Tūwhitia te hopo, mairangitia te angitū.
Eliminate the negative, accentuate the positive.
This module is brought to you by Serena Cooper and Aaron Ironside. Please watch the below video and answer the provocation below.
Task:
Please share on the forum:
– A description of a scenario/ area of influence/challenge you are facing and would like feedback on.
– An invitation for feedback (please be clear so delegates can provide suggestions/feedback related to your context).
This e-Module should allow for a broad range of responses to allow delegates to interpret it in a way that is relevant to their context.
Possible Prompts:
- What is an area of your leadership that you would like to develop?
- One thing that you are finding challenging that you would like feedback on.
- Are you effectively engaging with whanau, hapu and iwi?
Have a look at other delegates’ responses and add your suggestions and/or feedback.
43 Responses
I’m currently facing a challenge as I aspire to step into a leadership role within my school. Although I’m not in a leadership position yet, I find myself saying “yes” to everything my current leadership team asks of me. My concern is that if I transition into a full-time leadership role, I might lose a sense of myself by overcommitting.
I would appreciate any advice or strategies that could help me effectively step into a leadership position while maintaining a healthy balance and not losing my own identity. How can I assert myself and set boundaries without compromising my ambitions and responsibilities?
That’s a good question Kayleigh. Firstly don’t say yes to everything. If you are truly ambitious then only say yes to tasks that are high profile and that you know you can achieve while not only benefiting the group but yourself. Say yes to tasks that would allow you to upskill and add an extra dimension to your CV and also that would put you in contact with influential people who can advantage you in the future. This all sounds rather cynical however saying yes to everything is a short road to burnout. The counter to this is that if something brings you joy and/or saves the bacon of a colleague then do it if you can too.
One area of leadership I continue to be challenged by is taking the next step in my leadership journey and having the confidence to pursue it. While I’ve grown in my current role and I believe I contribute meaningfully to our team, I often find it easier—and safer—to remain where I am rather than step into the unknown. Part of this hesitation comes from uncertainty about where I see myself as a leader and what kind of leadership path fits me best. Gaining clarity and building confidence to move forward are the next important steps/challenges for me. I would appreciate feedback on what/how people took the next step into a leadership role. I am currently full time classroom teacher and PPTA Branch chair for our school.
Social Scientists make great leaders Fleur. I hope others will contribute here but my own steps were PPTA Branch Chair, Dean, HoD, Assistant Principal, Principal of a small school, Principal of larger school.
A description of a scenario/ area of influence/challenge you are facing and would like feedback on.
Something I would like to work on with our team is the sharing of the ‘wonderings’ team members have with the wider group rather than behind the scenes where these conversations can spiral into a negative space. We have developed our kaupapa focusing on how we work as a team, and within this we have included the idea of supporting each other to find a solution and to take our wonderings to the team or person so it can be resolved. This focus links to our well-being work in 2024 – creating a physiologically safe environment to ask questions of each other. Our team works well together and has positive interactions. I am just not always sure I am getting the full picture of how people feel or are managing their well-being.
An invitation for feedback (please be clear so delegates can provide suggestions/feedback related to your context).
How can team members be encouraged to share their honest feelings and feel safe doing it when they potentially feel there is a power imbalance?
I’m think one of the things that might help is for you Anna to share your doubts too. I think the power imbalance comes about when you as team leader are seen to have all the answers with no doubts at all. This is a hard thing to do I know.
One of the initiatives I’m leading for improving attendance data is to try to get our 32 Group kaiako to do their job. When ākonga are absent from class they get a ? on the roll. Group kaiako should then follow up with the ākonga and change it to an appropriate attendance code and refer truancies and other concerns onto House Deans. While Group kaiako have always had this job, standards have slipped and ākonga have been falling through the cracks. I identified this problem at the start of the year and have been supporting kaiako to improve, first reminding kaiako what the process is, and then individually supporting those who need or ask for support. Most kaiako have been trying to do the right thing but there remain a few who don’t see this as a priority. I’ve visited these kaiako to offer support, I’ve jokingly celebrated the high performing kaiako at staff briefing, and I’ve improved the information given to kaiako to make using the student management system more efficient. I’m undecided about my next steps… options that I’ve considered include: doing the job of these kaiako myself, passing the problem up to senior leadership, and trying again to engage with these kaiako in a supportive way along the lines of further communicating the purpose of change (given that I’ve already been told to politely go away).
