discussed how to get started on creating a greener school.

She focused on two main questions; how can your school or trust make adaptations to be greener? How can the SBL play a strategic role in championing the green agenda and encouraging other stakeholders to get involved? Helen gave great advice to delegates on how to turn thoughts into tangible action, and how to get key stakeholders onside.

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Justin Smith – EdExec LIVE South Simon Hepburn – EdExec LIVE North

The business case for school marketing

In their respective seminars in London and Manchester, Justin and Simon explained the ‘marketing’ process and shared examples of schools that have taken a formal, strategic, approach and achieved these goals – without spending vast amounts on advertising!

The EdExec team worked really hard all day to ensure all the delegates had a really good day. The seminars were really good, the exhibitors were really good, the refreshments and lunch were really good, the glass of wine at the end was really good - in fact it was a really good day! – Anonymous

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LEADERSHIP BY EXAMPLE

EDEXEC LIVE - THE REVIEW

I would recommend this event to any SBL or senior leader in a school. It’s a superb event pitched at the right level for everyone. The variety of exhibitors was relevant to all educational settings.

Great to get back to this type of networking Angela Ogden

Audience members went on to share their own experiences, including a fundraising video and a student-led podcast directed at parents to let them know what they had been learning, tying in with Simon’s final point - use your resources!

Including students and school buildings in campaigns saves money at the same time as achieving your goals.

Husham Khan – EdExec LIVE South and North

Financial intelligence for school business leaders

The education landscape continues to change rapidly and, as a result, so are the skills required by SBLs. In a post-pandemic climate, where bills are continuing to rise whilst budgets stay stagnant, advice on financial intelligence has never been more needed - and this was clear to see in Husham’s packed session. He explored the new financial concepts now required by many schools and trusts to enable more informed and effective decision-making.

Delegates left the seminar with new formulas, innovations and ideas on how to tackle the pressing issue of finance.

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Stephen Blackbeard – EdExec LIVE South Andrew Mackrell – EdExec LIVE North

How to review current software to aid decision-making for new systems

COVID-19 was, arguably, the catalyst for the digital transformation of the education sector. The list of digital systems in play in schools and trusts is vast, and it’s only going to grow.

Momentum towards adopting software to streamline processes, unlock efficiencies and improve workflows is gathering pace; yet, while the systems themselves are efficient, unless they are implemented correctly, the scope for genuine benefit is minimal. Stephen gave practical advice on how to navigate the edtech market and emphasised the importance of choosing the right system to match each school’s unique needs.

An interesting and positive day. I left feeling re-energised and look forward to attending future events Janet Standen

EdExec Live is my favourite conference.

The seminars are always of a high quality and provide me with valuable information to help me in my role, plus lots of ideas to recommend to my colleagues. In addition, the opportunity to network with SBLs from a wide range of school settings is great Jo Gathern

Tracey Gray – EdExec LIVE South and North

Absence management – return to work planning

Often, it falls to the school business leader to play a significant role in staff absence management.

SBLs can find themselves managing complex, highly emotive, situations which do not come with a ‘one size fits all’ formula. Tracey explained the ways in which delegates could develop their skills to enable them to successfully achieve a return to work for most staff. The session expanded on the ‘Why’, ‘What’ and ‘How’ of successful long-term absence management and phased return to work.

Phil Burton – EdExec LIVE South and North

Achieving excellence in health and safety

Phil Burton gave audience members an insight into effective compliance recording and monitoring strategies for health and safety. He shared effective strategies and processes from outside the education sector which won his school the National Excellence in Health and Safety Award. The audience left with an abundance

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EDEXEC LIVE - THE REVIEW

It is a day I look forward to every year. A chance to learn and to meet other SBLs. Location is really good for me too! Vix Moore

of tips and tricks to transform and renew their approach to health and safety in their schools.

Phil shared experiences from his vast experience in a wide variety of disciplines with the audience and led an engaging discussion on the challenges affecting their workplaces as they aim to achieve excellence in health and safety.

Laura Williams – EdExec North

How to create a positive team culture

A team is, ultimately, the sum of its parts, and each team is different in terms of size, context and potential.

