6 minute read
Mark Steed on Accelerating Change
Accelerating Change
Mark Steed, Principal/CEO at Kellet School Hong Kong, reflects on leadership, teaching and learning innovation and the importance of putting wellbeing at the centre of his school’s response to the pandemic.
Covid has provided a supreme test for everyone involved in education across the world.
In Hong Kong we were well prepared for this test because we had already closed for a week in November due to the Hong Kong protests, forcing us to move to online learning.
The school had used that time to shift quickly and easily into online learning with a stripped back curriculum based on live online teaching using the Zoom platform. This move required putting in place a lot of work to create protocols and policies for online learning. For example, the creation of a permission and a parental guide to online learning was really important because our staff were beaming directly into a child’s home.
When we returned to school after the protest shutdown we had three weeks to the Chinese New Year and then we were off for 17 weeks straight for the covid lockdown. It wasn’t the enormous teaching and learning challenge it could have been because we had already done the groundwork and knew that our approach worked. The fact that we were at the vanguard of things also meant that we could support other schools with our knowledge and experience and we shared our processes and protocols with schools in Dubai and the UK as well as with the Independent Schools Council.
Covid has pushed most schools to upskill and adopt the technology. For many international schools this is possible not just because of investment but it’s also about the willingness of staff to throw themselves into this and do the training. Necessity is the mother of invention and it has spurred people, including the technological laggards, to adopt these new ways of working.
That upskilling has had to happen here. The average age of our staff is 35 so they are already open to the adoption of new technology solutions. You need enthusiasts within your staff body but you also need a clear vision from the leadership. This combination of the enthusiasm and innovation from staff and the leadership has worked well for us.
I believe that schools are heading towards a digital future anyway, based on a blended learning model. Teaching and learning, qualifications and assessment and recruitment - all of these areas were moving towards digital before the pandemic struck. Covid has just accelerated that change rather than change our directions.
The Importance Of Leadership At the beginning of term my challenge was to lift colleagues who had been in lockdown for 17 weeks and had not really had a summer break. My focus was to motivate them for the weeks up to a Christmas which may be a very different holiday if there is a quarantine situation that prevents them from visiting relatives overseas. It’s already a very different new term - we’re still operating online but we are beginning a phased return from midSeptember.
In my traditional message to staff at the start of the academic year I told them that they had respect of the world and Hong Kong for how they adapted to the pandemic, that they should be incredibly proud of what they did and that they needed to get out there and do it again. It was a case of “once more unto the breach”.
The former head of Bryanston School in Dorset, Tom Wheare, told me that your job as headteacher is to be the person that your staff wave at. The idea that the headteacher is the school cheerleader is a really important one. Your job is to go around and say well done and say this is phenomenal because it is a lonely job in the classroom. I am their chief supporter and I’ve tried to convey that as much as I can.
Focus On Wellbeing The focus has shifted from school improvement and attainment to staff and pupil wellbeing this year. It’s an easy choice to make. School improvement is not a priority this year - people are. This is more important than academic results and we have got to look after our community.
To be in touch with the wellbeing of your staff and pupils you have to listen and listen carefully. The fears that your staff, your pupils and your parents have are real. You’ve also got to have a different focus. The leadership
Kellet School Hong Kong, Pok Fu Lam Campus priorities that were normal last year have to be put on the side for now. For example, at this time of year I usually hold academic review meetings (affectionally known as ‘star chamber’) with my heads of department where I ask them to account for the summer results. That will have a very different emphasis and feel this year.
The wellbeing of staff and pupils isn’t simply about delivering the right, uplifting messages. It’s also about closely listening to their concerns and responding in practical ways. We survey pupils and staff online every three weeks and if the feedback highlights any issues we will intervene with support. For example, we found out that no one was coping with doing full days of learning online on Zoom.
Online learning is much more demanding for all concerned.
We changed the timetable significantly as a result of their feedback. We reduced our lessons from 50 to 40 minutes and we’ve honed down the day from seven hours to four so that it runs over mornings, giving families time in the afternoons to do sport or artwork. This reduced timetable also gives our teachers the chance to mark and prepare within the actual school day.
Listening carefully to the feedback from these surveys also means that we can pick up on staff or pupils who are really struggling so we can offer them additional support, including counselling. Some of the issues that have been highlighted are tied up with the pandemic. Relationships at home may have been affected by the economic impact of the pandemic, with parents losing jobs, while staff have to deal with the pressure of working in small apartments often surrounded by their families. The pandemic has also had its positive side. Many students have loved home learning. A couple of our pupils are borderline ‘school refusers’ and online learning has been brilliant for them. The surveys have been our way of taking the pulse of the school community and we’ve decided to carry on with them for the foreseeable future.
We’re optimistic about the
next few months but this has to be balanced with a pragmatic approach. I know that everyone in our school – the staff, the pupils and their families – will pull together and make it work.
Mark Steed has spent his career working in top independent schools both in the UK and overseas and is now in his 20th year of headship. In the UK he worked as a teacher, head of department, and boarding housemaster prior to his two senior leaderships roles as Headmaster of Kelly College in Devon; and then as Principal of the Berkhamsted Schools Group. In September 2015 he became Director of JESS, Dubai, before moving to Hong Kong in September 2019 to become Principal and CEO of Kellett School, which educates 1,420 students from 4 to 18 years in the English National Curriculum. Mark is a regular contributor to the Tes on international education and a range of other educational and IT issues. He is active on Twitter @independenthead and @Kellett_CEO and on his blog http://independenthead.blogspot.com.
