Reward and Retention in Education - a view

As someone who has been in education now for over 20 years, I've had my fair share of performance reviews or appraisals both as an employee and as a manager. In the early years it's fair to say lip service was paid to this process and targets were at best 'wooly'. It was often a box ticking exercise that was really not valued at all by those on the ground.

In more recent years, I've seen the process tighten to specific target areas, a much higher demand for physical evidence and impact and even suggested or designated targets for individuals in some cases. 

Whilst I agree that individual performance targets should benefit the organisation as a whole and be linked in some part to the strategic vision of the organisation, I believe there also has to be an element of personal indulgence for this to be truly valued and for there to be staff buy-in.

For those of us in the classroom, we can always look to improve our practice but how are we rewarded for this? In many cases I suspect the 'reward' is still having a job and not being subject to a support/improvement plan. Is fear really a reward? Does this promote a positive approach to personal development? Does it encourage risk taking? I think not.

For new teachers, there's the incentive to move up the pay scale but before long there is little room to improve unless the Leadership spine is for you. I've been there, climbing the ladder rapidly at an early stage. It felt good, it felt like I was a valuable member of the team and making a difference. However, as accountability become more and more about outcomes and less about real people, the workload expected grew and grew. 

Having worked my way up through middle leadership to senior leadership, all the way to Head of School, I quickly realised that it's a very lonely place and not one I wanted to inhabit. It wasn't right for me for many reasons, both professionally and personally but walking away was the right option for me. 

I was fortunate to be able to secure a position with a TLR very quickly, focusing on areas that interest me. It was a welcome relief and although the drop in wages was notable, it was worth it for my own peace of mind, my family and my mental health. 

School Leadership - I'm glad I did it, I don't regret it but would I do it again?  No thank you. I'm not on the Leadership spine anymore and have no desire to be. I'm 43.

Through various experiences in recent years, both first and second hand, I have found my attitudes have changed. I still want my students and my school to produce the best outcomes possible, but due to my close working relationship with my support staff colleagues, I now see and appreciate a very different side and I hope it's made me a better colleague to work with. 

This brings me on to my support staff colleagues, for whom I have the highest regard.

These are our colleagues, who work tirelessly day to day to keep schools running smoothly. They answer the phone to angry parents, they deal with last minute or incomplete requests from teachers and in some cases there is very much an 'us and them' culture. It's a sad truth that some teachers don't value their support staff colleagues.  They take them for granted or play the "that's an admin job" card all too often. What many fail to appreciate is just how hard these people work and for how little reward.

When budgets are cut, support staff are often the first to go. When staff leave, either through redundancies or natural wastage, in truth the work doesn't go away, it just gets passed on to already stretched colleagues in the offices. Rarely is a fuss made because support staff, just like teachers, want the best for the school and the students however, for those at or near the top of their pay band, where is the incentive to improve, take on more work or take on more CPD?  The reward is certainly not financial. Not in a million years will educational budgets extend to annual or christmas bonuses for those who do a fantastic job.

What if it were different? 

Ok, so we can accept there is never going to be money for pay bonuses for staff in schools, but that doesn't mean people can't be rewarded.

We talk a lot in schools about rewards for students but how do we reward staff? Do we say thank you enough and is it sincere?  Do we take the time to really say how grateful we are to colleagues for going the extra mile, or do we just squeeze it into our busy schedules in such a way that it carries no real gravitas? Do we present rewards to our staff in the same way we do our students? Do we ask staff what rewards they would like?

These are all things we would do if addressing a student body/council as part of a review of a student reward system so why don't we do it for staff? 

Picture the scene: 

Gary, a senior leader,  line manages Jenny, an office manager. Gary receives a message (face to face or via email) from a member of staff to say that Jenny has been a great help to them and gone far beyond what is expected of her just to make something happen effectively and efficiently by a deadline.  The member of staff has bought Jenny some chocolates as a thank you but wants her manager to be aware too.

Gary goes to see Jenny and invites her to the canteen where he gets them both a coffee and they sit down for a chat. Gary mentions during the chat that he has heard what a great job jenny did for her colleagues and thanks her personally, asking questions about what she actually did and why she did it.  Gary learns that Jenny has a keen interest in a coaching staff in terms of task prioritisation that she had not been able to explore before because she's always so busy. Gary thanks Jenny again and they both get a lot out of the short chat over coffee.

Gary speaks to his leadership colleagues about this later and Jenny is offered to opportunity to lead some staff training on prioritisation. In return for this additional work, that will undoubtedly benefit individual staff and the school overall, Jenny is given an additional day of in lieu for Christmas shopping on a day of her choice in December.  All she has to do is ensure the office is not left unmanned that day so she organises her team.

Jenny feels valued both professionally and personally. What was the cost to Gary? 1 cup of coffee, 15 minutes of time and 1 day of office time versus bespoke CPD sessions for those in need, improved efficiency and a positive relationship and ethos. Jenny benefits, her colleagues benefit, the school benefits and her family benefits. Other follow Gary's example and Jenny does the same with her team. It become infectious.