Although each team may look different, the team culture you want to create should always have positivity at its core. In this seminar Laura explored the tools and methods you need in order to ensure your team is thriving in a positive environment led by you. With Laura’s encouragement and support, delegates reflected on what type of leader they thought they were, whether their team would agree, and what type of leader they aspire to be. Interesting stuff!

Neil Limbrick – EdExec LIVE North

which had delegates thinking and laughing at the same time - Neil helped them to understand how to assess their IT provision, and how to focus on the areas that matter and will have the biggest impact in their schools.

Robin Harrison – EdExec LIVE North

Developing an environmental sustainability policy and action plan

Robin shared ways for schools to implement sustainable processes in their schools before encouraging audience members to come up with their own ideas. He has worked at Rushcliffe Spencer Academy as a school business manager for over 26 years, which means he has seen the growing effects of the climate crisis on schools. Robin delved into the DfE sustainability agenda - required reading when moving to implement environmental sustainability into your school - and ways to involve the students in environmental sustainability (grow your own vegetable patches and litter picking clubs, for example). His highly interactive workshop showed audience members how to develop an environmental sustainability action plan that will really make a difference.

The SBM guide to IT strategy

Schools and MATs invest a lot of time and money into IT resources, including devices, software and licenses - yet few SBM’s feel their organisations have a robust strategy for the development and sustainable use of IT. In this thought-provoking and humorous workshop -

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Geoff Chandler – EdExec North

Digital transformation for schools – why, what and how?

Geoff explained the many benefits of digital transformation in schools and MATs and how

I thought it was an excellent event that gave good value. I would wholeheartedly recommend colleagues attend Rob Owens

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EDEXEC LIVE - THE REVIEW

Left: exhibition Top right: North podcast panel Bottom right: seminar session

delegates could start a digital transformation in their own schools. Senior leaders often get conflicting messages regarding what is possible, and the best way to achieve it, often from sources with either vested interests or limited experience of successful practice in schools (or both!)

Geoff cut through these mixed messages to give tangible advice on creating a truly effective digital strategy and how to engage stakeholders on a school’s digital transformation journey.

Nigel Milligan – EdExec North

How to get more from your IT support in school

Many schools feel they do not get value from their IT support provision. Nigel believes there are some educational IT support services who focus on up-selling products rather than delivering the proactive IT support and development programme that school staff and pupils deserve to receive. In his session Nigel spoke about the wide range of IT issues that schools are experiencing and called for a change of mindset in schools to embrace technology as part of the school’s infrastructure.

He also shared ways to help staff get more from their school’s IT support by encouraging communication with IT support providers to develop effective IT processes and routines. He also provided really useful guidance for delegates on how to challenge IT support providers in ways that get results.

Sally Boaden – EdExec North

A journey of support for SBLs

#NotBroken came about one Friday morning in Sally’s makeshift study; her intention was to support those who were on the brink of handing in their notice;

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the journey from #NotBroken to SBL Support Hub has been immense. In a highly interactive session Sally walked the delegates through how this looked, how it is today, and what SBLs can expect in the future.

Sally encouraged the delegates to reflect on their own wellbeing and some heartfelt and interesting discussions on SBL wellbeing were the result.

Both our South and North events ended with a very special live version of Laura William’s School Business Leadership Podcast. At both events Laura was joined by a stellar line-up of SBLs who shared their anecdotes, wisdom and struggles with the audience who laughed, listened, and asked some great questions.

THE SOUTH PANEL: Kevin Parker: Head of business Helen Burge: Deputy chief operating officer Cheryl Campbell: CEO and founder ABBLed and business director Micon Metcalfe: Chief financial officer

THE NORTH PANEL: Husham Khan: School business leader and author Jonny Coates: Chief operating officer Sally Boaden: Chief operating officer Rebecca Cunliffe: Chief financial officer

The podcast was a great way to round off two very successful days of SBL CPD. Thank you so much to all of the wonderful speakers who delivered fantastic seminars, and to all of the amazing SBLs who attended on either day. We can’t wait to welcome you back next year – keep an eye out for our 2023 dates which we will be announcing in the new year!

