What makes a good school?

A very common question that is asked of Heads is what actually makes for a ‘successful’ school. ‘If only we knew’, some might answer, because that knowledge might help us to avoid working 80 hours plus a week, might help us to avoid going grey, might help us to avoid some stress and, maybe, might even help us earn some real money!

Leadership, staff, catchment area, an understanding of what your school really stands for, or luck might all play a part.

We are not helped much in seeking the answer by trying to analyse the traits of schools that are deemed to be successful. Some are large, some small, some co-ed, some single sex, some finish at 11, some at 13, some have boarding, some do not. The same could be true of those who might be deemed to be currently unsuccessful!

Objective analysis does not bear terribly good fruit therefore. However, instinct often tells us as soon as we walk into a school that it does have that ‘certain something.’ As someone said to me the other day, ‘Wow, that WAS good.’ When asked what ‘that’ was, he couldn’t tell me, but I knew it was good too.

In an effort to answer my own question, I wonder if I might put the following guide into my pocket and carry it around with me:

  • Rejoice if the Head has made his best staff appointments on instinct not paper qualifications
  • Rejoice if the Head and staff smile and say good morning to every child they see every morning of the term
  • Rejoice if the children smile back at the staff and Head every morning
  • Rejoice if there are Governors who act from a distance allowing the Head to manage. The best Governors know how to be sufficiently close to help, advise and encourage but are sufficiently wise to stay out of the day to day management unless invited in
  • Rejoice if the Chairman of Governors does not fancy ever being the Head
  • Rejoice if the Head and Bursar work hand in glove, with the latter recognising that the former is ultimately the boss but with both appreciating each other’s unique contribution
  • Rejoice if the Head loves his children but despises his paperwork
  • Rejoice if the Head spends much of his day on his knees when he talks to small children
  • Rejoice if the Head’s head drops only when the next bundle of unwanted paper work crashes down on his desk when the postman calls
  • Rejoice when the Head bounces into school first thing every morning from the first day of term to the last.

Maybe I’ve answered my own question … good schools, no matter their shape size or location succeed because those in them are child orientated, child friendly and not afraid to be proud of it. We have to set rules and boundaries, of course. However, that means not only for the children, but also for all those distractions that modern society put in front of us that effectively take our time away from the children.

I must stop now, as I have to decide into which ‘recepticle’ the following should be placed:

  • Three different lots of census returns
  • Another Care Commission profile
  • The Perth and Kinross Council nursery grant Annual Report, the Development Plan and the termly census
  • The Scottish Office update for the Registrar of Independent Schools
  • This term’s Risk assessments.

On second thoughts, I don’t think I’ll bother. I’m off to ski with the children in Year 4 instead ...

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