As Tricia Wilkin continues her secondment journey, what began as a straightforward path has taken a few unexpected – but ultimately rewarding – turns along the way
So, it was agreed by the DfE and the department previously known as the ESFA that the CFO would act as the CEO during the current chief executive officer’s absence, and I have now taken on the role of acting chief financial and operations manager CFOO. This is not something I ever imagined when I took on this secondment – which was supposed to be about learning the difference between working in a maintained school and an academy trust; but I’m always up for a challenge!
New Positions, New Appointments
Since I last wrote we have appointed an acting head of school in our smaller rural academy, this was a great experience as I’ve never been involved in the recruitment of a headteacher before. With both schools heading into their Ofsted windows, it was becoming increasingly difficult for the executive headteacher to continue her temporary role over both sites due to their current demands. It therefore felt like the right decision to put a head of school in both enabling them to focus on their school’s individual needs. This so far is working extremely well and has made my job easier as there is one less level of management which at times could slow down decision making. The appointment has also improved the collaboration between the two schools. You may expect for it to have the opposite effect; however, staff are much more open to changes now that there are two heads making the decisions collaboratively rather than an executive headteacher. I expect this would be different for each trust, but you must do what works best for yours and with your vision for the future in mind.
Different Approaches and Strengths
The acting CEO with her financial background has also taken a different approach with staff and held a finance meeting with the whole trust via Teams to give an overview of the financial situation highlighting areas of concern and our strengths. Alongside this she spoke about the trusts future vision which is something that has gone down well and has closed the gap between the central team and the staff and has been supported by the trustees and the absent CEO. As this has worked so well and achieved a better understanding of the “behind the scenes” of the central team, I think this will be a regular event moving forward.
My Learning Journey
I’ve now completed my first module of the CIPFA Diploma in Schools Financial and Operational Leadership course, if you’ve been contemplating doing the course I’d highly recommend it. Just be aware that there is a lot of reading but if you can commit one and a half hours a week to it, you’ll have no problem with keeping up with the reading and the assignments. The first module was an Introduction to Academy and Education Finance, if I’m completely honest I felt a little out of my depth in the first breakout room and imposter syndrome crept in, but once I took a deep breath and just a took a moment to sit back and listen, take notes and appreciate the knowledge of the others on the course I started to feel more relaxed.
When it came to the second breakout room, I was feeling much more confident especially when it was about procurement, a subject I enjoy, and which others did not have as much experience in. It just shows, it does not matter if you’ve got six months experience as a school business professional or twenty years, we can all feel a little nervous when ‘virtually’ surrounded by our peers. However, when you take a moment and change your viewpoint to what you can learn from them you soon understand you also have a lot to give. I’m on to Module two next week……
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