There’s a whole range of possible responses including putting all the names of people who do the right thing into a weekly draw for a bottle of wine or similar, putting the names of the transgressors on the staff room white board and they only get wiped off when the roll is attended to, a visit from someone in senior management, the principal reminding people that he won’t be able to sign off people’s registration unless they are upholding professional standards, appointing a reliable child in each class to do it…
The bottom line is not to tidy up rolls is grossly irresponsible as you know. Maybe a reminder that in cases of alleged sexual abuse and custody disputes school rolls have been subpoenaed as they are a legal document and are expected to be entirely accurate. I know you know all these things Richard. It’s so painful for you to have to deal with such slackers.
Thank you Geraldine! I appreciate you canvasing many of the possible responses which is what I was hoping you’d do. Today, I sent more information out to Group kaiako to be as helpful as possible, but I also gently named and shamed by putting up a ‘leaderboard’ in the staffroom for those who want to be competitive.
Hi Richard, I do feel this is a tricky one. One piece of advice I can offer, and its advice my leadership mentor at my kura gave to me, is doing the job of other kaiako is not going to help you and it certainly won’t help them. There does get a point, in my opinion, when senior leadership needs to step in because as much as we want things to be done correctly, we cannot make other people do them correctly.
I am lead in EOTC. I am finding things difficult to navigate, some colleagues filling out the incorrect paperwork, offering to work alongside them only to be told “its ok I can do it” then asked the night before for help. I will always make myself available, but how do I let colleagues know nicely without causing offence that their actions create another layer of stress on me?
I have since reframed my approach to, I know we all want the best and safest experience for our tamariki. To make this possible and ensure every trip is approved on time, it’s important that I receive the completed paperwork no later than X days before the event. This helps avoid last-minute stress for all of us.” I am trying to remind my colleagues it’s not about me being the gatekeeper, but about collective accountability to a process for the sake of our tamariki.
I have created a flow chart, presented this in a staff meeting, again offering encouraging words to reach out to me in a timely fashion.
Whānau are aware that the role of EOTC lie with me but to be fair they will never know the underlying stress of my frustrations. For me that would be unprofessional. When volunteers are called for I hold a after school meeting to go over the forms with whānau so we are all informed of the requirements and to awhi those who need assistance filling the forms out.
I would love to hear your suggestions because I could very well be coming across blunt due to being frustrated. I would hope I am not but am open to feedback. Ngā mihi koutou.
I can see you are torn because you are a nice person and feel bad about being bossy. The reality is the paperwork is proof that the organisers have thought through potential hazards and when things go wrong people die.
I have known of teachers who lost their careers over EOTC gone wrong. Never apologise for caring. It may well be that it won’t always be like this and they will learn that that’s just the expectation.
Thank you Geraldine, the big picture is indeed scary. I have often thought about the “what if” which is why I do push back and have said no to a trip. At the end of the day if 30 go off site I expect 30 to return safely. I am ok being disliked when I say no. Not sure if that is leadership quality but safety first.
Bravery is a big leadership quality. On my Wolf Fisher Travelling fellowship I visited a school in Birmingham where the Principal had been made a Dame. I asked the DP what Dame Wendy’s most significant attribute was and he said, ‘Dame Wendy is brave!’
One of my former delegates was associated with that awful caving tragedy where a student perished. There’s no way to come back from that.