EdExec LIVE is probably my favourite conference. It’s not too large and has a good range of seminars from current practitioners.

Nothing is more powerful than sharing best practice Sue Prickett

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Primary Schools

Secondary Schools

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86%

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MANAGEMENT

MARKETING

Utilising paid social media adverts to drive pupil numbers DAVID CARNE explains how using social media adverts led to record numbers attending his school’s open evening!

T

he autumn term is, traditionally, the season where school leaders will probably be reflecting on the best approach to communicating their marketing messages and securing pupil numbers for another year.

Around 18 months ago my own school began asking whether there was a better way to attract parents and students. At around the same time I was completing the first year of an international MBA and happened to be studying marketing strategy and tactics. Our traditional method of marketing had been newspaper advertising and yet, intuitively and based on knowledge of studying how commercial organisations market, we started to explore social media marketing. We already had fairly active social media channels, and were posting our open evenings there, but we decided to explore paid advertising.

With little more than the conviction and belief that paid social media marketing would be much more effective, I set about trying to convince the headteacher and governing body to let me ditch the newspaper adverts and move our campaign entirely online. Fortunately, the statistics were on my side. In

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the UK around 85% of the population are active social media users, of which at least 75% of adults aged between 25 and 44 access Facebook at least once a day, on average spending 2.36 hours a day checking all the 4.8 social media platforms they are members of. Figures which dwarf newspaper readers.

Having done a little research we decided to focus our marketing on Facebook and Instagram, as these were two of the most popular platforms with our target demographic.

Over a four-week period we spent the princely sum of £250 on paid social media advertising, resulting in a 50% increase on our best year’s open evening attendance figures! We had so many people arriving that, at one point, we had queues out of our driveway down the main road! Not only had we saved several thousand pounds; we had experienced significant growth. The risk had paid off.

All this is a great story, and it would be easy to stop here with some kind of call to action encouraging readers to embrace social media but in using social media we actually transformed the way we market, and I would like to highlight why I believe our campaign had so much success.

MARKETING

TARGETING Firstly, we got the targeting right. We chose to advertise only to people aged 28 to 55, who had children between nine and 12 years old, living within a 10-mile radius of the college and - this may be controversial - but we targeted only women. This was a calculated risk on the assumption that, in general, women play a greater role in influencing decisions on which secondary school their children attend. None of this targeting would have been possible using traditional advertising methods.

ENGAGING We also ran a campaign which deliberately encouraged prospective parents to engage and ask questions. In my school we have a member of staff, Karen, who checks the social media posts, responds to messages and reacts to what users are posting. Getting engagement right was crucial in beginning a relationship with those prospective parents. In my view, every school needs a Karen!

CREATING Our campaign was also extremely visual in nature. We also designed our content mindful that almost 99% of users access content on their mobile phones, not a computer. We used pictures and videos formatted to be readable in a portrait format and took advantage of the great templates available on Canva (other platforms are available) to give a professional feel to our content. Where possible, good quality video will attract by far the greatest number of views.

TAILORING During our social media campaign it became apparent that a number of parents were concerned about transport in a particular local town, and a competitor school appeared to be telling parents that our school had lesser sporting facilities. We provide our own transportation and have extensive sporting facilities - including a FA certified astroturf pitch - so we ran two extremely targeted mini-campaigns to get messages out

MANAGEMENT

We had so many people arriving that, at one point, we had queues out of our driveway down the main road! on these issues. Minibuses and sports pitches provide excellent visuals, so this worked well in a social media message.

GOING ‘ORGANIC’ The aim of any effective social media campaign is to move beyond the paid views and start generating ‘organic’ traffic via people liking, sharing and commenting on your posts. The key here is to create posts which engage, rather than inform, and also to encourage your existing parents and feeder schools to share the posts as well. This is essentially free advertising!

REVIEWING One of the huge benefits of social media advertising is the rich data it provides. Statistically, on average, someone will have to see your brand around seven times before taking action, so we knew we had to been seen multiple times by every prospective parent to get them to respond and click through to register to attend the open evening. Our adverts were seen by over 34,000 people, 3,327 people liked or commented on our posts and 86% of the registrations for our open evening came directly from clicks on our paid adverts.

