Derek Wenmoth and I have just reached the half-way point in this year’s Refresh Reconnect Refocus (RRR) programme we have been running with 18 primary and secondary schools Assistant and Deputy Principals.
We began with a 2 day Retreat in Wellington in late January before the start of school where participants were supported through a process of exploring their ‘why’ as leaders, experiencing a range of tools which could be used to bring their ‘why’ to life, imagining what they might be able to achieve and then honing in on an issue to focus on for the following 20 weeks.
Over the next 20 weeks we remain connected in the following ways as a group to foster both a sense of ‘being-in-this-together’ and being accountable so that there is the best chance to maintain momentum:
Each participant is allocated a buddy from the group and commit to making contact with each other on a weekly basis to check on progress
Derek and I meet on line with each participant every 3 weeks where we support them to make progress with their focus area, problem-solve together and plan next steps
Specialist webinars are scheduled with national and global education thinkers to expose participants to up-to-date thinking and trends
On line whole group hui to share progress
We’re currently at the halfway point and have just had a whole group hui where each participant briefly shared their experience with their focus area. They were all asked to name the dominant emotion they were experiencing at this point in the year, specifically in relation to their particular focus area.
All of the participants are very busy APDPs in schools and are having to manage a range of demanding situations on a day-to-day basis, whether that be an ERO visit, overcrowding, increased pastoral issues, high levels of neuro-diverse students, rapidly changing curriculum and assessment and any number of other issues. Sometimes they have felt overwhelmed.
I was extremely impressed by the momentum they were all able to maintain within that demanding environment. There is no doubt that the accountability measures within our programme have supported that momentum, but most of it has come from within themselves as they set about leading, confident in their ‘why’ and using newly acquired tools.
What blew me away the most was the list of emotions they identified they were experiencing as a result of maintaining momentum within these demanding situations. They were feeling Proud, Inspired, Challenged, Heartened, Productive, Ready, Satisfied, Hopeful, Assured, Motivated, Excited and Humbled.
As we approach the last week of term, what better emotions would we want our school leaders to be experiencing?
Derek and I were able to express our pride in their work and the way in which they were all maintaining momentum. We also felt proud of the programme we were delivering and how it had contributed to those positive emotions revealed above.
In summing up our hui, Derek identified 2 strong themes that were evident from their sharing. The first was that while they were all working on quite different focus areas they were all working on developing coherence, through their focus area, across the school.
The second was that they were all demonstrating leadership in ways that impacted beyond the area they were working on. Several commented that through involvement in the programme and applying new insights they were thinking about their own leadership in different ways.
When asked to sum up, participants spoke of the common thread of perseverance that they were noticing from fellow participants and of the leading through humanity, based on a strong understanding of their ‘why’, that surfaced throughout the sharing.
These participants all displayed a clear moral purpose, that they were open to learning and, above all, that they had the courage to take action.
Feeling proud.