Mind The Gap works on the principle that as managers and leaders in schools we are given little or no training for the role, so we end up becoming reactive and feeling we lack a sense of genuine control.
This programme works because it comes from real teachers resolving real issues from within their school environments. Management and leadership consultant John Rowe has coached over a thousand sessions, one to one, to bring you this clear, concise and practical guide that, week by week, fills in the gaps of your managerial and leadership expertise. It has also been designed to be effortlessly incorporated into your daily life in school, so there is little extra time needed to work it into your daily routine.
Extract
Education is constantly on the move and what is common to all of us is that we are working in a climate of change. And there are two distinct sides to this movement. From the positive perspective we talk about the students’ growth, their learning, and their personal development as young people. From a more negative viewpoint we find the government trying to understand how to improve educational by compartmentalising it. Sometimes this even goes as far as the movement of established goalposts. So, as a player in the game, it can be quite difficult to know where we stand from one moment to the next.
What is very interesting to note is how many managerial aims and objectives do not reflect the reality of this environment. Instead they are based on a stable environment that we do not have. Therefore when managers or leaders put structures into place they tend to be somewhat ineffective, and things never seem to fully come to fruition. It is common for leaders in schools to develop ideals and methodologies that are seemingly designed to work in the bubble of an imagined perfect school. The subject of student behaviour is often a good example of this, where idealistic strategies are put into place, ones that do not take into account the nature of young people, and therefore they cannot seem to be maintained for more than short periods of time.
So, with education being such a moveable feast it becomes important to develop aims that recognise and appreciate the truth of our environment, ones that can move with whatever is thrown our way. In other words they need to take into account, expect, and even embrace instability, so even when the climate changes, as we expect it will, then our fundamental aims will not need to be altered.