Hi Lisa, Since there were a number of EOTC events in the news my school established a policy that was set by the BOT which gives clear guidelines for what needs to be in place before an EOTC can go ahead. One of these guidelines was that all documentation was completed 2 weeks prior to the event taking place. If this doesn’t happen you simply don’t go. By having it as a clear rule in a policy it place all accountability back on staff. In the beginning there were a number of grumpy teachers who had their trips cancelled, but over time staff have stepped up and now there are no cancelled trips due to paperwork.
I am not sure if this would work in your setting but, would setting it into a policy that takes some of the heat off you work. That way you can still support but the ownership is clearly on staff. I feel in terms of holding meetings, having a flowchart etc you have taken all the right steps and I wonder if some of it is around change and staff needing to change their own actions which we know a lot don’t like doing.
Kia ora Jade, thank you for your post. Our policies state a two week timeframe for any EOTC, this is the one major frustrating factor for me. My barrier is leadership overstepping the decision to decline due to being late with documentation (I kinda feel made putting this on here) I need to be braver, after all, we have to be safe, plain and simple. Kia pai tō rā Jade.
Hi Lisa, a piece of advice I can offer and because our school is currently trialing it, is using AI/chat gpt to support EOTC forms. We have set up a school bot on chat gpt and teachers just need to input the data and it creates the paperwork for you. Just a suggestion x
Oh Kayleigh, Thank you! appreciate your suggestion, will look into it further.
As the Enviro and Wellbeing Leader, I’m responsible for guiding the direction of our team’s work in these focus areas, which includes two teacher aides. Both of them have been at the school longer than I have, and from early on, I sensed some resistance to my leadership.
Despite my efforts to involve them in planning, show respect for their experience, and create a collaborative atmosphere, they often ignore my guidance. They make decisions without consulting me, like changing support roles or adjusting learning activities, and when I try to redirect or clarify expectations, I’m met with dismissive comments like, “We’ve always done it this way,” or “That’s not how we’ve done it before.”
When I give directions, they sometimes don’t follow through or carry them out in a completely different way. I’ve even noticed them expressing frustration about things in front of students, which undermines the tone I’m trying to set. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to ensure consistency and professionalism in the classroom when I feel like my role as a leader isn’t being respected.
I’m trying to stay calm and lead with kindness and clarity, but I’m starting to feel stuck. I know being overly authoritative or forceful could damage the working relationship further, yet I also know that continuing like this isn’t sustainable for our students, or for me.
First of all Lauren, they don’t get to make you feel like that! Reading between the lines I feel they are older than you and they are using their collective power to bully you. Their priority is to make life comfortable for themselves whereas yours is to do what you believe is the best for your akonga. I am hoping that they also work in other teacher’s classrooms as if so you need to have a discussion with other teachers to see if that behaviour is generalised or just towards you. You also need a conversation with their line manager as this is a performance issue.
Don’t try to talk them as a pair as they will gang up, talk to them one at a time and explain that you feel that they are undermining your efforts to run your classroom as you see fit. It might be advantageous to have their line manager there when you deliver that message. Part of the message is that we need to be nimble and adaptive and how we’ve always done things just doesn’t wash. It is your right to organise your classroom as you see fit.
Hi Lauren, I am sorry you are made to feel like this, no one has the right to do this. Do your teacher aides have appraisals? All teachers aids are employed within a Grade and have clear guidelines around what they need to do to achieve their grade. It is also what determines their pay increase each year. Teacher aids are on a good wage now and should work professionally to meet the criteria. At my school every class has at least 2-3 teacher aids and all have a clear appraisal with set goals that they need to work on throughout the year. If these teacher aids are not held accountable to the criteria of the Grade they are in, then maybe they should be. Just because they have been at the school longer than you, doesn’t mean they get to be disrespectful.
Hi Jade,
Thanks for your comment!
Yes the school does have an appraisal system for TA’s. This was a few months a go now, and has since been resolved. It was certainly them trying to intimidate me, but it didn’t work!
