Carly Chynoweth completes her series with some examples of the steps being taken by schools and education authorities to promote diversity.
There is no magic solution that will suddenly improve diversity amongst school leaders. Finding, training and promoting teachers into headship is not something that can be rushed; they and the schools that they lead need to know that they have the skills and experience needed to do the job, whatever their background. Equally, recruiting more governors is not an overnight task.
Here, we look at some of the steps being taken by schools and education authorities that are working to promote diversity in these areas.
Taking an individual approach
Luke Burton, the head teacher at Leytonstone Business and Enterprise Specialist School, is a tutor on the Institute of Education’s Investing in Diversity course and an alumnus of the Shine programme, its precursor project. The course is designed to help experienced middle managers from BME backgrounds to move into leadership positions. “Investing in Diversity provides an opportunity to practise [leadership] skills and take it on in a safe situation,” he says.
Other useful initiatives include secondments, which allow staff the chance to gain experience of a new role before applying for promotion; shadowing; and mentoring. “I certainly gained from the experience of being mentored in the past,” he says. Most of his mentors were from non-BME backgrounds; the most important part of successful mentoring is a strong relationship between the two individuals, not necessarily a shared background.
Despite the value of these approaches, there is no one size fits all approach for staff from BME backgrounds – or indeed for any staff. The key is talking to each person individually and shaping development opportunities accordingly. “Whatever you do it is important that you have excellent continuing professional development that is tailored for individual members of staff as far as possible, funding permitting,” he says. “If you have that then as a matter of course you will pick up the needs of your BME staff.”
Finding opportunities to develop leadership experience
“We are fairly unique in that we are the only multicultural school in Swindon,” says Nick Capstick, the head teacher at Drove primary school. Less than a quarter of the town’s population comes from a black or minority ethnic (BME) background, while some 89 per cent of his pupils do. Capstick and his team support community cohesion through a range of activities, including youth clubs, bilingual outreach and a Saturday morning language school.
This language school also provides an excellent testing ground for the many overseas-qualified teachers that Drove trains. All the Saturday teachers, including the senior teacher, are from BME and overseas backgrounds. “That’s my way of almost having a nursery training area where I can develop [the senior teacher’s] leadership skills and those of other teachers in a fast track way,” he says. “If you look at the level of her experience in the UK it would be hard to justify putting her in a senior management position without it being tokenism, but I can afford to take a risk on the Saturday morning school … and say ‘really show me what you can do’.”
He will then have a body of evidence that he can present to governors and local authorities to prove that she is ready to take on a senior position in a mainstream school. Having this experience also gives her the confidence that she can do it – she knows that she is not being pushed into a promotion too early because someone wants to tick a box.
Coaching: room for reflection
Diane Reynolds, assistant head teacher at Gayhurst Community School in Hackney, east London, says that her head teacher is both very supportive and very proactive in her succession planning. Part of Reynolds’ preparation for leadership has been coaching sessions with Viv Grant of Integrity Coaching. “It was about leadership transformation for BME leaders,” she says.
Reynolds found the experience so valuable that she is now looking at ways that she can build it into the professional development of others at her school. “Coaching is a very different forum. It’s not only for BME leaders - coaching is for everyone. It is about giving each other space to think and talk about what we are doing.”
Another Hackney teacher, Dionne Povey, who is deputy head at Northwold primary, says: “the coaching proved to be an opportunity to talk about where I was and what the next steps would be…it was a guide without overly influencing the decision-making process. It was very empowering.” Like Reynolds, Povey feels that she has had very good support in her career development from both her colleagues and The Learning Trust, which runs education in the borough. She is currently studying part-time for a masters in education and hopes eventually to move into headship.#
Governors: behind the scenes
Paul Baglee, the head of governor services at Newham council, worked with the School Governors’ One-Stop Shop (SGOSS), a charity, to help increase the number of governors from BME backgrounds. Their representation has risen from 33 to 36 per cent in the past couple of years. “It is a gradual process,” he says. “There is no one magic solution.”
The most effective approaches are face to face, he says. For example, asking current governors to encourage others with the relevant skills and community profile to give it a try; attending community events; and approaching people directly. “That was one of the helpful things that SGOSS did…they put people on the streets handing out leaflets.” Inviting people to consider becoming a governor helps them to overcome their preconceptions that they are not the right sort of person to do it. “It’s all about individual contact and getting people to think for the first time that it is something that they could be doing.”
Newham also worked with governing bodies to make sure that the newcomers felt welcome after research indicated that some were attending once and not returning. “That made a big impact. We have gone from 20 per cent vacancies a year five years ago to 8 per cent.”
Nottingham city council also takes a proactive approach to supporting and encouraging people from BME backgrounds to become governors, says Leonie Meikle, its head of governor services. “We have been targeting places like mosques, churches and community centres,” she says. “And we have formed a forum for our BME governors to meet once a term.”
This forum allows the governors to discuss the issues that they face both as individuals and as advocates for children, and helps them to develop their skills and confidence. It also gives the council feedback on schools and diversity issues. “It is a chance to network and they have speakers come in as well,” Meikle says.
Resources:
Integrity Coaching: www.integritycoaching.co.uk
The London Centre for Leadership in Learning: www.ioe.ac.uk/lcll
School
National College of School Leadership: www.ncsl.org.uk
School Governors’ One-Stop Shop: www.sgoss.org.uk
Nottingham City governors’ services: www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/schoolgovernors
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Carly Chynoweth is a freelance journalist who writes about leadership and management in both the public and private sectors.
What do you think about this issue? If you would like to share your experience, or that of your school, you can post your comments below.
Page Published: 26/09/2008
