LEADERSHIP BY EXAMPLE
SBL INTERVIEW
Brand new, but pushing through: from new SBL to Tes-nominated in four years We speak to KEVIN PARKER, school business manager at Ann Edwards C of E Primary School, about being shortlisted for SBL of the year at the Tes Awards and why he loves his job so much Tell us a bit about yourself, and the pathway to your current role. I’m 30 years-old, living in Cheltenham and working in Cirencester in a one-and-a-half form entry primary school. At university I did a business management degree with a HR pathway. I originally started on Lidl’s graduate management programme, and did that for a year; I then went into education recruitment and then became a school governor. Eventually, when the opportunity presented itself at the right school, I went for a school business manager interview and, four years later, I’m still here. So, yes, I must be doing something right! Did you have a preference about what sort of school you’d like to start your SBM journey at? I wanted to go into a school that was not rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted; the reason for that is I think when you are judged ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted the only place to go is backwards, effectively. So, I didn’t want to go into a place where I immediately felt pressure. The school I now work at is situated in huge grounds; I thought, from a building or marketing perspective, there was something there. Then when I found out the school was in financial deficit, I thought, ‘Okay. This is one way I can really try and make an impact. Let’s get the school out of deficit and let’s provide opportunities for children.’ Explain your input into the development, strategic planning and communication of your school’s vision. I’m responsible for everything that is non-teaching in the school, whether that’s health and safety, human resources, IT, catering etc. Our school development plan is split into
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teaching and non-teaching elements, and the non-teaching objectives are effectively set by me alongside the headteacher. Current plans include reducing the deficit and increasing grants and revenue opportunities by working closely with the local community. When it comes to the communication, there was a huge opportunity in how we marketed the school. When I joined, the school had a very, very basic website, didn’t use any social media and didn’t have any parental engagement apps. The school still relied heavily on paper communication and I felt, in 2018, we shouldn’t be doing things like this - so, quite quickly, I was implementing new systems. Because they are quite an experienced team, I think initially they thought ‘Who’s this inexperienced 25-year-old coming in, wanting to make X, Y and Z changes?!’ But I got them onside quite quickly, which proved fortunate as, during the pandemic, communication was absolutely key. Communication is a real focus point for us all the time, whether it’s to parents, staff, pupils, etc. You spoke there about transforming the way you communicated with parents, which was obviously a massive project for you. Which other projects or ideas are you most proud of overseeing in the school? There are two that I’m really passionate about. The first one was our library bus. When I joined the school in 2018 our reading data was below average, especially in Key Stage 2, where it was significantly below. I felt quite passionate about it because I didn’t really like to read when I was in school and, when I saw what our library was like, it just reminded me of how my school was 20 years ago. I thought, ‘This is not going
