Co-leadership in Practice

ANN LYNSKEY AND AOIFE O’CONNOR PRINCIPAL AND DEPUTY PRINCIPAL, TIERNEEVIN NS, GORT, CO. GALWAY

For us, co-leadership means leading our school together. This is achieved by sharing key responsibilities including decision making, planning, ownership of our school vision, problem solving, coaching and development of staff and inclusion of our whole school community. Essentially, we share it all; the burdens, the concerns, the victories and the celebrations. We are collaborators, thinking partners and peer mentors. Our model is about collaboration, not delegation. This has led to a less hierarchical style of leadership in our school and has empowered many members of staff to become leaders in various aspects of school life in Tierneevin N.S.

We believe successful co-leadership comes down to the quality of the relationship between the Principal and Deputy. In a school setting, this relationship is inevitably both professional and personal. We have worked together for nearly 15 years so we have been through highs and lows. By being aware of each other’s professional and personal struggles and successes, we can step up and support each other when the need arises. We are comfortable with asking for help safe in the knowledge that we will not be judged. We have learned to leave our egos at the door and are not afraid to be vulnerable. This did not happen overnight. It took time to develop trust through honesty, respect and kindness. As teachers, we are all too aware that we do not know it all and every day we have opportunities for learning and growth.

Clear, open and consistent communication must take place in order to have an effective coleadership model in place. The onus is on both of us to communicate openly and honestly, sharing our successes and challenges, and most importantly, our learning from both. We prioritise making time to communicate daily, despite our busy lives both in and out of school.

We don’t always agree on all issues and sometimes would like to take different approaches to resolving situations. We will give our points of view, listen actively to each other and reach a decision. When we reach a decision, we accept it and present a united front moving forward. This is made easier by a no blame culture. We share the decision making so we also share the consequences be they positive or negative.

We enjoy carrying out CPD in a wide variety of areas both individually and together. Our commitment to CPD has been invaluable in developing our communication skills and our vision for our school. It has given us a chance to gain perspective on our school’s core purpose and critically examine our leadership styles and how we lead together.

We all strive for harmony in our schools. Harmony is an indisputable priority but it requires a lot of trust, patience and genuine belief in the coleadership process. It also requires an investment of time and space to achieve this. We have to be patient with one another and strive to look at things from each other’s point of view. We have to trust each other to complete work on time, to value each other’s experience and expertise, to make the right decision and to consider our pupils best interests at all times.

The significant increase in reference to the role of the deputy principal in LAOS 2022 is a very positive step forward. This highlights the acknowledgement of the leadership role of deputy principals in our schools, and we feel it is vital to the sustainability and longevity of leadership roles in schools also. In Tierneevin NS, we know from experience that it is because of an effective co-leadership model that we have such high job satisfaction, despite the complex demands of our jobs.

If you would like to contact Ann and Aoife about this article, you can email them at tierneevinns@gmail.com