This newsletter is brought to you by The Growth Network UK. For more information about how we can help you grow resilient leaders, improve wellbeing and prevent burn out for yourself and your school go to thegrowthnetworkuk.org.

The three things worth knowing this week all come from my notes* of an insightful talk by Sinead McBrearty the head of the teacher support charity, Education Support entitled, ‘The Human Side of High Performance.’ The three things worth knowing are

* According to research by Oxford University, wellbeing is constructed of:

* Stress

* Experience of happiness

* Job satisfaction

* Sense of meaning and purpose in work

Perhaps it is no surprise to find that stress is a major contributor to wellbeing but the remaining three factors all relate to enjoyment, meaning and purpose in our work. Teaching staff are much more engaged and committed to their work than staff than most professions, indeed the phrase apparently often used for work in other sectors is a ‘b******t job’ and still most teachers enter the profession with a conviction because; ‘What you do (teaching) literally changes the world’

* Overwork in education is the norm

Again, maybe there are no surprises here. The main drivers of overwork in education are:

* Policy - what comes down to teachers from government via leadership teams

* Issues of underfunding in wider public services - this increases hours worked and intensity of hours worked by staff in schools

* Accountability - a high stakes inspection system creates stress

The World Health Organisation says that working over 55 hours per week has serious negative effects on long term health. On average, school leaders work over 55 hours per week and teachers work almost 55 hours per week.

* Solutions come from team and personal decisions:

Teams, whether they be whole school or middle leaders, need to adopt ‘ruthless prioritisation’. We can reduce intensity by regularly asking questions like:

* What can we stop / slow down?

* What can we pause?

* Where are the pinch points in the system at present?

Taking small steps to adjust the way we work has the effect of decongesting and reducing the intensity of work as the number and pace of tasks is slowed down.

Personally, teachers have to make the decision to slow down which is a tough thing to do when overwork is the norm. Change comes first in our beliefs and then our practice. That takes time because just wanting to do something does not mean we automatically do it. If you find it a challenge to let go, possibly through a sense of duty, consider that, it is better to be there less than exhausted and burned out.

One specific tip is to find something outside work which totally absorbs you; playing a musical instrument, exercising, reading, cooking and make a habit of doing that so that you can switch off. Changing the way a whole profession works takes time but it starts with each individual and each team making small changes.

Thanks for reading. For more information about how to put these ideas into practice for yourself and your school visit us at thegrowthnetworkuk.org or follow us on LinkedIn

*These comments are based on my notes, none of them a redirect quotes

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thegrowthnetworkuk.substack.com

This newsletter is brought to you by The Growth Network UK. For more information about how we can help you grow resilient leaders, improve wellbeing and prevent burn out for yourself and your school go to thegrowthnetworkuk.org.

Happy New Year and welcome to the first three things worth knowing for middle leaders this year:

* Develop your thick desires. This article is a brilliant one to begin the year with. It contrasts thin desires with thick desire. A thick desire is one that changes you in the process of acquiring it, a thin desire is one that does not. A thick desire could be something like learning calculus whilst a thin desire is something like checking notifications. The article concludes, ‘The person who checks their notifications is, afterward, exactly the same person... But the person who spends a year learning calculus becomes someone different…’ This is a perfect example for a new year’s resolution of learning something new or letting go of an old bad habit. Both are things more easily done in community so think not just about which habits you want to cultivate this year but also about who is going to help you do it.

* New Ofsted reports focus more on inclusion and less on curriculum. As the reports from the first schools inspected under the new framework are published we conclude our overview with a look at leadership and governance. As this newsletter is particularly aimed at middle leaders, it is important to note that leadership includes all leaders in the school not just SLT. The framework asks if schools:

* enable every student to thrive

* are raising standards to improve the lives of all students

Notice that the words every and all focus again on what Matt Bromley calls ‘the golden thread’ of inclusion and disadvantage throughout this framework. How is this to be achieved? Matt suggests 8 key considerations:

* Have a strategic plan based on the needs of your community

* Manage your area to enable your team to work effectively

* Make decisions in the best interests of all students

* Use self assessment to understand the strengths and areas for development in your area of responsibility

* Provide appropriate professional development for your team

* With your line manager ensure you understand the contribution you and your team make to the effectiveness of the whole school

* Engage with parents by contributing to communication and engagement when opportunities arise

* Support staff wellbeing through strategies to reduce workload and improve effectiveness

* Focus on the process not the result The energy-output curve. Last term I posted one of my favourite questions on LinkedIn, ‘What would you do if you knew you would fail?’ The answer is to focus on the process and enjoy it. Sahil Bloom makes a similar point about focusing on the process and not the result in order to do our best work. He tracks what he calls the energy-output curve (below) which says that our enthusiasm for a project is greatest at the beginning and the end (think of a school year or a student you are working with pastorally). We begin enthusiastic about the new project and end with excitement at seeing the result. The energy dips in the middle when we face the slog (let’s call that January). The temptation at this point is to give up, perhaps not on your lessons or career but maybe on putting in as much effort as you were previously, because the result seems too far off and therefore unattainable. However Bloom argues (with evidence behind him) that focusing on the quality of what you are doing today will, in the end deliver the results more effectively than focusing on the results you hope to achieve. What is the point? Focus on doing a great job today and let the results look after themselves.