I am currently the Literacy lead and am working with SLT as part of the new curriculum implementation team. We started with the maths and unpacking how the planning needed to be set out with the teaching statements, teaching considerations etc. quite a different way of thinking about how we planned and what we needed to consider. To help with the transition for kaiako, we did the overview for all the phases. While planning one of the challenges we found was around assessment. We looked at the different assessments we have used in the past and at the Oxford maths ones that were part of the program we chose last year. The problem with the Oxford assessments is we found we were testing more than teaching and we questioned what relevant information they actually gave us and the old assessments don’t align with the new Phases.
As the only one from this team who is currently in the classroom I had a bit more insight into how this looked for us as kaiako.
During a discussion one day within our hub the question of assessing came up and I had just given my class an independent task matched with the teaching statement for that topic and it gave me the opportunity to gauge how well my students understood the teaching. The other teachers in my hub are both BTs and are finding enough challenges with the changes in planning and teaching in general so assessing this way made sense to them. My team leader who loves data and evidence to track student growth and achievement took a bit of convincing but we could find no existing assessment that aligned with the phases. So it was through me listening to her concerns and then her listening to me and my colleagues (the adaptives!) that I was able to influence her that this was the best way for us to assess going forward.
I then took this approach to our literacy assessments and looked at what we could do in class through tasks both independent and in small groups that would effectively provide data.
We have a mix of kaiako who are adaptive and keen to try new ways of doing things and some who are stuck in their ways and are not 100% convinced. But having discussions where they could ask questions and raise their concerns was valuable. From this I was able to show them how this simplified their assessment schedule and gave them more rounded overview of student achievement rather than just a snapshot like a PROBE or GLOSS.
One thing that we did discuss is that as things are changing we do need to make changes but, if we don’t feel that this way of assessing is effective then we can again consider other ways.
For me as I take on this new leadership role, leading a big change like this sometimes has me 2nd guessing myself but, I do know the pressure we are under in the classroom and I hope this will ease some of that pressure.
Any ideas for how to address those that challenge these decisions?
That’s a great initiative Celeste. I love things that mean you don’t have to reinvent the wheel for busy people but better yet it sounds as if it yields better results.
One approach I’ve used is to ask the ‘doubting Thomas’ to assist you by being your critical friend and to comeup with possible fishhooks and solutions. You begin by having a conversation that says,’X I really value your professional judgement and the fact that you’re not a pushover. Would you mind having a look at something with me?’ If this works, they then become your advocate as well. Good luck.
A goal for me this year is to improve the learning support programmes for our ESOL students. We are in a similar position to other local schools with the number of our ESOL students increasing significantly over the last three years. One of the main reasons for this focus is that our ESOL students have been performing below expectations according to our schoolwide data. This is also a group who demonstrates a strong drive to learn and a positive, enthusiastic approach to the learning process.
Key actions I want to focus on are:
To strengthen the connection between the ESOL additional support programme led by TAs with classroom practice.
To develop teacher expertise in language learning and knowledge of ESOL principles.
To develop systems to support collaboration amongst staff to support accelerated progress for ESOL learners.
To utilise our School Management System to better document and track learning support initiatives and their impact.
Earlier this term I spent a short amount of time with staff explaining how ESOL is funded, developing understanding of the ELLPs and stages described on the matrices, as well as introducing some key resources. This staff meeting was before I fully understood the differences between adaptive and technical change and I now know that I underestimated some of the changes I was promoting. A key one was adding the ELLP record of progress onto our new SMS. The fact that having a number of ESOL students in our classrooms is also a recent change in our school setting. So the information I was sharing was likely to be outside existing paradigms and required new knowledge and skills to implement.
After watching the Aaron Ironside video, I can see there was not a lot of listening on my part. While my plan will ultimately meet the needs of their students, I needed to take the time to understand staff’s specific needs in terms of offering ESOL support and acknowledge what they deemed important.
There was credibility on my part as I knew the information well but there was no opportunity at that time to consider the ideas of others. I did not consider the feelings of staff, who were likely to be thinking at the time that I was giving them something else to do, rather than helping them to support some of their learners.
