Continuing our dive into the academy conversion journey, Lisa Bower talks about communication and how it can make all the difference when it comes to managing change
My journey to setting up an Academy has (so far) been long, hard work and not always easy. It has felt like pushing a boulder up a hill, with the wind blowing you backwards. However, what has made it ‘fun’ has been the people I work with.
To continue that rather crude analogy, it has often felt that I’m not pushing the boulder alone. There are half a dozen people, standing beside me ensuring that the boulder doesn’t roll over me, and sometimes it may pause, but I know we will get there in the end. It is those people that are on this journey that are so important, and all the way through this process it has felt very important that we bring all the staff with us.
People who work in schools know only too well that it is the teams that make a school successful. It is people who are the backbone of a school. The teachers are obviously very important, but so too are the support staff. The TAs, admin staff, receptionists, caretakers, cleaners and finance teams, all of whom are as important as each other, and are all too often paid too little.
When I think about converting to an academy, it is all those people in both our school and the schools joining the Trust that I think about. The teacher’s role should be the least impacted by the change – they should be able to carry on doing their job in the same way that they have done before. But other members of the team will see changes, most significantly people working in finance and HR.
I have tried to imagine how it would feel if my school was joining an Academy, how I would feel about the potential changes to my role, the loss of my autonomy and the nervousness that this would bring. I have tried to reassure the SBM as much as possible that she will be just as valued as ever. We have worked hard to build relationships with the other school that is going to be part of our Trust. Whilst initially, this will only be one other school, we anticipate others will join once we are up and running.
So, we started to work together. Five months before conversion we started to have regular meetings twice a month. These were really opportunities for me to keep the SBM up to date with where the conversion was up to, to include them in the decision-making process of finance systems, HR contracts and designing processes. I also wanted these meetings to be at both their school and ours, so that they could feel part of our team, and I could feel part of hers. It takes time to build relationships, and trust needs to be earned and not taken. We thought about this and started working at the relationship early.
There was also the issue of roles changing within the school. Very few people would be affected, but my finance manager’s job is going to change. We included her in the meetings early on, she has been part of the process and is relishing the new opportunity, supporting the new school joining as well as our school.
As I write this our conversion date has been pushed back. We had planned to convert on the 1st of September, for sensible reasons – financial year, summer holidays to get the work done etc. However, reasons outside of our control have meant that we won’t have everything in place. This has been incredibly frustrating as it has meant we have had to unpick some plans. However, the fantastic team (in both schools) barely balked at the changes. We kept them involved; we discussed the implications. No one has made this feel like an issue. Everyone has unanimously just said we will do whatever it takes to make it work.
This is why working in a school is so special. The can-do attitude, nothing is impossible, and those people who are too often forgotten about working hard all of the time to make things happen.
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