Thanks for reading this newsletter. For more information about how to put these ideas into practice for yourself and your school visit us a thegrowthnetworkuk.org or follow us on LinkedIn.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thegrowthnetworkuk.substack.com

We often use the phrase, ‘you make all the difference.’ But to make that difference, it really helps to know yourself and the difference you can make. For years after becoming a teacher and a school leader I understood that I was good at certain things like planning and data but at the same time I knew I had a bad temper which got me into trouble and undermined other things I was trying to do. I was not unaware of my strengths and weaknesses but taking a personality test somehow made a big difference to my understanding of my value to the school community.

The question Katniss asks is fundamental, ‘What difference does this make to our daily work in school or our personal lives?’ Perhaps surprisingly, it can make a lot of difference, for two main reasons; one it tells you what you are good at and may wish to accentuate and second, it gives you permission to accept the areas where you are less strong. There is a surprising degree of freedom in each although this is not about permission to let go of the areas in which you are not naturally strong, it is about permission to ask for help.

Having a clear idea of each person’s strengths enables a team to organise itself to make best use of those strengths. Eustace is great at data but not at motivating students. Billy is perhaps the opposite. We can see this in the roles they have chosen to pursue. But there is some resentment between the two with the perception from Billy that Eustace is getting away with doing less and a sense of guilt on Eustace’s part that he could be doing more. Perhaps both are right, but the answer does not necessarily lie in Eustace spending more time supporting students. The answer is to find ways to use both Billy and Eustace’s strengths in a complementary way. Eustace is in a great position to supply data to Billy which might help to focus the support given. He will be able to tell Billy where certain students are facing challenges. Are they missing certain lessons or days of the week; are problems arising more often with certain teachers? Billy in turn can guide support to where it is needed.

The issue Billy is facing is that he is being led by the problems. That means he is always busy and rarely has a sense of being on top of his work. Eustace could make a huge difference to that, helping Billy to develop the discipline to begin with the evidence and get support in place before problems happen. It could also help Billy to delegate and be on time to meetings.

Eustace on the other hand can certainly be helped in his relationships with students. Billy might be able to return the favour here with some coaching on how to deal with specific issues. It might also be useful for both of them to reflect on the relationship between their motivations and their characters. Eustace, for example, is ambitious but his tendency is to focus on the plan rather than the person hence the blow ups. I can relate to Eustace and completing this test helped because it helped me accept both where I needed help and what I had to offer. Perhaps the greatest relief came from knowing that I did not have to be good at everything.

All this can be just as useful in our personal lives. Have you ever wondered why you are always late or why you are always the one organising everyone else, why certain issues with friends or family tend to please or annoy you? A personality test can shed some light on these questions and give a little freedom from the guilt of just not being very good at some things. More importantly, it can help you find your place and see the value you are bringing. Knowing and valuing your contribution might help prevent burnout because it reminds you of your value and connects you to a wider vision. Being clear about this is a reminder that, without you playing your part, the people you live and work with would be worse off. Remember, ‘You make all the difference.’

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thegrowthnetworkuk.substack.com

The end of the Christmas term is coming, you are probably tired and unlikely to process much detail very well so here are three things worth knowing which might make a difference to you in the next week:

* Remember what went well this term. No question has received a response anything like as great as, ‘What would you do if you knew you would fail?’ The correct answer has a lot to do with focusing on the process rather than the outcome and seeing what is happening right now rather than fretting over the final goal, especially if it looks unachievable. How is this term feeling to you at this moment in time? Have you achieved what you hoped? The chances are it has not been perfect. But that is OK because you have achieved a lot this term, you just need to remind yourself of what those things are. Maybe start simple, count how many days you made it into work, how many deadlines you met and how many lessons you taught. Or think about a particular person you helped, an positive event which occurred or just a moment when you felt satisfied with what happened. I can assure you that this term was not perfect for you but there is plenty to be satisfied with so celebrate that.