While I know that I was prepared, and I understand good practice in supporting our ESOL learners, a challenge for me is finding time for staff to share ideas and slowing down to ensure sustainable change will happen in an ever-present busy schedule.
What do delegates suggest I could do?
You are caught between a rock and a hard place Kim. On the one hand you’ve been given responsibility for doing the best you can these akonga however such is your nature that you would have wanted to do that anyway whether it was your job or not. On the other hand you can see that many of your teachers are suffering from initiative fatigue.
A Principal friend of mine got around this by convincing her teachers that all students benefit from the techniques generally promoted as being good for ESOL students and then put all her teachers through extensive PD. She felt that part of the stress was differentiating lessons for students according to perceived needs.Ultimately Kim, people know that you are a really kind person and a very professional teacher who does not set out to create stress. Sometimes when there was something really onerous to do and I felt we had no options I found a way of meeting half way eg you do this much and I will get you help with data input or things that you don’t need to be a teacher to do. Sometimes just making the offer after careful listening is enough.
Kia ora Geraldine,
PD makes good sense. Nothing at school should be one person’s job.
Tēnā koe, Kim,
I think you’re beating yourself up a little bit here. You’re saying that you haven’t spent enough time listening to kaiako who are potentially navigating a growing need in your kura. I know that you spend a lot of time and energy upskilling yourself in areas such as ESOL, and have knowledge in this area that your kaimahi may not.
Kaiako are responsible for the progress and outcomes for their tamariki, and in the first instance one would imagine there is curiosity around how to urgently meet their needs. While you are the person responsible for ESOL in your school, you are not the person responsible for spoon-feeding information to kaiako. One idea to address the different types of change, and to empower kaiako, is to let them explore the ELLPs (I’d prefer paper) and let them spend time discussing strategies and ideas to cater to ESOL needs. You identified this is a growing area in your kura, and maybe kaiako don’t know what they don’t know. Is this something best left to kaiāwhina, or should kaiako be the ones who best know their learners?
In short, is it your responsibility to provide teaching and learning opportunities for all ESOL learners, or kaiako? If it’s kaiako, how can ‘we’ best support their professional development to enable them to provide the best learning opportunities for their tamariki, and understand where their tamariki are at, and how they are progressing.
E kī ana te whakataukī: Ehara tāku toa ī toa takatahi, engari he toa takatini.
Naku noa,
Damian
Kia ora koutou!
E kī ana te whakataukī: Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini.
My scenario is that I am a team leader with 2 others in my hub. A challenge I am facing is in terms of well-being. Both other teachers are excellent. One is a 2nd year BT, the other has been teaching about 20 years. Each have their own challenges. One is anxious, the other has “issues” at home (and may also be anxious).
I believe we have an issue with communication and collaboration. Due to illnesses and other things, we have not been able to have a hub hui for at least 3 weeks. This means we aren’t able to discuss our tauira, planning, or admin, which means people are feeling left behind and out-of-touch.
Alongside this issue is that the experienced kaiako is debriefing with the BT before school, which places an emotional burden on the BT.
I am mindful that I can be blunt and am not fantastic at scripts or things to say to enable open and honest conversation without being blunt or sounding like I’m finding fault with anyone.
I know I need to do some homework and prepare things, and considering using our robot overlords, or rather, chatgpt for ideas.
In your learned opinion, what are some strategies I could use to properly facilitate an open, honest, and healing conversation that will result in increased well-being and collaboration?
Ngā mihi nui,
Damian
Well this is a tricky one!
Actually I think you need to be really upfront with the more experienced teacher. It would begin like this. Oh X I am so glad I caught you. Have you got a moment to talk? Look I realise you might be feeling a little bit neglected as we haven’t had a chance to catch up as we usually do. I am so grateful to have someone so experienced on my team and I appreciate the mentoring you have been giving Y. I think though we need to keep it slightly more professional. I know you are dealing with some issues and we need to find some way of getting you the help you need with that. I know its tempting to share that when you are feeling swamped by personal stuff I want to stress here that Y hasn’t complained but I’m concerned that really she’s dealing with her own issues as a BT. Do you remember how overwhelming those first couple of years were?
