If we value education, we must show it - not just say it

Spencer Lewis of Yavneh College urges communities to truly recognise teachers beyond awards and occasional celebration

School leadership is about getting the balance right, about building relationships and building teams so that you have the right people with the right talents in the right places at the right time. It is not always easy to get that balance right between what we often refer to as leadership and management, as described by one of my inspirations, the late professor John West Burnham, when he said, ‘Management is doing the right things, but leadership is doing things right.’

Deciding which is which and which to prioritise is the trickiest thing of all. Do I write that report to governors, or do I go into classrooms to see and be seen? Do I go through my emails, or do I talk with my admin staff to see what they need? Do I read the latest DfE Guidance, or do I spend time in the playground talking to pupils?

Over recent months since being awarded the Pearson Silver Award for Secondary Head of the Year, I have thought a lot about what we do and how we know whether we are having the impact we would like. There is no hard, empirical evidence of our success, but we know when we see our graduates flourishing, contributing and, in my case, sending their own children to my school, then something we have done has been a success.

Recently, my wife and I dashed out after Shabbat to attend the glitzy Pearsons Teaching Awards ceremony designed to celebrate teaching and teachers in a most spectacular way. Sitting at a very glamorous London hotel listening to stories of how teachers, headteachers and lecturers have changed the lives of young people and the communities in which they work was truly inspiring. It was humbling to hear what is being achieved and the impact that the profession is having in what are not easy times for the sector.

Leadership can feel like a lonely venture; the buck stops with the head, and there are sometimes just too many plates to keep spinning. One of our most important roles is to value those who work in our schools, to ensure that they know just how important they are to the children and young people they teach. The role modelling they do, the kindnesses they show, and the spark they light each and every day are a melechet hakodesh – a (truly) holy activity.

We need to do more to show genuine appreciation for education staff. We need to show that this is a properly valued profession, that the entire community knows the contribution teachers make in ensuring the very future of our community.

Perhaps a dinner in a posh hotel wouldn’t be a bad idea? One can dream.