Someone asked me if taking a selfie was a mid life crisis. I hope so…another 60+ healthy years I could do! It was such an inspiring walk the other  week across the Manhattan bridge at 6 p.m, dinner in Dumbo(Down under Manhattan Bridge)  on the waterside and then back in the twilight looking over to illuminated Tribeca. Everything a good tourist would want to see…Statue of Liberty, Empire Sate, Brooklyn Bridge etc. Not that I’m feeling like a tourist after another two weeks here working with the ever improving Innovate Manhattan Charter School .

But long walks on your own at a weekend are great times for reflection especially after a couple of glasses of Malbec.

I’m here to work with the school as they prepared for an inspection – great outcome by the way! My 18th inspection in three different countries and 9 different schools. As Innovate is a Charter School, it is coming up for its renewal in a couple of years and as such this is an important stage visit. As with all charters, there is a risk that if they do not like what they see it could have its charter closed after 5 years.It reminded me as I walk, of the climate now in the UK where some academy chains have had schools taken away for lack of progress, and where teams of outstanding heads can be drafted in for turn around – a recycled idea!

Firstly let’s put down a given! Many schools in difficulty are in very challenging situations. Many have faced huge inconsistency in leadership or staffing over a long period of time. Having a priority to make things better quickly is exactly what we should aspire to. Where the schools are serving disadvantaged communities, these children do not just need a good school, they need consistency and  amazing teachers to lift them higher than anyone thought possible. I have spent my whole career thinking that and doing that.

But if it has taught me anything, it is the need for resilience, collaborative effort, and relentless optimism. Bringing it back to an individual student, the history of many of our young people in difficulty, is that they have such inconsistency in their lives from parents, from the services that are supposed to support them and in a lack of belief in their futures that progress is difficult. So it can be for schools. Many governments make huge investments to help them- academies in the UK have been given new buildings and start up grants; they want to see them make a difference. And so many have – although you have to recognise that for some, this has been done by  making a significant change in the school population or in other cases starting from scratch. In others they make huge progress and then fail to sustain it.

For me, sustaining these improvements is about changing the culture, not just within the school, but often outside the school as well. It means changing the community’s perception of the school and in so doing the self worth of the school community itself. It means working with parents so they start to feel the change and that it can be better for their children. It means getting teachers to want to work there because although challenging, it can be oh so rewarding and professionally exciting.

Of course a quick turn around in results helps this, but it does not sustain it.

I was recently referred to this great YouTube clip of a TED talk Simon Sinek . It’s not about schools at all, but it explains how having a leadership style and culture which builds trust, so people in the organisation are confident that they can make a difference and get on with the job without worrying about the next cull, cut or closure. It explains that by doing this, you can get tremendous commitment  from employees  that can mitigate against a whole range of external problems that have created internal difficulty and challenge.

So back in the education world, existing in a climate fear that you might have your school closed by the very next inspection, or that a team of outstanding people might come over the hill and oust you, is not going to enable you to build that safety of tenure and long term commitment that Simon Sinek talks about. School leadership is a hard job. There are very few equivalents where you are working intimately with over a 1000 individuals each bringing you endless variety and diversity. We need leaders who want to do this. We need leaders and teachers who want to consistently do it until it is right and the job done (It is never done!)

This sounds so soft! In the hard world of school management surely people who can’t do the job should be moved on! Well yes they should! But it is about balance. Taking a positive approach to personnel development from the first day of their appointment, giving them robust and constructive feedback and coaching will ensure success. People, and especially  leaders, need to feel that we believe in them first.

Evidence! In my first headship as a young and naive leader I was told I had immediately to make four people redundant to balance budget needs. I did what had to be done but vowed never to get myself into that position again. It took the energy out of the place. This was a school that struggled to maintain its student roll and position  due to competition from a neighbouring school along the valley that had been a grammar school with all the positive attributes that went with that – great arts curriculum, rugby , rowing and a royal name. To top it all, part of my school burned down one night.

However this was a real catalyst for commitment from the staff. We raised not an inconsiderable amount of money by having a long distance run to re-equip the technology block and involved not just staff and students but the wider community. From feeling victims of a system they realised that they could together achieve a great deal. Eight years further on the team had transformed the school so that it was identified as one of the best schools in the country and students started arriving from the neighbouring catchment to seek places. In an inspection over 90% of the teaching was deemed to be good and outstanding. It was the same team as we started with ten years earlier. We talked about learning, we shared best practice, we encouraged one another to take risks, we developed a fantastic arts curriculum and even started playing a bit of rugby. Even the Queen came for a day! Yes! Really!

So let’s have some balance;some belief in people who put themselves forward and make it the commitment  to make these changes to student outcomes and opportunity. Let’s put effort and determination into supporting them, coaching them, whilst challenging them,  so they have the confidence to find  new solutions to intractable problems.

The other way is to have them constantly looking over their shoulder, concentrating on short term fixes and solutions rather than the long game. This alternative is a tough way forward not soft. It might been parting ways with those who just cannot do it; you can usually spot those problems quite quickly and is often more about commitment to the cause than competence. Headship can be a lonely job, and such is the level of expectation that it is hard for them to ask for help, or recognise the way forward particularly if they are feeling over – challenged. However optimism and resilience can be learned if we get out thinking and support right.