Despite an early night last night I was still exhausted from yesterday's ride - see previous post. Running a school is hardwork at the best of times let alone when you are a bit shagged. But it has been another great day - still plenty of issues to deal with (kids dodging, some disrespect etc - the run-of -the-mill when working with almost 600 teenagers) but there is a feeling of satisfaction when the team works so well to calmly deal with everything that comes our way.
I've just received data which shows the great work we are doing with literacy. Our 2006 Year 9 group arrived with 57% scoring in the bottom quartile in literacy assessment. Our testing at the end of last year reduced that to only 25% in the bottom quartile. This is an outstanding achievement and is a credit to first of all the English Department but to all teachers in general. No wonder our NCEA results are so good.
Most of the day was spent meeting parents and students to help solve little problems. I have been out of school quite a bit so I have also been busy catching up with staff. It makes for busy times. I have worked out that for the remaining 18 days of school this term I will be here for 10 of them!
The highlight of the day was meeting with my Aspiring Leaders group. We spent 45 minutes talking about how leadership must impact on improved student achievement, about the importance of clarifying our individual moral purpose when it comes to teaching and about how we can make leadership sustainable. We then decided we would focus in our next meetings on difficult conversations, sustainable leadership, professionalism and influencing teachers to help the school achieve its goals.
There is no better place to work than where you have people to have these conversations with! Bring on tomorrow!
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