Starting the School Year - Working Positively with Your Staff

In her recent article Take your staff with you, Margaret Adams of CIPD reflects on the significance of the start of a new school year and suggests a few hints and tips that school leaders might like to be mindful of, alongside school development plans and the formal elements of moving a school forward.

She considers how to motivate staff and, even within a context of budget and resource limitations, she stresses the importance of the “softer” elements of motivating staff to support leaders in making plans actually happen!

Focusing on 4 key aspects of working positively with staff, she suggests the following:

• tell the world how well your staff do – managing the press & pro-actively promoting the positive achievements of the school
• pay attention to 'welfare' issues – ensuring that all staff feel respected and nurtured
• send people home – recognising that we all need to work hard, but that a long-hours culture can become counter-productive
• Offer everyone, not just NQTs, support with the management of workload, including encouraging delegation and prioritisation – recognising what is within our control to change and take control of

The work of Worklife Support, through our national Well-Being programme for staff in schools, confirms the her view that recognition for staff – developing and supporting a sense of self-worth – and promoting a staff culture where everyone is valued, is key to school success.