Trust in change A school leader on how Best Practice Network’s Level 7 Senior Leadership Apprenticeship Programme with NPQEL set his new school on a journey of major change.
Joining a Steiner Waldorf school from a big mainstream multi-academy trust was a challenging and exciting leap in my school leadership career. Until recently Steiner Waldorf schools hadn’t had a conventional leadership model but in 2019 there was effectively a recognition that modern schools can’t run in that way any longer and that a proper leadership structure was needed. Since September 2021 I’ve been in post as school lead – the equivalent of headteacher – at Elmfield Rudolf Steiner School in Stourbridge, an independent school educating 210 pupils aged 3 to 17. This has been my favourite job of my career so far. While it was clear that change was needed my first months in the post were a challenging time for me. I don’t have a Steiner Waldorf background but in order to make the necessary changes to ensure that the school was effectively led, that it complied with Ofsted requirements, and that finances were on track while preserving everything that makes the school great – I needed to build trust.
15 | Best Practice Network
I enrolled on Best Practice Network’s Level 7 Senior Leadership Apprenticeship Programme with NPQEL and the programme has given me some important insights and guidance that have really helped me in my leadership journey. One is the importance of the role of credibility and integrity in creating that trust. When I arrived I had to establish a leadership team that could work together and trust me. I spent a month at the beginning just getting to know people and identifying colleagues I could work with who had appropriate credibility within the school. It was only then that I began to establish a senior leadership team made up of six colleagues, most of whom had Steiner Waldorf backgrounds and credibility but were actually open to changes.
