Leadership by example {REFLECTION ON THE ROLE}
Two decades, a thousand lessons learnt RO SMITH, school business manager at Long Furlong Primary School, tells us all about the highs and lows of her journey through school business management
O
ne school, five headteachers, 21 years’ hard labour and innumerable changes. In the last part of 2020, life gave me an unexpected opportunity to reflect on my role as school business manager in a one-form entry maintained primary school. I had a stroke, followed by two months off work recuperating, and this is what came to mind. My aim, from when I was a young child, was to be a primary teacher; a family friend who had recently qualified gave me all the lesson plans from her final teaching practice, and woe
18
Summer 2021
betide my toys if they didn’t pay attention in my lessons! After A-levels I started studying a B. Ed. with history but, after two terms, I realised it wasn’t for me. I found a job as a local authority housing officer, an experience which gave me a firm grounding in dealing with difficult people (one of my delightful clients once informed me he was going to find out where I lived and burn my house down - counterproductive in many ways, as my family would then be rehoused before him). After that, I became a customer services manager for a national electronics