* The way to make yourself happy is to do something nice for someone else. All around you the world may be falling apart but that does not mean you have no control over anything. In fact you always have control over one thing which is yourself. The something nice in question might involve time or money but the truth is that it need involve nothing more than a smile or asking about someone’s plans for the holidays. As Ryan Holiday says, ‘[generosity] helps the person who receives it but it also changes you into the kind of person who does stuff like that. Apparently Seneca said that every person we meet is an opportunity for kindness. Keep that in mind in these final days of term and as the holiday begins, you will feel much better for it.

* You feel much better if you manage your phone better. This is a great article about what Tech CEOs actually do with technology and the answer is that they do not use it much. Did you know that Sam Altman of Open AI takes notes on paper, that Mark Zuckerberg manages how much time his kids spend on social media and Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram, does not own a smartphone. You have probably heard it all before but you will be better off with no notifications on your phone, only answering emails and messages from a laptop or PC and keeping your phone out of your bedroom.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thegrowthnetworkuk.substack.com

Three things worth knowing this week school middle leaders.

* The gap between what we offer and student satisfaction remains high. Absence is still high nationally with only 93% of secondary students attending school so far this term. Why does this concern the average middle leader though? Two reasons, one is that you are probably seeing attendance dip as we approach Christmas and wondering if this is only you, it is not. The second reason is that this continues to highlight the disconnect between school and student attitudes to school. There have been some slight improvements (Edurio) in student attitudes towards school but with no year group between 8 and 11 showing more than 42% positivity towards school, we need to keep on considering student responses to Ofsted’s question, ‘Do you enjoy coming to school?’

* The courage to disappoint others is really the courage to prioritise yourself. Personal development in the new Ofsted framework is all about consistency and context. Again, things have not changed much and what you do needs to suit the students you serve, especially remember inclusion and disadvantage here. Very simply, consider what good personal development looks like for students in your area of responsibility and make a plan which enables them to take the next logical steps forward. If you can summarise what you are doing on a sheet of A4 and make sure everyone knows the plan and is equipped to deliver it then you are well prepared. The hard bit, of course, is putting it into practice. For that you need to give yourself time. Map out what you want to achieve and build gradually; it is perfectly fine to say, this is what we have done and this is what we plan to do next. You may feel the urgency to go faster but do not overdo it, as Jo Howard shared this week; ‘The courage to disappoint others is really the courage to prioritise yourself.’

* 90% of our happiness is within our control. A lot of dissatisfaction comes from comparison either to other people or our expectations. Kate Sotsenko suggests that the first question to ask ourselves is always: ‘How much of “all” is enough today?’ whilst the wrong question is ‘How can I balance it ALL?’ More immediately, Kate Smith suggests these questions to help school leaders get through December:

* What genuinely needs my attention now and what can wait until January?

* Which decisions could I simplify or delegate this week?

* What is my one most important task that will make everything feel lighter once it’s done?

* When have I felt myself slipping into overwhelm recently, and what small action helped me reset?

* What brief wellbeing practice can I protect each day to help me stay steady in the busyness?

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thegrowthnetworkuk.substack.com

Here’s three things worth knowing this week if you are a school middle leader.

* Ask your students, ‘Do you like coming to school?’ Culture is at the core of the Ofsted framework section on attendance and behaviour. There is not much change here from the previous framework but it emphasises that leaders should understand their cohort and have policies which are appropriate to them. The best way to test this is to ask the question, ‘Do you like coming to school?’ The responses and your data on behaviour and attendance will indicate whether the things you are doing are creating a community students want to be part of or not. A couple of other things worth noting are; 1. preparing case studies to illustrate impact and 2. be clear about your mobile phone policy, what is it supposed to achieve and does it work?

* December and January are the worst months of the year in school. According to Teacher Tapp, if you ask staff the same question as the student, ‘Do you like coming to school’ the responses will be significantly more negative in December and January. This is worth knowing if you are feeling the strain as is the fact that all the months after January are the best of the whole year. A few useful suggestions which might make the lowest point of the year a little easier to bear; asking people only to complete small tasks, setting deadlines for January (where possible), sharing resources which will reduce workload and of course, handing out chocolate always helps too.