Look I’ve talked to the boss and she’s prepared to give us a little bit of time to get back on top of our planning because she knows what a high performing team we are. I’m a bit worried about Y at the moment. Would you mind keeping an eye on her for me as I think she’s a bit inclined to stress. Let’s both try and build her up a bit and I’ll come back to you with the time for our planning.
This isn’t the definitive answer but its what I’d try.
Kia ora Geraldine,
The tricky part is that I have heard about these conversations second-hand, so bringing it up would strongly imply people have been talking… specifically the BT. I like your talking frame though and I will endeavour to use a modified version when the time is right.
Ngā mihi,
Damian
Ok here’s another approach. You approach the more experienced teacher and say I need you to help me. I’m really worried about BT’s well being at the moment. I’m going to start a campaign to raise her mood. What do you think we could do? I think one thing is avoiding anything remotely negative or stressful, what do you reckon? In any event some nice lunch or morning tea to stick you all back together would be helpful.
Kia ora Geraldine,
That sounds like a really good idea, thank you! I’ll try that. Kai generally helps build bridges so that’s a definite.
Hi Damian,
I take my hat off to any teacher’s who work in hub situations as it just seems super overwhelming to me. I do have though 3 teacher aides in my class and a therapy team attached to my class that I have to find the time to have meetings with and ensure all the information gets out there. I am not sure if this would work in your situation, but one thing that I have in my class is a communication book. I here I put any notices, forums, information or questions that I need the team to see. Thankfully I have a great team that check it regularly and they can also write in any questions, ideas etc that they have. Then if we miss a meeting for any reason we can stay up to date via the book, plus it allows me to chat directly to anyone that leaves a questions.
It’s definitely not the ideal system, but in a busy school setting we have found it works better than trying to hold onto what you need to share until the next meeting which may not happen.
Kia ora Jade,
Thank you so much! Sometimes the simple old-school ideas work best and it is easy to forget that sometimes the best technology is paper and pen.
Ngā mihi ki a koe!
Damian
Kia ora Jade,
I worry that a book, or digital version, is one more job. The information I’d like to collect (how experienced teacher unloading is impacting BT) would not be ideal in a book or similar, as the “other person” could read it and take offence. We all like to download and debrief, and maybe that’s what the experienced teacher thinks they’re doing.
Thank you for your feedback, it is appreciated.
Kia ora Damian, Such great advice regarding your current situation, I found a situation I was in a little similar, but I was not in a leaders capacity. I asked if we could do a “whats going good” and what is on top”. This worked well. There were three of us and we got the whiteboard, drew a line down the middle and scribbled. We realised and agreed with each other that all the layers we had were the same. We all felt different towards each “on top” aspect but came to an agreement that at each meeting we spent the first 10mins going over the going good and on top. I am not suggesting this was a quick fix but we have over time become more mindful of each other and I believe my well-being has benefited. If we cannot make a meeting because of other factors we make sure we do a quick check in decide a time to discuss what we agree to be at the forefront and in some cases we have spent 15mins of our lunch break to collaborate. Kia Kaha, kia māia, kia manawanui!
This is indeed a tricky one Jade. The differentiation between governance and management needs to be maintained at all costs because the consequences of BoT ‘meddling’ in day to day operations is too hideous to contemplate. A trusting relationship with the Principal is critical and they should appreciate ‘a head’s up’ on issues that they could with a bit of warning head off before they become more significant. Having a long and protracted discussion about what you can and can’t do with staff who expect you to be a ‘white knight’ on every issue is probably not a good use of your time. As you suggest the Glad, sad, sure model could work well here.
