My position in the school is of a Learning Support Assistant, supporting students with special needs. The school’s vision statement focuses on fostering spiritual, academic, cultural and interpersonal growth, whereas the mission statement states that the school has a diverse community of teachers, brothers, Alas, parent and students, who strive to create and nurture a holistic, inclusive, well ordered learning climate to provide a high-quality, values-based, academic preparation for life in the Alsatian tradition.
Section 1 A. C. 1. 1: Review the prevailing leadership styles in the organization From all draperies styles available, I chose to focus on the Situational Leadership Model developed by Hershey and Blanchard for assignment purposes. The Situational Leadership Model consists of four styles, namely, Directing, Coaching, Supporting, Delegating. The Situational Leadership Model suggests that there is ‘no one size fits all’ approach to leadership. Leaders must first identify their most important tasks or priorities.
Leaders must also consider the readiness level of their followers by analyzing the group’s ability and willingness. Depending on the level of these variables, leaders must apply the most appropriate leadership Tyler to fit the given situation. Directing An autocratic leader who tells people what to do and expects them to jump to it. This style should be used on the first day of a new employee, when the industry will be new to the employee and therefore brings no experience to the table. The new employee will need a lot of direction as one learns to find their own way.
Coaching This leader seeks input from others and participates in the decision making process. A subordinate who has been on the job for some period of time and has to solve a big-time problem. The basics will still be mastered but will still be earning nuances. The subordinate gets to participate in solving the problem while the leader gets an opportunity to see how well she/he develops. Supporting This leadership approach is most appropriate when the followers have low willingness but high ability for the task at hand.
The leader need not worry about showing them what to do, but instead should be concerned with finding out why the followers are refusing and work to persuade them to co-operate. Supportive leadership involves listening, giving praise and making the followers feel good when they show the necessary commitments for success. The key to supportive draperies is motivating and building confidence in people. Delegating This leadership approach is most appropriate when the followers have high willingness and high ability. There is a high amount of trust that the follower will do well, requiring little supervision or support.
Delegating still keeps the leader involved in the decisions and problem-solving, but execution is mostly in the hands of the followers. There is less need for support or frequent praise, although occasional recognition is always encouraged. After interviewing and observing the Head of School and Assistant Heads, it is clear that all the styles re used according to the context but the prevailing leadership styles in the school are Supporting and Delegating. This conclusion was brought by the belief that importance to the democratic process is given, particularly to ownership.
Any member of staff has something to offer, needless to say that everyone is different and has talents to share and instill in others. It is also believed that others have something unique to pass on to others, having said this, it makes the environment we live in something not conservative or static, but a living experience with guidance from the Management Team. The school has been introducing learning through IT in different sections of the school over the years and now boasts being one of the leading schools using the latest IT tools to teach nearly throughout the whole school.
In the conception stage of the project, the staff had a high ability to teach but not all were computer literate to take on the challenge, leaving most with a low willingness to move forward with the project. This is where the Supporting leadership style kicked in. The Head listened to concerns from the staff by using group meetings, communication through e-mails and an open door policy. When he started identifying the individual concerns and desires, he was in a position to make a training plan and provide the tools that the teachers wished for.
The teaching teams were given training to be able to be part of the implementation of the notebook and tablet project, whilst making them content, as much as possible, in terms of equipment quality and availability. The training is ongoing, and it is also given to new members of staff. Support is mostly at hand when needed. This made the teaching teams more confident and motivated to be a part of the project, which has been successful for the past years and showing good potential n the new stages of implementation.
Other minor ideas brought up by staff, which were possible, were given the go ahead for them to implement as they wish. Some instances were when the Grade as wanted to adopt turtles and set up an aquarium in the corridor for the boys to take care of, learn about and enjoy. When the Head was approached about the ideas, he liked them and offered his support in anything he can help with, since one of his hobbies is marine life. Other instances are extra curricular clubs that the staff wanted to set up during the hour break and after school. The
Head left the execution responsibility up to the staff, for all to be on onboard and have a sense of ownership. This shows trust in the staff and a Delegating leadership style. A. C. 1. 2: Assess the impact of the prevailing leadership styles on the organization’s values and performance The school’s values are student satisfaction, parent satisfaction, holistic and spiritual growth, respect for each student as a unique person, spirit of community, solidarity, having staff of faith and zeal, and fostering an ethos of collaboration where like a family everyone feels a sense of belonging.
The school’s performance is measured by the students’ progress on formative assessment, student outcomes, level of feedback and short-term and long-term contentment of the students and parents and higher retention of effective staff. Choose to focus on the Supporting leadership style in this section. This style creates a school climate that improves the productivity of both teachers and students, however it can also foster or restrict school effectiveness. Why? A skilled and well-supported leadership team in schools can help foster a sense of ownership and purpose in the way that teachers approach their job.
Conferring professional autonomy to teachers will enhance the attractiveness of the profession as a career choice and will improve the quality of the classroom teaching practice. Teachers who work together in a meaningful and purposeful way have been found to be more likely to remain in the profession because they feel valued and supported in their work. However, this situation should be of concern, especially given evidence teachers are attracted to, and stay in, the profession if they feel they belong and believe they are contributing to the success of their school and students.