* How we say something often matters more than what we say. These are the words Pooky Knightsmith talking about my new favourite educational term, ‘demand avoidant learners’, I think I have met a few of these. As we enter the hardest few weeks of the year it is tempting to allow irritation to get the better of us so Pooky shares 4 ideas that enable calm communication:

* Speak softly, slowly and low so your voice makes students feel safe

* Ask don’t tell, invite rather than instruct to reduce pressure and offer control

* Use indirect language e.g. let me know when you are ready rather than ‘do it’

* Hold your ground with calm compassion, your job is not to win but stay steady

Her simple advice to begin with is to notice your tone and remember:

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* Deep dives are no longer part of Ofsted inspections. Mark Enser offers a helpful overview of the new inspection framework which now has:

* six evaluation areas; leadership & governance; curriculum & teaching; behaviour & attendance; achievement; personal development & wellbeing and inclusion

* a five-point scale to grade each and

* no overall judgement

The biggest headline for middle leaders is that deep dives are no longer part of the inspection and that leaders are not expected to produce documents just for the inspection. Instead Ofsted are interested in your school’s vision to meet the needs of students in your context. Therefore as a middle leader make sure that your plans; relate to the evaluation areas and your school’s vision and that you are monitoring your impact on this through your daily practice. Mark concludes that this is an opportunity to make your area of responsibility is; ‘…a key contributor to the wider school improvement narrative.’

* 26% of students find what they learn at school interesting (Edurio). Maybe a good response to this statistic would be to ask yourself as a middle leader whether your area of responsibility contributes to making school a place students want to attend. According to SecEd, absence has improved slightly (by 0.2% overall compared with pre-pandemic levels) although the FFT suggests no improvements yet this year. The DfE’s new attendance targets will put the pressure on leaders with responsibility for attendance but it is also important for all leaders to consider how this relates to vision and making your school a place students want to attend. According to School’s Week the attendance toolkit case study schools are addressing this through activities like crochet, gardening and sign language in one school and family cooking classes in another. The NAHT is complaining that there are too many new expectations right now but perhaps establishing and working towards a clear vision will be the best way to address them as a whole.

* ECT’s are most concerned about behaviour but their actual source of stress is planning and marking. Teacher Tapp asked ECTs first what they were worried about going into their second and third years of teaching and then, once the year had begun, what was really causing them headaches. 42% were worried about behaviour before the term started but only 20% had that down as a cause of stress in the past two weeks. That is some good news, however the opposite was true for lesson preparation which went from 5% to 10% and marking which went from 4% to 11%, overall it was administrative, planning, marking and assessment related tasks which added up to the great cause of stress. Relationships also ranked more highly than the ECTs expected, especially relationships in school. So, if you are a mentor, line manager or colleague to an ECT it might be worth asking them the same questions, the chances are that it is the paperwork more than the students that is getting them down.

One final thought, at this increasingly gloomy time of year try to step outside for 2 minutes at some time each day to ensure you actually see some daylight! Have a great weekend and see you again in 2 weeks.

Don’t forget the latest episodes of the Five Dysfunctions of an SLT and Teacher Tips.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thegrowthnetworkuk.substack.com

* Ofsted part 3 - Achievement. Again, the framework is not making significant changes. The most significant change is that achievement does not just mean exam results but also the wider curriculum including music, sport and the arts. Whether you are responsible for a subject, a cross curricular theme like literacy, an area of the school e.g. sixth form or enrichment should ensure that students achieve:

* what they need for their future

* in line with national trends in progress and attainment

* appropriately for their starting points

Perhaps the most important point here is not a new one, we should not confuse achievement and progress - a grade is only ‘high’ if the student has made the expected progress from where they started. Sometimes the worst rates of progress can be from coasting high prior attaining students.

* The curriculum review (Francis review) has been published and the government has responded. The review recommended small changes to all subjects e.g. a greater emphasis on climate change in geography and some bigger ones in others, e.g. English language. The time students spend taking exams will be reduced by 10%. The consequence for you as a leader is that you will have a new national curriculum and new specifications from 2027 but they will not be significantly different from the ones you have now (in most cases). There will be more tests though, in year 8 students will be checked for progress in English and maths although this does not mean SATs are back in key stage 3, instead schools will have to choose how to assess this progress.

In addition, the government has made some changes to Progress 8. The EBacc is gone and the buckets are changing. What this means in practice is that students will need to do 4 subjects from at least two of; humanities, languages and creative subjects. What this probably means is, slightly fewer students studying geography and history and slightly more studying creative subjects.

Finally, there is a move towards greater accountability based on similar schools meaning that your outcomes will be compared less to national averages and more to schools with students like the ones in your school. So, if you are a comprehensive in a deprived area or a selective school serving an affluent area your impact will be considered in comparison to schools like yours not schools in general.