We don’t claim to be the best at social media advertising - in many ways we have been quite late to the party - but to anyone who is hesitating, I would encourage you give it try. It really has changed our marketing for the better.

David is a serving school business professional and executive coach. 

October 2022 33

MANAGEMENT

T E A M C U LT U R E

What is I psychological safety?

How do school business leaders embed psychological safety into practice?

ANDREW BLENCH, school business management consultant and coach, explains what psychological safety is and how you can implement it

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t is thought that the term ‘psychological safety’ was first used by organisational researchers Edgar Schein and Warren Bennis in 1965. It is ‘an atmosphere where one can take chances (which experimentalism implies) without fear and with sufficient protection’. Where psychological safety exists in the workplace there is a ‘climate which encourages provisional tries and which tolerates failure without retaliation, renunciation, or guilt’. (Schein and Bennis, 1965, p. 44-45) Quite simply, it’s an environment where people can ‘be themselves’ and feel free to express their emotions, thoughts and selves without fear of negative consequences. It is an environment in which I do not feel that I have to hide who I am, a place where people do not need to hide their sexual orientation, neurodiversity, political views, ethnicity, religion or beliefs. Where psychological safety exists people can feel empowered and enabled to take calculated risks. To try out new ways of doing things and to experiment.

According to Dr Timothy Clark in The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety: Defining the Path to Inclusion and Innovation, there are four stages to psychological safety.

INCLUSION SAFETY – the feeling that you belong here; that you are accepted and included in what is going on, and feel comfortable being here. For those who have studied Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, this equates to ‘belonging’ need.

LEARNER SAFETY – this is about being able to ask questions, to admit that you don’t know something and the ability to ask for help.

CONTRIBUTOR SAFETY – you feel safe to contribute to a discussion, or just generally in the workplace or team.

CHALLENGER SAFETY - people feel able to question and challenge those in authority, perhaps suggesting different ways of doing things and ways of working.

1

2 3 4

T E A M C U LT U R E

MANAGEMENT

Teams and workplaces with high levels of psychological safety are pleasant places to work

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? Let’s face it – who wants to work in an environment where the reverse is true? We might call this a ‘toxic work environment’. It’s not pleasant being in an environment where there is a ‘blame culture’ and anything which goes wrong has to be someone’s fault.

Teams and workplaces with high levels of psychological safety are pleasant places to work.

Research points out that high-performing organisations have high levels of psychological safety. It’s hard to drive improvements without an environment where people’s contributions and ideas are welcome.

There are huge benefits of bringing one’s whole self to work. If we are to truly provide an equal, diverse and inclusive workplace, we have to welcome all people - including those whose backgrounds may be very different from our own.

Problem-solving works better in such environments because we encourage better ideas faster. Rather than someone sitting on an idea, or suggestion, out of fear that they won’t be taken seriously (because I am only the school caretaker, what do I know?) ideas come through naturally and quickly.

The ability to ask questions is also enhanced. Have you ever worked with someone who is new to your school or role and simply gets on with their work and never asks any questions? This might be because they are perfectly fine in their role, but could it also be a warning sign of problems which might come to light further down the road. Personally, I tend to be nervous about people who are new to a role and don’t ask questions.

Psychologically safe environments nurture the ability to admit mistakes. To work in an environment where people feel unable to admit their mistakes can be dangerous. It is said that it was a component of the Chernobyl disaster that staff worked in such a

fearful culture that, rather than admit their mistakes, they would go to extreme lengths to cover them up. As someone once said, ‘He who never made a mistake; never made anything’. The ability to say, ‘Hey look I don’t think this is working’, is really valuable.

The danger for any organisation is that it clings to old ways of doing things because they are familiar and comfortable, even when they are patently not working. Often everyone knows they aren’t working, but dares not say anything.

