Taking Care Of The School Staff…
It’s time for new goals!
When a new year rolls around, it is time for a perspective. It gives us time to reflect upon what we accomplished in the last year and it gives us the time that we need to set goals for the new year. Sometimes those goals are to be more focused on your health, to take more time for yourself or to take that trip that you have been putting off. As a principal of a school, this was always a time to determine what went well in the first half of the school year and to further determine what needed to be improved. This is the perfect time for a principal to determine how the staff is feeling at this time during the school year and to put items in place to offer them the support that they need. Here are a few ideas…
Take a quick survey of the staff.
You can make this as official or unofficial as you would like. You could send out a quick email asking 2 - 3 questions about how the staff is feeling. Or you could ask the questions during your next faculty meeting if you feel as though your staff would be responsive in that setting. You may decide that it is more impactful to visit a few classrooms and ask teachers on the spot. Whatever your method, it is important to take the time to ask staff about how they are feeling about the progress of the school year thus far.
You could ask questions like:
How do you feel as you come to work each day?
What do you think is going well and what do you think needs to be improved at our school? What can you do to help with the items that need to be improved?
What would you like to see done in order to further support you in your work?
As you ask your questions, I always found that it was key to ask the staff how they can help with any improvements that need to happen. While there are things that you control as the principal, there are things that they can control as staff members. I often noticed that when I would survey staff, they would be quick to place the ownership for everything on the administration without identifying the aspects that were in their control. So whenever asking questions about improvements, be sure to have them identify the role that they can play. This usually helps staff members to identify realistic improvements instead of using this outlet as a time to complain.
Review the results of the survey with the staff.
After you have tabulated the results, it is then important to review the final results with the staff so that they can see that you are actually reviewing the results. If staff members think that they are completing a survey for the sake of completing it, they will be far less likely to complete it. Once they see that you are reviewing the feedback that they provided it will help them realize a few things. It will help them to realize that they should take your surveys seriously because you review them. It also helps them to realize that their voice is important in the role of the school.
Now take action.
Use the results and choose at least three changes you can make or items that you can put in place. Make sure that these are items that you can do and follow through on if necessary. Ensure that you tell your staff about what you are going to do based upon their feedback. This is key, this will help the staff to see that you are a person of your word and that you will follow through. This is very important in building trust amongst the staff.
Taking care of your school staff is a task that many overlook and not taking proper care of your team can be detrimental to the success of your students and the success of the school overall.