What to do With My Time at Work

We are all struggling with not having enough time.  If we had enough time as a manager and leader what would you do with it.  Here are my suggestions:

Now all I have to do is clear my diary of unnecessary meetings and stop emails sucking time from my day and the rest is easy!

Motivation

I went for an interview the other week. The feedback was clear and uncompromising. I came across as cynical and jaded (in places) and I slouched. My ego flounced off to its room and ate chocolate for a week, but I also started thinking that perhaps a new job is not really what I am after and I should review my options with my boss.

The discussion did not go as I thought it would. It was like walking into a room and expecting to sit on a comfortable sofa, but instead I was confronted with a hard wooden chair and a lamp shining in my eyes.

I am cynical and jaded, I don't look like work gives me a buzz. This was the first time my boss had mentioned any of this to me. He needs someone who finds the information agenda exciting and if I am not going to grasp the opportunity then he will find someone who will.

After that motivational speech I went home avoiding high bridges and railway tracks.

On reflection though he is right. I have been treading water, albeit expending a lot of energy doing so. I am busy and look at the fires I have put out, but what have I achieved? What projects have I driven forward recently?

Time to sit up straight and sort out what is important.

Another Brick in the Wall

Parents' evening. A time to discuss your child's successes, failures, likes, dislikes and crucially, their potential. Alternatively you can drown the spark of educational enthusiasm in targets and performance measures. At one point my daughter's tutor went into a detailed explanation of the necessary sub-level improvement each child needs to make in their SATs. The aim is to show how a child's performance has improved, but we are mired in the details of sub-level data collection. What the measure can tell us about a child's performance is lost in the drive to list all schools in a league table.

The performance measure has become an end in itself. Education is being reduced to how far a child progresses up a scale, but only in as far as it helps the school. Once that level is reached on goes the parking brake, because the box has been ticked for that little darling.

For my daughter the necessity to show improvement has helped her Maths no end. She can dance through Maths problems, where previously it was a weary trudge to the wrong answer. English is her strong suit, so time to unlock her full potential? No, she's doing fine, but other kids need to be pulled up, so she can tread water. Especially as it is SATs year. All energy is focussed on getting enough points on the school board, and the children are a means to that end.

Teachers want to teach and the kids (mostly) want to learn, but we are hemming them both in through the need for teachers to understand how performance levels are measured and how many sub-levels each child has to pass through on the way to a good Ofsted report.

We need to get back to the goal of education, which I think is:

**Every child has the opportunity to realise his or her full potential.**