This may sound, to some, like an impossible dream or an oversimplification but it really shouldn't be. Budgets are tight, but add up the costs involved with staff absence due to illness against the cost of some coffees and days off in lieu and I bet there's a clear winner. 

We need to talk to each other about what we value and what drives us, because it certainly isn't the pursuit of that big Christmas bonus in the payslip. 

Good will goes a long way when budgets are tight. I'm a firm believer that people work for people, not organisations and if we treat people well, value them, listen to them and thank them sincerely we all benefit.

If you've read these ramblings, please, if you do nothing else, take time out to thank a colleague tomorrow for something they've done for you. A little goes a long way so find out what motivates them, what drives them and how they would like to be rewarded.

Whether it's a cake, a biscuit, a small bunch of flowers, a coffee or some time out to kick a ball about or just to sit in the sun for 5 minutes of calm - make it happen.

Taking time out of your day for a genuine gesture of thanks may just make them feel more valued, refreshed and it could be the difference between them having a great weekend or dreading coming back on Monday. You can guarantee it certainly won't be their performance targets motivating them. 

Technology and Learning - Are we missing a key point?

Technology and Learning - Are we missing a key point?

Over the last few weeks I've seen countless articles and tweets discussing the issue of technology in the classroom. This is obviously something that I am very passionate about because we need to get it right, but my concern is that we might be focusing on the wrong things.

As a classroom teacher of 19 years and a senior leader for 10, I have seen huge change in classroom practice during that time. From my NQT year with lots of mistakes like writing names on the board, trying to keep my reward charts up to date and my first Ofsted inspection where the focus was clearly on making sure displays looked 👌, through those 19 years to the use of Google Classroom, laptops, collaborative learning and an ever changing educational landscape on a Brexit preoccupied UK.

Through all of this the key message is that surely, as educators, our role, indeed our mission, should be to develop young people who are better equipped than ourselves to lead the future of our world. All too often, in my opinion, there are calls to 'ban' mobile phones and technology in the classroom because they are a 'distraction'. In some cases, this 'ban' expands to school premises altogether.

Of course, when I was at school, there were no such distractions; no clandestine swapping of Panini stickers under the table, no constant drive to rub your feet on the maths room carpet and give your table partner a static shock, no time-wasting deciding which colour ink out of the 20 in your multi-barrelled pen you should use to underline the title and certainly no passing of hand written notes around the room to the frustration of the teacher. When little Charlie was caught passing notes around in English, did we ban pens and paper? No. We explained the consequences of inappropriate use.

We have a duty to prepare our young people for the world ahead of them, NOT the world we are comfortable with!! 

Mobile phones, tablets, VR headsets are all part and parcel of the world our young people operate within and technology is developing at such a rate that if we try to shield them from this, we are doing them a massive disservice. All too often, adults shy away from the technology because we don't understand (remember Nan asking a 6 year old to programme her first Betamax video recorder?) 

Banning mobile phones and technology from our classrooms does not teach our young people appropriate or responsible use. Surely we want young people to experiment with technology in a safe environment where, if something goes wrong, they have someone to turn to? That's much more likely in a classroom than at home in their bedroom. Allowing the appropriate use of technology in our classroom, when there is a genuine educational benefit, is a great opportunity to develop key skills that these young people will need to secure the jobs of the future; the ones we keep telling them don't exist yet. Teaching appropriate and responsible use will also address the concerns around online activity and mental health. We just need to better educate ourselves first. If you're a Mental Health First Aider in your school or even just someone who is conscious of the pressures and is happy to address them, then good on you!! We need more people like you.

So in my mind, as long as there is educational benefit, the use of mobile phones, tablets, laptops, VR etc in the classroom is not just exciting but also fundamental in developing the skills that these young people will need and one day, we'll be grateful to them for the amazing things they've invented/developed/improved that make our lives easier.

So where have we missed the point?

Modern classrooms are still designed on the whole for young people to be sat on a chair, at a desk, facing the front, looking at a big board/screen. With the arrival of laptops and tablets in classrooms on a more regular basis I feel that one of the biggest issues facing our young people in the future will physical effects of inadequate school classroom/furniture design. 

Ask any osteopath and they will tell you that '📱neck' is a growing problem amongst adults who work from home and spend a lot of time working on laptops. Those working in a work environment of course have their annual workspace audit to check chair condition, screen heights, working angles etc but those at home probably don't have the same luxury and just get on with it. Good posture is key to all round health, especially in later life, and let's face it, these young people are going to have much longer lives than us, probably with much longer working lives too! All the more reason to look after them now.

So what are we doing for our young people who are using these devices more and more, at a time when bones are still forming? At the moment, I would argue the answer is virtually nothing. 

There's a huge opportunity out there for designers to reinvent the modern classroom and furniture to safeguard our young people's physical health in the future whilst helping the world of education to move forward from what we have always done. 

These are just my views but I'd love to hear what others think.