HOW DO WE EMBED PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY INTO OUR PRACTICE? ● C heck out what’s happening right now. ● A sk yourself some simple questions. Do colleagues admit they don’t understand something and ask for help? Do team members challenge entrenched ways of doing things and offer alternatives? Do staff regularly contribute to staff or team meetings? Are all of your team members contributing? ● I nclude some questions about psychological safety in your next staff survey. ● D on’t become overly defensive when, as the school business leader, you receive some challenges around your areas of responsibility. ● E ncourage equal levels of contribution from all team members in meetings. Go around the room and give each person two minutes to speak without interruption. ● D on’t equate silence with an empty mind! Some of the best ideas come from some of the quietest people. ● A cknowledge all contributions, even if you don’t agree with them. Value different perspectives and cultural differences. ● L isten to others with genuine curiosity and respect.

Remember, ‘Leaders who don’t listen will eventually be surrounded by people who have nothing to say’ Andy Stanley. 

October 2022 35

MANAGEMENT

COMMUNITY

Celebrating your way to stronger connections SIMON HEPBURN, founder of Marketing Advice for Schools, talks us through how you can use an upcoming school anniversary to connect with your community

H

ow old is your school? Is it coming up to a special anniversary? If so, this could be a great opportunity to connect with your community while helping you achieve goals including student recruitment and income-generation. Here are eight tips and a great example of one school that did their ‘80th’ well…

1

START WELL IN ADVANCE Engaging your whole community successfully will take time, so ideally start planning a year before the actual

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anniversary if possible. Assign a project leader and create a project team from across the school, looking to involve students, teachers, support staff, governors and more.

2

SET AMBITIOUS LONG-TERM GOALS Once assembled, your team should agree goals for the project. You might think immediately that you want to engage with local community groups, current parents and future students, but you could also kickstart a fundraising campaign or set up a network of former students who could help your school in the future in areas such as career advice.

3

WRITE A PLAN With so many people involved in a school community, it’s important to have a formal plan that you can share and refer back to as you approach the special date.

The plan should set out actions, timings, resources needed and responsibilities.

However long the actual plan, it’s also always worth maintaining a one-page summary for school leaders.

4

LAUNCH THE ANNIVERSARY TO DIFFERENT STAKEHOLDERS AT DIFFERENT TIMES It’s effective to hold a series of launch events for different stakeholders to build up interest – you could do this as part of existing events such as assemblies or open days, hold a community coffee morning or host an exhibition at a local community venue. This will also enable you to gain more volunteers to help you.

5

GET IN TOUCH WITH PEOPLE BOTH ON AND OFFLINE While much of your community is local, there will be many who have moved from your area. Creating a simple website, or dedicated social media channels, will allow you to engage with these people.

6

GATHER INFORMATION The best way to sustain interest in an anniversary is to keep finding and sharing information about the school’s history. Former students and teachers and local newspapers are great

COMMUNITY

MANAGEMENT

Case study:

sources of information – ask them for photographs, newspaper articles and school publications as well as personal memories. Share this information with your community on a regular basis so they know how the celebrations are going.

7

ENGAGE YOUR COMMUNITY Once you have great stories, use the information you’ve gathered to persuade people to visit your school (either in person or digitally). Could you put on a play, create a video or write a book? Do you have any ‘celebrity’ former teachers or students who could launch or host an event, plant a tree or bury a ‘time capsule’?

8

REFLECT AND MOVE FORWARD At the end of an anniversary period reflect on the new links and ideas you’ve had. Have you achieved your initial goals? Have you made new contacts that you can use in the future? Have you discovered new skills that your staff or students can use in the future?

The Joseph Rowntree School in York was founded in 1942 and is currently celebrating its 80th anniversary. Adam Harland, IT, marketing and communications manager, worked on the project with assistant headteacher Rachael Clarke.

“To launch the anniversary we used the local village hall and their noticeboard and made an eye-catching display. We also featured in the local ‘What’s On’ magazine and ran an article in the local newspaper, the ‘York Press’ https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/20138022.joseph-rowntree-school-yorkcelebrates-80th-birthday/) to let people know about the event – we promoted this through Twitter and our parent engagement App, Weduc” explains Adam.

‘We then built our ‘Memories’ website (very simply, using Google Sites https://sites.google.com/josephrowntreeschool.co.uk/alumni-memories/) and were able to host an eclectic collection of artefacts, photographs, video and more, including the school’s original prospectus and a video from the 1940s. We shared some of these stories with the York Press who ran another article.

