After stepping into the role of chief operations officer on secondment at an academy trust, Tricia Wilkin shares her experiences – from managing new projects to exploring the different structures and dynamics of academy life
After 11 years as a School Business Manager in the loveliest of large, maintained schools, with the most supportive headteacher and fabulous team, I’ve finally taken the plunge and accepted a job in an academy trust; albeit for only a year as a secondment to cover maternity leave.
The news has been met with mixed reactions from colleagues and the local authority, with many joking “so you’re finally moving to the dark side” – something I’ve heard from many people!
This got me thinking and if I’m a little honest, a tad more excited by the move. The comments have left me wondering, are academies really all that different? And more importantly, will I want to go back?
I was lucky enough to have a month’s handover with the chief operations officer, which mostly consisted of setting up a ridiculous amount of log ins which must be 12 digits long, two capitals, two numbers and at least one special character. I just must try and remember them all now!
Two months into “the dark side” I’m just completing my first big project which has been managing a CIF bid that they were successful in applying for last year. It’s brought its usual issues of lots of subcontractors and lack of communication, but nothing different to what I’ve dealt with in my maintained school. The biggest difficulty has been managing a project that I was not involved in from the start. I’ve taken the approach I would have done in my SLE work where I have supported schools when their business manager has left, and tried to ascertain as much information I can find and then start from the ground up, bringing all the necessary parties together to put a plan of action in place.
Unfortunately, it did not stop the phone ringing when trying to take some down time but nothing unusual there in the life of a business manager! I am however looking forward to the process of applying for my own CIF bids in the next couple of months and then seeing them come to fruition should I be successful before my secondment comes to an end; so, watch this space!
The main difference I have noticed so far and look forward to exploring, is the organisation structure for staff and governance. Being apart of a central team I am finding is very different to being at the heart of the main body of the school, although the COO I am covering had previously been the business manager at one of the schools and was therefore still very hands on.
This is something that I feel will change during my secondment as I look forward to building on the admin teams at the individual schools and supporting the office managers to build on their skills and knowledge. This is something I have always been an advocate for at my own school where I was blessed to have two of my team go through the SBM training and stay working for me, with one now steering the ship in my absence.
I’m not adverse to being hands on like the previous lady at the MAT however being new to the role and having more than one school to oversee I know that having competent teams at each school will enable me to not only hold the fort in the COO’s absence but also move it forward in ways that fresh eyes can sometimes do.
So, I think the future is exciting, I’ve only just perhaps scratched the surface with having my handover in July and then being left to my own devises in August but I’m trying to stay realistic, I expect when all the staff and children return in September the fun will really start! I’ll let you know how I get on.
Be the first to comment