Leadership leopard spots

Can leopards change their spots? Scientists say no. 


Can school leaders change their spots?

 It's that time of year when teachers are being asked to review the last year for performance management, consider their impact on classes, colleagues and the wider school community. Normally at this time of year I have my spreadsheets annotated to show impact compared to other classes, other subjects and against national data. I would have uploaded all my evidence to be scrutinised, secure in my leadership performance which had strategically, effectively and efficiently been carried out the previous academic year. 


Data has always been a part of teaching I have loved to spend hours analysing. Conditional formatting, positives, negatives and residuals are fascinating to see. When I had to drive up standards I looked forward to 6 weekly data drops to triangulate against teaching and learning data to see impact. Helping others to see how useful those colours and spreadsheets can be to improve student performance made my role so positive. 


Having worked my way to senior leadership I worked hard on my strengths of analysis, curriculum change and teaching strategies. Comfortable in my abilities I always thought this would be my leadership path. 


So can leaders change their leadership leopard spots? For the first time in my teaching career I am working in the realms of pastoral leadership. I don't have performance management on this role - yet, however I do have a probationary period (as many MATs now have). 


As term 1 comes to a close I don't think I've changed my leadership leopard spots. I'm learning new knowledge. My plan - to learn, apply and make a difference in a different way to my previous leadership roles. 

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