The antidote to common leadership conundrums...

Leaders' surgery

Remaining resolute

Q At the start of this academic year, as I do every year, I made a resolution to have a better work-life balance. I always start well but, by November, it seems work takes over. Any tips for helping to keep to my resolution this year?

A The important thing to remember is that everyone gains when staff have a healthy work-life balance. It is difficult to perform at your best when you are tired or suffering from work overload.

The key is to be in control of your workload, rather than letting it control you. Many people find that, if home life permits, arriving at work early can help make a good start to the day. Many problems can be worked through more calmly at this time and staff can discuss issues before they start teaching or other duties. Staying late, on the other hand, can be detrimental even when there is work to be done.

One reason work piles up at the end of the day is frequent disruptions. If it is not already, it should be made explicit what leadership team members do and don’t do, so your time is not eaten up dealing with problems that should be solved by others.

Keeping some sacrosanct times and activities is just as much a right for leaders as for other staff, but the open ended nature of the job means it is essential to designate these, by closing the door and putting the phone to voice mail if needed.

Building breaks into your work can also help to increase efficiency. A change of activity, a walk in the fresh air or a short period of quiet contemplation can re-energise the mind.

Most of all, work on setting realistic goals for what you can achieve and don’t berate yourself if you don’t accomplish all of them.

Policy on updating policies

Q This term, one of my priorities is to review all our school’s policies. Some of them haven’t been updated in years, although they’re not necessarily out of date. Is there any guidance or regulation about how often policies should be reviewed and revised, and where can I find a list of policies required by statute?

A You’re right that all policies should be reviewed regularly, but how often will depend on a few things. First of all, policies have to be renewed when new statutory guidance has been put into place. The difficulty is that this guidance may come from a number of sources.

Secondly, there are policies which change in the light of the school’s decisions, planning, aims and targets.

It is good practice for every policy to state a review period and date in the calendar – which will vary depending on the type of policy – and to give a specific named person or group responsibility for the timetable for policy review and updating.

It may make sense for a leadership team member and/ or a governor (or governors’ committee) to undertake this role. There also needs to be a system in place to ensure that new legislation and guidance is received, processed and the policy implications considered.

It is surprisingly difficult to find an updated list of policies that are required of schools by statute, even pre-general election. The most recent we have found is from the Guide to the Law for School Governors, published by the DCSF in 2009. Download it from www.governornet.co.uk/linkattachments/ GTTL%20word.doc

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