3. www.pdst.ie
Outline
• Know the ‘water you are swimming in’
• Know thyself!
• Fostering the relationship with the Deputy
Principal(s)
4. www.pdst.ie
‘The thing that thou doest is not good. Thou
wilt surely wear away, both thou, and this
people that is with thee: for this thing is too
heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform
it thyself alone’
(Exodus 18: 17 –18).
THE LONELINESS OF GREEDY
LEADERSHIP
7. www.pdst.ie
Who is the Deputy?
‘The Deputy Principal occupies a position of vital
importance in the administration and development of the
school. The Deputy Principal shall undertake responsibility
under the direction of the Principal for the internal
organisation, administration and discipline of the school’.
Circular 04/98
8. www.pdst.ie
Role and functions
• Check contract and job-description
• What the DES expects-recent WSE/MLL findings
• Looking at our Schools 2016
• What are the parameters of the initial conversations?
• Some of the fears and anxieties of Deputy Principals
• Readiness for the change-clarity and building capacity
• What are the particular strengths of the Deputy and
his/her preferred roles and areas of responsibility?
10. www.pdst.ie
Domains and Standards of School
Leadership –Quality Framework
• Leading learning and
teaching
• Managing the organisation
• Leading school development
• Developing leadership
capacity
11. www.pdst.ie
“Senior management roles and responsibilities are clearly
defined and agreed. The principal and deputy principal
have a vision for the school and work effectively to share
and implement this vision. They are very concerned to
maintain the ethos of the school in all its daily routines and
operations. They work very hard to ensure the smooth
running of the school and to enable both teachers and
students to work effectively. They are mutually supportive,
share responsibilities and communicate effectively. The
principal and deputy principal provide effective
management and administration and strive to promote
improvements in the quality of teaching and learning. They
use a range of skills to motivate, manage and support
others…….”
12. www.pdst.ie
“A leadership team comprising the principal and deputy
principal, year heads, programme co-ordinators, the special
educational needs (SEN) co-ordinator, the school planning
coordinator and the HSCL teacher has been established and
meets formally on a weekly basis. 4 Responsibility is delegated to
members of the team as well as other staff members for a wide
range of initiatives including the whole-school literacy strategy,
subject planning, JCSP initiatives and the continuing
development of the information and communication technology
(ICT) policy. However, clear reporting arrangements have not
been put in place with the result that delegated responsibilities
are not sufficiently monitored by senior management.
Leadership is required from senior management to agree
reporting structures for the implementation, monitoring and
evaluation of delegated tasks…”
13. www.pdst.ie
“The principal and deputy principal are well established in the school
having both been appointed at its inception in 2002. They have a
clearly defined working relationship with a strong administrative
focus and involve themselves separately and together in a range of
school activities including, for example, resource allocation,
timetabling, policy development and the management of students.
One area of ongoing challenge is the establishment and maintenance
of a positive working environment. Evidence gathered during the
evaluation indicates that morale is low and that relations between
management and a number of staff are strained. This evidence also
suggests that a shared understanding does not exist as to the basis on
which some management decisions are made or as to how these
decisions are communicated to staff. The development of a positive
working environment should be addressed as an immediate whole-
school priority, involving all parties working, if necessary under the
guidance of an external mediator, towards developing trust and
openness in their working relationships.”
15. www.pdst.ie
Fears and anxieties of the Deputy
Principal
• Balance of teaching and administration
• Time management/Interruptions/Congestion of
issues
• Burden of administration
• Fixer
• Increasing burden of post work & S/S
• Where the final decision lies?
• Emotional demands-not seeing enough of
students
• Negativity of adults-’energy vampires’
16. www.pdst.ie
Know Thyself
The more faithfully you listen to the voice
within you the better you hear what’s
sounding outside
Dag Hammarskjold
17. www.pdst.ie
– A person’s preferred style of behaviour
– We are “creatures of habit”
– So, tend to be consistent over time and
situations
– If behaviour or personality wasn’t reliable,
there’d be no point in measuring it
What is personality?
18. www.pdst.ie
The relationship with the Principal
“Coming together is a beginning
Keeping together is progress
Working together is success”
19. www.pdst.ie
Key Elements that underpin successful relationship
between Principal and Deputy/ies
• Trust/Loyalty
• Shared values and vision
• Clarity about the boundaries between the
two roles
• Close personal and professional
relationships
• Self Evaluation
20. www.pdst.ie
TRUST
• Of all the personal qualities of a leader trust is probably
the most important. It is difficult to envisage any aspect of
leadership work that is not profoundly dependent on trust
– indeed it could be argued that it would be impossible for
leaders to work without trust. The absence of trust implies
control, coercion and compulsion. John West Burnham
• Leaders should be trustworthy, and this worthiness is an
important virtue. Without trust leaders lose credibility.
But trust is a virtue in other ways too. The building of trust
is an organizational quality. …Once embedded in the
culture of the school, trust works to liberate people to be
their best, to give others their best, and to take risks.
Sergiovanni
24. www.pdst.ie
Roles of Principal and Deputy
Principal
Joint Roles
• Shared Vision
• Joint Planning
• Joint Action
• Joint Modelling
• Joint Reviews
• Joint Counselling
• Staff Leadership
Separate Roles
• BOM
• DES
• Parent Council
• Student Council
• Staff Contracts
• Front-of-House
• Year Heads and
Class Tutors
• Various Admin.
Actions
25. www.pdst.ie
Close personal and professional
relationships in practice
• Working and
learning
together
• Sharing ideas
• Taking risks
• Time out
26. www.pdst.ie
How does it work ?
• How we share the lead and the load?
• Time together-structured meetings
• Channel of communication-unease?
• Physically –where are we vis-a vis one
another?
28. www.pdst.ie
Lesson for each of you!
Staff involvement, motivation and
work–rate are all connected and if you
go it alone as a leader, you will decrease
all three and make it more likely that
your funeral will be well attended!
This is the next phase of SSE and focuses on leadership and management. It will not be introduced until 2017 (it was due this year) but it is currently being used in WSE/MLLs.
Attached is an overview of each of the domains. It might be useful to go through the domains and then ask students to identify where the greatest challenge will lie for the leader?
