As you know I meet a lot of school leaders and walk into a lot of schools.
Something I notice is that there’s a difference between the schools that are spinning plates and those that are creating heartbeats (a phrase I’m sharing from a wonderful outstanding headteacher I’ve been lucky to know for many years).
The difference?
Spinning plates – you know that metaphor. There are plates on a stick and you have to dart between them to keep them spinning.
Heartbeats – beat on their own, no external action is needed.
I see good schools spinning plates.
Which isn’t easy and to their credit they do it well, they keep them spinning, even when new ones are added in.
It’s impressive.
But heartbeats are better.
Because they keep going without anyone else’s help.
We might look to make them beat better.
But fundamentally, they beat, and they keep beating.
This is what I see in great schools.
Everyone is doing what needs to be done and they’re doing it really well. No need to go to that plate to keep it spinning, because the heart beat beats.
And this creates both capacity to do even better, as well as consistently obtain great results (in the fullest sense).
How do they do this? Culture. Everyone is in the same boat, rowing in the right direction, rowing hard, happy and smarter all the time.
Which does your school have more of: plates to spin or heartbeats beating?
If you’d like to know how to get more heartbeats beating come to:
Breaking the Glass Ceiling of Good – 1 day training
- Rated 9.5/10 by school leaders 🙂.
- You’ll leave with 4 great leadership tools to help you improve your school by working smarter not harder.
- Complimentary copies of Journey to Outstanding for your team.
Tickets are £350+VAT for up to 6 of your SLT (additional people £50pp)
Upcoming dates:
- Thurs 15th June (09:30-15:30)
- Weds 28th June (09:30-15:30)
Schools we support are 300% more likely to gain or maintain their outstanding judgement.