‘On the day of the anniversary we had a lot of people visit the school - a lot more than we thought there would be! In the end I think our plan to create an environment where people could just spend some time simply catching up with old friends, or dipping into the activities we created, was the right approach; it felt very inclusive and fostered some really positive reactions from people. We also had three people taking photos, as well as students videoing the event as part of their Media Studies class, which we can use in the future.’

‘Going forward, we’re going to continue promoting the Memories website and we will keep using the 80th branding we created throughout the year within other events.’  Below - 80th Anniversary branding Left- local publicity

October 2022 37

I C T M AT T E R S

NEWS

SWITCHED ON The latest news and views from the world of ICT and edtech

US school app accounts hacked to send explicit image Parents in the US have reported receiving a notorious explicit image after hackers targeted a school app with 10m users, including teachers, students and family members, Yahoo!finance has reported. There were many reports from schools and teachers of the image being sent from hacked accounts on the Seesaw app. Seesaw said that a link to an ‘inappropriate image’ was shared and it had taken action to resolve the issue. The graphic image is a highly explicit internet meme intended to shock.

Somebody who works with teachers and pupils told Seesaw via Twitter, ‘You have a hack in messages that’s allowing an inappropriate picture to be shared with families and teachers across multiple districts. Please take action!’

In its statement, Seesaw denied that hackers had gained administrative access but had, instead, hacked ‘isolated’ individual accounts. It shared more detail about the attack and what it did in response on a status page. ‘Widely available compromised emails/passwords that were reused across services were used to gain unauthorised access to Seesaw accounts,’ it said.

@johnjackson1066: Today the whole of @LGfL got together and it was inspiring to see everyone.

I’m blessed with an extraordinary team of passionate people. When you are blessed with talent and energy you can reach for the stars #WeAreLGfL

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@HMHKarlBrady: “If you’re a teacher who doesn’t use a lot of technology, your students aren’t getting equitable access to learning experiences that another teacher who uses technology is giving to their students.”

Online Safety Bill to return ‘as soon as possible’ As reported by BBC News, the Online Safety Bill will return to Parliament “quickly”, culture secretary Michelle Donelan has said. “We want it in law as soon as possible to protect children when they’re accessing content online,” she said. The bill requires technology companies to protect their users from illegal content such as child-abuse images, but rules requiring them to also tackle ‘legal but harmful’ material, which critics say could lead to censorship, would be altered, Donelan said.

What exactly will count as legal but harmful material will be set out in secondary legislation. Platforms ‘likely to be accessed

by children’ will have to protect young users from inappropriate or harmful content such as posts promoting self-harm or eating disorders. The ‘largest, highest-risk platforms’ will also have to tackle some legal but harmful material accessed by adults - and make clear in their terms and conditions, which they are expected to enforce, what is, and is not, acceptable on their site.

This gives big tech too much power, according to digital civil liberties campaigners. “The bill effectively outsources internet policing - from the police, courts and parliament, to Silicon Valley,” the Open Rights Group says.

NEWS

@Headteacherchat: Whatever your plans are for your school in the next few days, remember to be brave and magnificent. Have a good week!

I C T M AT T E R S

Cambridge University study says robots may help children ‘open up’ As reported by Cambridgeshire Live, researchers at Cambridge University have had a child-sized humanoid robot finish a series of questionnaires with 28 children between eight and 13-years-old in order to assess their mental health. The study found that the youngsters were open to confiding in the robot, sometimes sharing information that they had not yet shared via online or in-person questionnaires. The researchers say robots could be a useful addition to traditional methods of mental health assessment, although they are not intended to be a substitute for professional mental health support.

“Since the robot we use is child-sized, and completely non-threatening, children might see it as a confidante – they feel like they won’t get into trouble if they share secrets with it,” PhD student Nida Itrat Abbasi, the study’s first author, said. “Other researchers have found that children are more likely to divulge private information – like that they’re being bullied, for example – to a robot than they would be to an adult.”

