Karen Gorrie Deputy Principal
LEARNING TO BE ADAPTIVE SUNATA
Becoming a middle leader in a school (in the St Margaret’s context) or organisation can be a pivotal moment on a person’s leadership journey. Sometimes people can find themselves catapulted into that position through ‘no fault of their own’ – someone may have vacated the position and they had to fill in the void, or perhaps they have been tapped on the shoulder to take on the position as they have the most knowledge of the area and so there is a natural progression. Other times a middle leader may have reached that position through hard focused work to get there; they have had a desire for leadership and have pursued as many opportunities as they can to move into that position. There are also those people who have been ‘noticed’ as someone who shows leadership potential and so have been offered experiences to enable them to gain valuable skills to make the progression to middle leadership. There are many scenarios that place people in middle leadership in a school.
One of the many reasons a person gains a middle leadership position in a school is due to the technical skills of that position they have been able to demonstrate and become confident in. For curriculum roles in schools it could be a proven knowledge of the curriculum requirements for students within a particular subject or group of subjects, representation on curriculum committees both within school and in the wider educational context, and experience leading curriculum planning and organisation. Pastoral middle leadership roles also come to people who have involved themselves in pastoral roles in the school, put themselves forward for committees that assist in leading students, and undertaken roles in the school that involve coordination of students in extra-curricular areas. Many middle leaders can become part of a holding pattern, looking to move into the next phase of leadership. It is therefore important for middle leaders to remember – the technical skills get them the middle leadership role, adaptive skills project them a towards a senior leadership role.
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