Kia Ora all,
A description of a scenario/ area of influence/challenge that I am facing and would appreciate feedback on is around my role as Staff Representative on the Board of Trustees. The challenge that I face is that I often find other staff coming to me to ‘fix’ or ‘solve’ their issues when they are not happy with another teacher, support staff or management. More often than not it is to do with management. I have staff coming to me about how unhappy they are, how they feel management should say no to what the government wants to put in place, how they need to fix staffing shortages, how they disagree with school wide changes and even how certain students should be excluded. I have always given the person time to speak as more often than not sometimes it just seems like they want to be heard and that the reason they feel like that is because they have misunderstood something. I am someone who doesn’t like to just fob people off. But I do also wonder whether by listening I am giving the false hope already that I will help.
There have been a couple of times though that someone has come to me saying if management doesn’t change, they will leave and then a few months later they do in fact resign. I can’t help feeling should I have done something to prevent this as I knew this could be happening. There have also been a couple of times where I have brought something to my management team and all of these times I was told this is the first they have heard about the issue and that they can’t hear it second hand from me it needs to come directly from the person.
I have spoken to other staff reps about this, and they have all told me to steer clear. They have said it is not a governance issue and that before anything comes to me, they need to follow the correct process, which most never have followed. The guidelines from Te Whakaroputanga Kaitiaki Kura o Aotearoa (The NZ School Trustees Association) state that the role of the Staff Representative is to be the representative for the staff as a whole and not an advocate, that we are not to deliver concerns or complaints, but we can show staff the process to do so.
When items are brought to me I always try and share that I understand how they are feeling and thank them for having the courage to come to me, and then state that unfortunately I cannot take it further as there is a process that needs to be followed and that I can not take it to management for them, as well as not being able to take it to a board meeting. I have offered to show staff the process they need to follow and even at times offered to be a support person for someone going to talk to someone else.
The suggestions or feedback I would like is phrases or points that I could use as a go to for responding to staff who present something to me that is not within my scope as a Staff Representative. I am wondering if something like the glad…sad…sure…model would work however at the moment when I think about the sure part it results in me doing something that fixes the situation. The feedback I need, needs to enable me to be supportive but not agree to anything as I find it very easy to just say yes.
Kia ora Jade,
I have been staff trustee (representative) on BOT and found it’s easy to blur boundaries and confuse responsibilities and processes. It’s a tough job eh because people perceive you as having all this power and influence at BOT meetings, and you’re also privy to some of their “secrets”. Kia kaha e hoa!
I’ve just watched the video (did not enjoy the ads) and a key take-away for me was “do the homework”. In your situation, I would want to have flow-charts or whatever the school has to explain systems and procedures for complaints etc. I’d also want to double-check staff trustee responsibilities and maybe spend time at a staff hui clarify those to all. By doing so, you’d probably be able to remind people of correct process, which will let them be heard by management etc.
I am not fantastic with scripts (that’s a personal goal to fix) but I hope I have said something useful.
Naku noa,
Damian
Hi Damian,
Thanks for that…yes it definitely is a tough job and one where apparently I have the power to solve the worlds problems (if only it was that easy). One thing that you mentioned that I have just realised that we have never done is have a staff hui and explain exactly what my role is. I have told many people when they come to me with their problems, but I can’t recall ever explaining it as a whole to every one at once. I definitely feel this might be a good starting point 🙂
I was just going to suggest having a discussion at a staff hui and going through procedure, then I read Damian’s comments which I totally agree with! A friend of mine was our staff rep at a challenging time with the principal. I think he felt quite isolated at times. I know you need to keep things confidential so I am not sure who you could talk to but I do hope you have support 🙂
We have had a similar situation Jade in the past within our school but I was a board parent rep not a staff rep. Soo tricky, as you have said and staff not following the complaints procedures process can cause drama that can bring the school environment down. If people are not going to follow the processes in place, it is hard to get resolutions and change is hard to achieve. Agree a staff hui stating the policy and processes sounds a good way to address.