Who should we be educating anyway?

The battle between teaching and leadership

I started this post about two weeks ago, towards the end of the summer holidays.  I started writing because all of the fantastic educational conversations and links to interesting articles had jump started my thinking about moving into headship.  It was originally titled: ‘Do you know where you’re going to?’ and was a much more straightforward discussion about my future.

But since then, two really important things have happened – one on each side of the battle.

• I started teaching Y3 – and I love it.
• I think I’ve found THE job; the school were I can see myself as head

So what do I do now?  And then throw into the mix the loyalty issue; I am loyal to my current school – the children, my colleagues, my head, the parents and the wider community.

Education is not just about the school you are working in; it is about everyone – and especially every child.  I believe this totally. But does everyone? Will the governors of the school I am considering applying to become a head of see this.

If I am the right person for their school, will they share my attitude and see the importance of the school I am coming from having time to find and appoint a new deputy to support the fantastic work that is happening there? Will the education of children in a school a few miles away matter to them at all? Will the fact that there is certainly one child in my class who may struggle to deal with the idea of her teacher leaving in the middle of the year – it may add to her issues of abandonment – seem important?

And if the governors can’t see these things, if I ask at final interview (assuming of course I am the right person) for them to consider leaving their fantastic Acting Head in post at least till Easter, will they hold this against me?  And if they do, was it actually the right school for me anyway?

Will I be fighting a battle about who we are actually educating: 240 children or as many children as we can influence?