Same old, same old, or a new MO for the new school year?

Val Andrew believes that, this year, things are different – and we all need to consider taking a different approach to living and working 

Read the full article below or read on page 22 of our September magazine

Over the years, I’ve penned many an article for publication at the beginning of September. These have been structured to acknowledge the incredibly hard work of school business professionals through the last academic year – and through the school holidays too – whilst also providing encouragement for a positive mindset to tackle the new academic year ahead with a similar kind of enthusiasm displayed by those who’ve had the benefit of a 5/6-week break!

This year feels very different – it is a long time since we all felt the sheer weight of the challenges ahead that we are faced with this year. So, I’m going to try out a slightly different approach…

The challenges are huge, and it’s going to be a very difficult year for us all. Harping back to the ‘good old days’ and what we used to do is neither helpful nor productive in this context, and it’s clear that this time round we need to look at the forthcoming year through a different lens.  

September brings both challenge and opportunity – something that has become particularly apparent for me in the last few weeks as I have been helping prepare my first grandchild for starting school. Amelia starts school on 6^thSeptember and she is apprehensive, tired, yet quite excited too. 

This mirrors what most of us are feeling – right? 

Without wishing to sound in any way patronising I thought that some of the suggestions I’ve given to Amelia might also be relevant for you all too.

Patience – the official definition is ‘the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, problems, or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious’. Patience is a key skill for all SBPs. 

We need to be patient with the new children joining our school for the first time, as well as with new members of staff, new parents, new systems and processes, and also with existing staff returning for another year too. Being patient is EXHAUSTING, and can be in short supply when you are crazy busy all the time. We have to be patient with all staff – especially those ‘Harry Potter Dementor types’ who tend to suck the life blood out of you in one brief exchange!  

As a grandparent I’m learning to be calmer and more patient, and I’ve loved helping Amelia learn how to fasten her shiny new school shoes, and change into her PE kit all by herself, etc., but being patient doesn’t just stop there – we also need to be patient with ourselves too. Workloads are huge, and becoming more so – you can only do what is humanly possible in one day, so perhaps think about being more patient in terms of not meeting some deadlines – which might mean assessing what is absolutely urgent/needs doing now and what could wait? 

This leads nicely to my next suggestion which is:-

Goal-setting – and making sure these are realistic goals. Goal-setting is another key skill which can help us turn ‘stuff’ into reality. You all know what SMART goals are, and don’t need me to remind you, but maybe think about this in another context. 

Working practices are established and have contributed to your feeling washed out and exhausted – right? How about doing something different in the new term? Start small and get braver; for example, why not commit to NOT being the last one out of school at least one day every week and sticking to it? Why not stop taking work home – I used to carry a ‘guilt’ bag home every night and most weekends, and rarely opened it. What was the point in that? I know many of you are still managing to negotiate some periods of working from home, which is great – if this is working well for everyone AND you’re managing to be productive on those days, perhaps that’s a good enough reason to continue with this. Interruptions are one of the key reasons cited for increasing SBP workloads  so working remotely for a little of your working week might eliminate this, albeit briefly, and that’s a positive step.

Amelia and I have been talking about goal-setting – we have been practising the skill of listening so that she’ll understand exactly what her teacher wants her to do.

Stop multi-tasking – it doesn’t work! It took me ages to realise it was pointless and, in reality, it leads to screwing up lots of things at the same time. The new thing is ‘single tasking’. Concentrate on one thing, commit time and effort to that one thing, and do it well. Think about your daily routine of getting up and getting to school. How many things do you try and juggle, and what happens? If you feel the need to wean yourself off a culture of multi-tasking why not try one day a week having a ‘touch and do’ day?

Touch and do – this was suggested to me some years ago by a colleague who watched me shuffle paper day in, day out, and achieve little. I thought she was a bit bonkers, and you’ll probably think the same now – BUT, I challenge you to give it a try because it works! Every Thursday we had a ‘touch and do’ day; this meant that every time you picked up a piece of paper you had to finish the task before turning to something else. (The secret is not to touch too much!) Give it a try – it works brilliantly and this turned out to be my most productive day each week.

Define success for yourself – we spend most of our adult lives at work and aspiring to earn more, do more, care more, eat and drink less, spend more time with family and friends etc. We have high aspirations and are often disappointed when we can’t achieve our dreams. What do you want to achieve – what will make you feel that you’ve succeeded, personally and professionally? Introspection is hard, and makes us feel uncomfortable, but maybe this year we all need to just stop for a minute and think about it. Once you’ve decided what success looks like for you work on trying to achieve that. This could link to the goal-setting mentioned above or, perhaps, trying (once again) to establish a more balanced work-life plan.