The real challenge facing the school is no longer how to improve but, more importantly, how to sustain improvement and keep everyone on board. Sustainability will depend upon the school’s internal capacity to maintain and support developmental work and sustaining improvement requires a sound leadership and ownership by the staff. The leadership style used by the Head is indirect to the values and performance, therefore it is vital that it is executed effectively for the school values to be adhered to and for performance to be optimum.
The Supporting Leadership style is part of the success of the notebook and tablet reject since the staff are onboard and working together in a team to make this project work, however there is also an element of experimenting with the children’s learning until all staff learn how to use the tools effectively. While the student satisfaction is high, since the lessons are hands-on by using the notebooks or tablets and also visualizes meaning fun, the parent satisfaction is not so high as they need to be computer literate to follow their children during their home work.
It is also harder to keep track of curriculum covered as it’s not just flipping through copybooks. Section 2 A. C. 2. 1: Assess own ability to apply different leadership styles in a range of situations am preparing to become a manager, therefore I’m not in a position of people reporting. However, if I was in the position of principal I would apply the Coaching and Delegating Leadership Styles. If I had to be a Head of school, I would feel most comfortable if I had to coach new staff.
In my line of work, new staff are qualified to do the job but would have had very little class experience as part of their placement. Due to the lack of experience, confidence might be low to do the job completely alone. It also takes time to adapt to all the school’s values, policies and diverse academic and social situations, therefore believe that a good element of coaching will be needed. On the first day of my job, the Head was a woman with an ineffective Autocratic leadership style.
I still clearly remember this day, starting with very little experience of working in a school, as if I had been put into a den of lions without any tools. If had to go back in time, I would have appreciated a Coaching style of leadership until I settle down and feel comfortable to be left alone, and after insulation with new colleagues, they confirmed this. Feedback is vital for new staff, giving more possibility of self evaluation. One of my strongest abilities is welcoming new staff into the school and help them familiarize themselves with important procedures and policies. M a good listener and problem solver. I also enjoy sharing methods that I found effective. I need to work on being more tolerant and patient with people of different abilities. If I were the principal, I would then implement a Delegation style of leadership with experienced member of staff. I consider myself as an experienced member f staff after a number of years in the job, and I feel ready to take on tasks assigned to me by my principal and execute them effectively with minimum or no supervision.
Experience teaches you to improve on current systems and innovative teaching methods. If I were the Head, I would create ‘Thinking Days’ where staff can have the opportunity to solely share new methods and ideas. A school day is very hectic and leaves no room for dialogue. The staff will then be responsible to implement their ideas. I would also give the opportunity to students to come up with an idea, e. G. Fund raising activity, or anything they would like the school to have, where they will be voted into an organization alignment to implement this idea.
These ‘Thinking Days’ will also be an opportunity for the much needed team building. Since a class is run by a team made up of a teacher and Alas, it’s vital for them to have a good working relationship. I believe the Delegation leadership style would fit me best with staff of vast experience because I give importance to the democratic process, particularly to ownership. I also believe that if certain members of the staff will eve a sense of ownership, it can motivate others who are not at the level of ownership, to start believing in it.
Abilities I have which will fit in a Delegation leadership style are that I can trust someone who I believe can get a job done efficiently and effectively, I embrace ambition in people and give the space to feed their ambition, I encourage people to reach a higher level and I am considerate towards others’ feelings and ideas. However, I feel I need to work on trusting people who I don’t believe in as much, they might surprise me in what they can offer once given the space. I also feel I need to work on one-to-one infiltration when negative feedback needs to be passed on.
A. C. 2. 2: Assess own ability to communicate the organization’s values and goals to staff in own area The school tends to focus on specific curricular issues, on improving situations and systems and on addressing the many challenges it is faced by a changing society. Often, the focus is so exclusively on keeping up with the curriculum that very little attention is given to what is going on within the organization. Communicating and sharing information with colleagues is overlooked as everyone concentrates on getting work done and achieving the school’s objectives.
If I was in the principals position, I would organism more one-to-one meetings to evaluate every child’s situation and challenges, and work towards providing the student with more effective tools to be able to grow academically and holistically. Once the student is given a clear road map and feels supported, it enhances student satisfaction and in turn parent satisfaction. I would also involve the parents more, by giving the opportunity to voice their opinions, when it comes to certain decisions, e. G. Their opinion whether merit certificates should be given to al students or just to students whose assessment scores reach a certain target.
I think that if the parents feel involved in decisions taken by the school regarding their child’s education, it would foster a better ethos of collaboration. I would use online polls as it’s easy access by the parents involving little time and very little administrative work by the school, to have a clear indication of what the parents think. The staffs behavior also reflects student and parent satisfaction. The staff need regular training not just concerning curriculum, but also about psychological aspects when they are dealing with children in class.
For example, if a teacher shouts constantly to manage the class behavior, it will definitely lead to student dissatisfaction and denomination, where the goal of the student having good marks in their reports will be affected. I would communicate the importance of the staffs behavior by firstly leading by example. I would organism Personal Development Sessions, having an educational psychologist or other professionals as a speaker, also carrying out exercises between the staff when possible, to also enhance self-evaluation by the teaching teams.