* Abandonment. Finally, a tip for managing overwhelming workload. Abandonment is the habit of letting go of tasks when there are just too many to do. We talked a couple of weeks ago about success lists rather than to do lists. This could be seen as the next step, once you have identified the ‘one thing’ that matters most you may want to trim things from your to do list that actually do not need doing. This is not failing to take responsibility but asking for each thing, ‘what purpose does this serve?’ if you cannot easily answer that question you have three options:

* Let it go - maybe it does not need doing anyway

* Do it differently - based on what the purpose is

* Reimagine it - maybe it matters but you need to do it differently

For example, if you need to review your school improvement plan, do not see it as a task that has to be done because someone told you to. See it as an opportunity to check your progress to achieving your objectives. When you do this you get greater clarity about what you are trying to do, your strengths and what you need to do next. As a consequence you will begin to see things differently, they will become more achievable and you will find you have greater energy.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thegrowthnetworkuk.substack.com

Three things worth knowing this week:

* We have less children. This NFER briefing puts numbers, consequences and strategies on the issue of the falling number of student entering schools. Primary schools have already felt the consequences of the decline and it is beginning to impact secondary schools too. What middle leaders need to know is that for every student who does not come through your doors there will be at least £6000 less income for your school. That can mean less resources, less staff and even, in some places, less schools. So if you are wondering why your senior team are putting a big emphasis on recruiting students, increasing class sizes, reducing the number of subjects offered or sharing resources with other schools this is probably, at least part of the reason why. What can you do as a leader? Think about the consequences for your teams e.g. can you set more self marking tasks so larger class sizes do not lead to increased workload?

* Ofsted Framework part 2: Maybe the most important point about Matt Bromley’s second Ofsted summary, curriculum and teaching, is that there is relatively little change here. If you are used to the idea of a curriculum which is; designed to meet the needs of different groups of students, based on research, effectively delivered and setting students up for success in the subject and life, then you need to keep on doing what you have been doing. What you might want to consider is the ‘assess, plan, do, review’ cycle as a way of enabling continuous improvement. Leaders and teachers alike should be able to talk about how the curriculum works to ensure that each student is making progress from their starting points. This is a great way to constantly review the quality of your planning and delivery as well as the progress of each student in order to create a genuinely inclusive curriculum.

* Attendance is marginally improving - according to DfE data but the rate of persistent absence has risen from 10% to 18% since before the pandemic. According to EEF, telling parents the number of days their children missed is more effective than telling them the percentage attended. Sending text messages at key moments like starts or ends of terms saying, ‘Sandra missed 5 days’ rather than ‘Sandra attended 90% of the time’ led to a small improvement in attendance. This is an interesting finding because it brings together the two key issues of attendance and inclusion. A warmer, more personal and relatable message might be a significant factor in improving home school relationships and the attitude of parents and students to school. An idea worth considering if you have responsibility for attendance or even if you are just making phone calls for your form group.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thegrowthnetworkuk.substack.com

3 things worth knowing this week

* Make a success list instead of a to do list - This was a simple piece of advice from the book The One Thing. A to do list is a way of getting things done with the satisfaction of ticking them off, whether or not they were important or useful. A success list, on the other hand is a way of identifying what matters in relation to your objectives and doing the things which achieve those objectives. If you have a number of small ‘urgent’ tasks to get done or you need to spend some quality planning or thinking time to execute a policy which really matters to you and which will make a big difference. Which do you choose? The urgent or the impactful? Choosing the urgent gets jobs done, choosing the impactful changes things and achieves your goals. Of course, the first thing you need to do is identify those goals or as we say in the Resilience Communities, identify your mission and objectives.

* The EEF Toolkit has been updated with the accompanying comment that leaders find it hard to understand how to put evidence into action. That is possibly because, although these toolkits are brilliant there is just so much information and it is hard to know what works in your context. Their research indicates that, possibly, as a consequence many leaders rely at least as much on their networks as they do on the evidence. One thing to share from this update is the most common uses of pupil premium funding. Schools are most likely to focus on issues relating to English and literacy, attendance and social, emotional and mental health and wellbeing. The funding is most commonly allocated to targeted academic support and high-quality teaching rather than interventions. In case you were wondering if what you are doing is normal, now you know. To find out whether or not it is effective look at the evidence brief, as ever high quality teaching is number 1 on the list.

* Homework is good - This overview of impactful homework policies argues that homework has an overall positive impact on students and staff, when it is set; consistently within and between subjects, enables revision and consolidation, through 1 platform (e.g. Google Classroom) so students can find it, in a way that teachers are responsible for checking not marking and makes appropriate use of AI. With reference to this final issue Peps McCrae cuts through the debate saying; ‘whoever does the thinking gets the learning’. If you have not already begun using AI you are now in the minority (Teacher Tapp). At the end of the day both homework and AI are only useful if they enable students to think more deeply about what they are learning and do their best.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thegrowthnetworkuk.substack.com