Each child took part in a one-to-one, 45-minute, session with a Nao robot – a humanoid robot about 60 centimetres tall. A parent or guardian, and members of the research team, observed from an adjacent room. Before each session children and their parent or guardian completed standard online questionnaires to assess the child’s mental wellbeing.

Participants interacted with the robot throughout the session by speaking with it, or by touching sensors on the robot’s hands and feet.

Additional sensors tracked participants’ heartbeat, head, and eye movements during the session. Study participants all said they enjoyed talking with the robot and some shared information with the robot that they had not shared either in person or on the online questionnaire.

Young children being targeted in sextortion cases in Gloucestershire BBC News has reported that children as young as 10 are being lured into sending sexually explicit images and then blackmailed, a police force has said. Gloucestershire police are now urging parents to have conversations with children about online safety after confirming that 17 sextortion cases have happened since May this year.

Sextortion occurs when someone threatens to share sexual pictures or videos of the victim unless they do something in return, such as pay them.

It happens when an unknown individual sends the child a friend request on a social media or messaging platform, and builds a rapport with the young person - often making them believe they are of a similar age to them. The conversation will then become sexualised, and the offenders

will request sexual images or videos or video call them. The most common age of victims, both male and female, is 16-years-old, but children as young as 10 have been approached and some victims have lost money.

Det Insp Cheryl Godwin, of the child exploitation, missing and mental health team, said there is probably “huge under-reporting” of these offences, as children may feel embarrassed or ashamed. "It can be hugely upsetting for the child for this to happen to them, and leave them extremely fearful of what may happen next,” she added.

The force said Instagram and Snapchat are the main platforms children which have been approached on.

October 2022 39

I C T M AT T E R S

TECHNO GEEK

Techno Geek

Building your school’s cyber resilience GARY HENDERSON, ANME ambassador and director of IT at Millfield School, explores why there needs to be a shift from cyber security to cyber resilience

T

he term ‘cyber security’ has largely been replaced in discussions by ‘cyber resilience’. This is due to the fact that ‘security’ implies that an organisation is ‘secure’ and what we have seen in relation to cyber incidents is that no organisation - no matter the size, the resources, or the investments in cyber security - can ever be truly secure. This is an important message that, no matter what you do, you can never be 100% secure and, therefore, we need to take a risk-based view.

AUTHENTICATION Let’s take authentication and passwords as an example.

Weak or re-used passwords continue to be a significant risk as they allow external threat actors to compromise user accounts. The general advice in this area is two-fold.

First is user awareness; advising and training staff that

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they should use only strong passwords - following the NCSC advice of three random words, for example - and that they shouldn’t re-use passwords across sites.

This advice is good in encouraging users to display good password etiquette; however, sadly, not all users will follow the advice. The risk is reduced, but there some riskstill remains. The second approach is to use multifactor authentication (MFA), which means the username and password combination is insufficient for threat actors to gain access to user accounts - and at this point we might consider the risk addressed; the cyber criminals won’t have access to the second factor and, therefore, should be unable to log in.

Unfortunately, cyber criminals don’t stop at this point.

Yes, MFA might reduce your risk, but it isn’t undefeatable.

Cyber criminals might seek to use sim-jacking, for example, to take control of a user’s phone number to intercept one-time passcodes. This involves convincing your service provider that your phone has been lost or stolen and, therefore, your number should be transferred to a new sim card – a sim card that cyber criminals control. As a result, when the one-time passcode is sent from the service the criminals are seeking to access, they receive it rather than you. Given the wealth of information about us online, it might be easier for a criminal to convince a call centre operator that they are you than you

TECHNO GEEK

I C T M AT T E R S

would like to think.

Criminals might, alternatively, phone you and pretend to be an online service, saying that they need to confirm your identity by sending you a one-time passcode. You will then receive a passcode, which they will ask you to reveal to them, but the passcode comes from the service they are trying to compromise and, by telling it, you are providing the criminal with the code they need to confirm and log in as you. Once in, they will immediately change the phone number and email account associated with the user account; account takeover complete.

attempt, thereby bypassing MFA by convincing services that the login This ‘pass the comes from a trusted device when cookie’ style attack it actually comes from the criminal’s device. This ‘pass the cookie’ style is becoming more attack is becoming more common - and this isn’t the only more technical-style common - and this attack possible; there are also options isn’t the only more that include a combination of social technical-style engineering and more technical attacks.

