C.1 Reducing the tasks of principals
As Kenneth Leithwood and Philip Hallinger described, “[c]ontinued waves of reforms have placed school leaders at the center of implementation efforts directed at school improvement(s)”. Nowadays a school leader’s responsibilities and duties are changing and increasing at a fast pace. As Geoff Southworth and Martin J. Coles described it, “[p]olicy makers in many jurisdictions have legislated long lists of leaders’ competencies” . It is reasonably hard to think than one single individual can handle and manage everything. Middle management teams together with senior management teams and the school boards can play an important role as long as roles are well distributed and defined. A clear definition of school …show more content…
All associates own the school and every member of the school team work hard to offer the best service they could. All team members are responsible and accountable for every decision the school takes. Despite having an executive team, all decisions, rules, polices and procedures, etc., were taken as a group. One could say that all staff were part of the leadership team, as the team was directly elected by the staff. Therefore, this meant the school’s executive team has the loyalty and support of all staff members. In my view, Escuela 2’s management structure could become complex and on occasions conflicts between members of staff emerged which were not dealt with quickly or in the most appropriate manner. I think this was due to a lack of clarity and documentation around agreed roles and responsibilities. The fact that all stakeholders felt they owned a part of the school would mean everyone was accountable for everything. This also led to duplication of work between staff as team members sometimes did the same tasks, without realizing. In this case, a clearer distribution of roles and responsibilities would help create boundaries for staff and most importantly, principally for the executive team. In my view, the success or failure of a co-operative school depends on the capacity of administration, co-operativism and capacity of organization and structure of its members as well as the educational program or type of …show more content…
Therefore the school needs to be well organized, structured, decentralized and powers have to be well distributed to run smoothly. In 2012 Southbank International School appointed a new executive principal. He took on a proactive leadership role that was shared with some teaching time. He exercised influence within the already existing management structures in a way that implemented different points of improvement in school (e.g. better provision of extra curricular activities, improving the performance management system, introducing the merit pay, creation of new roles and managing roles, etc.). These changes generated a more integrated system of leadership distribution. The new executive principal has played a critical role making sure that the school can engage in cooperative leading and learning by generating more opportunities for interaction and meetings within school, inter-campuses, inter-subjects, inter-leaders, etc. As mentioned before, I believe that a principal’s role becomes much more needed and important when leadership is distributed. Principals can help others to lead, providing the energy, expertise, knowledge and power to make things happen for school development, improvement and change. It would be possible that principals do not make the changes themselves but they can definitely encourage and empower others to be responsible for change and improvement. Southbank International School
As Kenneth Leithwood and Philip Hallinger described, “[c]ontinued waves of reforms have placed school leaders at the center of implementation efforts directed at school improvement(s)”. Nowadays a school leader’s responsibilities and duties are changing and increasing at a fast pace. As Geoff Southworth and Martin J. Coles described it, “[p]olicy makers in many jurisdictions have legislated long lists of leaders’ competencies” . It is reasonably hard to think than one single individual can handle and manage everything. Middle management teams together with senior management teams and the school boards can play an important role as long as roles are well distributed and defined. A clear definition of school …show more content…
All associates own the school and every member of the school team work hard to offer the best service they could. All team members are responsible and accountable for every decision the school takes. Despite having an executive team, all decisions, rules, polices and procedures, etc., were taken as a group. One could say that all staff were part of the leadership team, as the team was directly elected by the staff. Therefore, this meant the school’s executive team has the loyalty and support of all staff members. In my view, Escuela 2’s management structure could become complex and on occasions conflicts between members of staff emerged which were not dealt with quickly or in the most appropriate manner. I think this was due to a lack of clarity and documentation around agreed roles and responsibilities. The fact that all stakeholders felt they owned a part of the school would mean everyone was accountable for everything. This also led to duplication of work between staff as team members sometimes did the same tasks, without realizing. In this case, a clearer distribution of roles and responsibilities would help create boundaries for staff and most importantly, principally for the executive team. In my view, the success or failure of a co-operative school depends on the capacity of administration, co-operativism and capacity of organization and structure of its members as well as the educational program or type of …show more content…
Therefore the school needs to be well organized, structured, decentralized and powers have to be well distributed to run smoothly. In 2012 Southbank International School appointed a new executive principal. He took on a proactive leadership role that was shared with some teaching time. He exercised influence within the already existing management structures in a way that implemented different points of improvement in school (e.g. better provision of extra curricular activities, improving the performance management system, introducing the merit pay, creation of new roles and managing roles, etc.). These changes generated a more integrated system of leadership distribution. The new executive principal has played a critical role making sure that the school can engage in cooperative leading and learning by generating more opportunities for interaction and meetings within school, inter-campuses, inter-subjects, inter-leaders, etc. As mentioned before, I believe that a principal’s role becomes much more needed and important when leadership is distributed. Principals can help others to lead, providing the energy, expertise, knowledge and power to make things happen for school development, improvement and change. It would be possible that principals do not make the changes themselves but they can definitely encourage and empower others to be responsible for change and improvement. Southbank International School