Our Summer magazine has landed!

The Summer edition of Education Executive magazine is now live and ready to read!

As we come down from what were both very exciting events at EdExecLiveNorth and South, it seems we’re hurtling towards the summer break at a rapid pace. In just a few weeks, it will be time to wave goodbye to our leavers, take stock of our schools and start planning for the brand new academic year.

Reflecting on the year that has been, it hasn’t been the easiest of times for any of our schools. Sagging under the weight of budget restrictions and recruitment challenges, schools are one place where COVID is most definitely still a thing, and the impacts on our strategies, capacity and mental health are still reverberating around the halls. Tag onto this recruitment challenges, budget constraints and labour disputes, and I think we can all agree it’s been one heck of a ride.

Nevertheless, the school business manager community has stuck together, propping each other up in tough times. Despite the challenges, we’ve also seen a lot of innovation, learning and strategic development in the SBM world this year –long may it continue!

Our bumper summer edition of EdExec highlights some of the achievements and challenges faced by SBMs this year, kicking off with Dr Fiona Aubrey-Smith taking a look at our role as pedagogical gatekeepers, while David Carne draws some interesting parallels between the SBM role and that of an airline pilot.

Laura Williams has some comforting words for when that feeling of overwhelm hits, while Phil Burton gives us some tips on dealing with difficult conversations. In our management section, we break down planed preventative maintenance for the SBM with Andrew Blench, and Sue Birchall takes a look at whether a ‘golden hello’ is the answer to recruitment challenges.

As usual, our ICT segment is packed with interesting features, including a look at the ‘creativity’ of AI, getting to grips with configuration management, and why building IT in at the start of a building project makes sense. Finally, Peter Sircar shines a light on the human costs of centralisation.

We’d love to hear any suggestions you have for the magazine. If you’d like to get involved with EdExec, or if you’d like us to cover a certain topic, please do let us know. Contact [email protected] tweet @edexec with ideas, opinions or success stories.