You can never be 100% sure about attack possible being secure. A good security posture, regular patching, user awareness, and use of MFA can all help to increase your cyber security or resilience. However, we need to be wary of being overconfident. In relation to MFA, I do worry that there is sometimes some complacency where it is in place. Yes, it reduces the risk ‘PASS THE COOKIE’ of account compromise; however, it is far from foolproof.

In addition to social engineering style attacks, described So, we find ourselves back at risk management, above, there are more technical attack methods. When and here the key for me is simply doing all we can to we access services and ‘trust’ our device such that we reduce risk. This might involve patching one more server, don’t need to authenticate using MFA as often, this reducing access rights for users who don’t need them or results in the storage of authentication data via cookies. implementing MFA. A cyber-criminal can identify, and seek to use, these Each and every step we take which reduces risk cookies to prove the validity of their authentication is a win.

October 2022 41

LIVE IT

TEABREAK

LIVE IT

Time to take a few moments out for some light and interesting reading – a wellearned break from numbers and statistics!

Caption competition Let us know your funny caption ideas by tweeting us @edexec

Pub quiz 1. Which rock band was founded by Trent Reznor in 1988?

2. What is the currency of Denmark?

3. Which tennis Grand Slam is played on a clay surface?

4. In which European country would you find the Rijksmuseum?

5. How many films have Al Pacino and Robert De Niro appeared in together?

Answers: 1. Nine Inch Nails 2. Danish Krone 3. The French Open (Roland Garros) 4. Netherlands 5. Four (The Godfather Part 2, Heat, Righteous Kill, The Irishman) 42

October 2022

LIFE HACK Tired of loose, open frozen bags of vegetables spilling in to your freezer? Hang them from the freezer shelf using binder clips — it’ll save space, too!

Rehoming hero

THUMBS UP!

As reported by BBC News, a 13-year-old schoolgirl has rescued more than 45 animals over the past two years by trawling social media for neglected pets that needed rehoming.

Lilly-Grace Honeysett-Beale said she could not bear to see them in need and was grateful for help from family, friends and her Shropshire community. “When I see one that needs help, I’m going to go get it,” she said. Most of the animals - rabbits, cats, dogs and mice - live at her home. The teenager said she scoured Facebook Marketplace for unwanted or neglected pets and then appealed to people she knew to help rescue them.

TEABREAK

LIVE IT

DID YOU KNOW? McDonald’s once created bubblegum-flavoured broccoli. McDonald’s is always introducing new items for their loyal customers and, obviously, some are more successful than others. However, their bubblegum-flavoured broccoli, which the fast-food chain developed in 2014 as a tastier version of the leafy green for children, was a complete failure. McDonald’s CEO Don Thompson admitted that kids were confused by the taste.

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QUOTE OF THE MONTH I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work Thomas Alva Edison

Water from another world Sky News has reported that extra-terrestrial water has been discovered for the first time in a meteorite that landed in the UK. The meteorite crashed into a driveway in the Gloucestershire town of Winchcombe, last February, and is believed to hold clues about where the water in the Earth’s vast oceans came from. Some 12% of the sample was made up of water, and it offers a lot of insights since it was the least-contaminated specimen to be collected, according to Ashley King, a researcher in the planetary materials group at the Natural History Museum. “The composition of that water is very, very, similar to the composition of water in the Earth’s oceans,” he told the British Science Festival. “It’s a really good piece of evidence that asteroids and bodies like Winchcombe made a very important contribution to the Earth’s oceans.”

Well, knock me down with a feather!

A BIG RE-MOOVAL JOB A cow was re-mooved from a tree by firefighters after the animal got stuck in a tight spot, according to Sky News. A crew from Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue joked that the incident was “udderly ridiculous” after they spent over an hour trying to free the cow.

The animal’s head got stuck in a tree on Chilbolton Common in Hampshire. The fire service was called at about 7.40pm, and worked with an animal rescue adviser to cut the tree and free the cow, but it took a full three hours.

October 2022 43

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