Work at the moment is hard work. Part of what I love the most about my current role is the fact that I get to truly have a say in the running of the school and the leadership team do just that- lead the school, determining much of the direction, detail and vision of the school. It is so energising and affirming to be doing a role that not only has responsibility but that also has true consultation and collaboration and creativity attached to it. I am implicitly trusted to do my job - there is no-one looking over my shoulder and checking or questioning or controlling. I am given the ability to run my own faculty, design innovative curriculum from scratch and incorporate technology as I see fit. I feel like I have been given a license to fly this year - and it is amazing how much you achieve when you are given the tools and the freedom to imagine what it is that you wish to create.
In the 6 months I have been at this school I feel I have undergone an amazing journey. When I got the job I felt like perhaps I was a fraud and surely at some point they would work out that I didn't know what I was doing and kick me out. I truly believe though, that it is not until you really venture out of your depth that you are forced to swim and that these are the times that we see what we are really capable of. I never really felt stifled at my old school, but now I realise that I was so bound by the institutions that had been set up over years and that I felt that I didn't have the power to change. I dreamed of big things, and even put in place some substantial changes, but the fact remained that much of what happened in my old school had happened the same way for years before, and would continue to happen the same way for years to come, because people were not willing to change, and despite the flood of younger staff, the ceiling never moved and the innovation was never complete. Not that I think that innovation is ever an end point, or something that can be achieved and then moved on from, but when you starting point is the past and not even the present then how can you imagine a different future?
The liberation I have experienced at this school is complete. A liberation from a cage I never realised I was in. One where I maintained the status-quo and didn't try to be really different because I didn't see that I could be. Now I feel like all the walls are down and I am able to imagine the best, most interesting, innovative, engaging ways to deliver curriculum and to design curriculum because I have the technology, freedom and support at my fingertips. This school wants me to be innovative and enables it and my growth in this short space of time has shown the power of autonomous leadership in opening up new worlds to staff.
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