Just What Do You Do All Day?

After being posed the question ‘Some headteachers just sit in their office all day, don’t teach and never come out, what do you do all day?’ I thought I’d walk you through my day, just to give a little glimpse of life as headteacher.

Arrived at school at 8am.

Caught up with the teacher I covered yesterday to fill her in on what we’ed managed to do, and what we’d manage to achieve, what she would need to recap and cover again, and what the next steps for her class would need to be.

Morning gate duty.

Met with two parents

Started to work through emails that needed responding to. Probably around 20-30 that had accumulated, or couldn’t wait any longer.

Telephone call from social care. A family is being looked at under Section 47. Information on family needed. Needs to be done immediately. Drop everything and complete.

Child needs a report writing for an appointment on Friday – parent needs it ASAP.

Meet with two TAs, separately about the 1:1 children they are working with to discuss the behaviour of the children they are working.

Popped into Year 5 to see their DT work as I needed a bit of a break.

Completed paperwork for a panel forum to get early help for a family we’ve been trying to get external support for for the last 18 months.

Set up the hall with chairs and tables for lunch.

One hour’s lunch duty outside, longer than usual to cover the absence of a midday supervisor.

Catch up with some more emails.

Catch up with admin assistant about diary dates coming up.

Read through paperwork and risk assessments for 3 upcoming trips.

Filled in after school club about the S47 child.

Spent 10 minutes with some children about the Primary Maths Challenge bonus round they’d just done.

Met with another parent.

Covered Y4 so the teacher could run a parents info session.

Made a whole host of decisions that needed making during the day, all of which will have an impact on other people within the school.

Left at 3:15pm because it’s my daughter’s birthday.

It didn’t even feel like a particuarly busy day, and I am sure there will be many, many people who have had to cram more in to their day. When I went in this morning, about three of those things were on my to-do list. Everything else was new across my desk today and needed dealing with immediately. I would LOVE to spend more time in lessons with children and watch great teaching. Today though, couldn’t fit it in. I didn’t even touch finance, health and safety, personnel, teaching and learning or getting into lessons. We do a lot of things people will never know about, and protect teachers from a lot of work they won’t need to do as a result.

This isn’t a ‘woe is me’ post, but it I thought it might shed a bit of light on a day in the life of a headteacher. Tomorrow, I’ll have today’s to-do list, tomorrow’s and a whole host of new things that need doing.

Still wouldn’t do anything else though.