For many years, the common advice to new school Heads has been not to do anything which risks alienating more than two core audiences at any given moment – those audiences being staff, parents, students and the Board.
According to this popular wisdom, a great Head will keep all four audiences supportive, a strong Head will have three of these audiences supportive at any given time, an average Head is down to two audiences and a Head whose days are numbered is down to just one or even no audience.
Each of those audiences has a different role and a different character, and each has their own sensitivities and their own way of pushing back. For example, staff are the frontline; they hear directly from parents and they let their thinking be known in return. In an era where securing good teachers is becoming increasingly competitive, prospective candidates will look to their peers to understand what sort of school is wooing them, and they will not stay if you fail to satisfy.
Parents, who are increasingly the first-time users of independent schooling, often have a transactional view because they pay money to the school and therefore feel they ‘employ’ all staff. As a result, they want a say on everything from discipline to capital works, and they expect their demands will be met.
Lastly, there is the Board, usually comprised of volunteers, who don’t want to be taken by surprise, embarrassed within their community or have their day job become more difficult because of their role.
With that being said, conventional wisdom is warping and the following trends are now emerging:
- In general, Heads no longer commonly serve for 20 plus years. This may mean that there is more risk appetite to make a mark during a shorter tenure or, conversely, that they are more risk averse given limited time to repair relationships.
- New audiences are emerging: alumni wanting to hold onto their school of 50 years ago, neighbours concerned about school expansion and its impact on traffic and noise, and the increasing politicisation of independent schools.
- It’s not possible to control the communication and messaging when anyone can post anything on social media. Put simply, social media amplifies insignificant problems; small matters can lead to calls for drastic action and provide endless fodder for public criticism of independent schools.
- There is the twofold movement of a general decrease in kindness and mutual respect from parents, coupled with more students with behavioural and mental health challenges, leading to splintered parental groups which rapidly change.
Heads are no longer dealing with four audiences, but it’s now thousands of empowered individuals.
This cannot mean abandoning boldness or risk – in fact, quite the opposite. The new pathway is to invite the school community into a leader’s vision of what the school can be, which requires the combination of a clear vision and very strategic communications. Independent schools which recognise the new environment, and which are deliberate in their leadership, are the ones which will thrive in a changing and increasingly competitive environment.