Some Hard Truths
The Joys and Challenges of Pastoral Leadership
By Annie-Jane Finch-Johnson (views are author’s own)
“Do you really want me to go there”
That’s the look I get when I ask pastoral middle leaders what their struggles are. It’s a look you may have seen yourself.
I have been a pastoral middle leader for 6 years now and have loved every minute of it but, it is not without its battles.
Hearn et al (2006) discuss in their article how pastoral care has developed to include so many areas, from control and discipline to a pastoral curriculum, which in turn has caused confusion as to where it lies within a school setting. In addition to this Calvert (2009) states further that due to several attempts to ‘position pastoral care as a primary function in education, the meaning of the term is elusive and unclear’. This plays into our job role, it is forever changing and evolving and sometimes multiplying.
It is important to note that most of my experiences as a middle leader are based in the UK, with a year spent internationally. Additionally, a disclaimer: The strategies I discuss are based on my own experiences and different circumstances require different strategies, there is no one size fits all.
Now that's taken care of, here are some hard truths that as aspiring and current pastoral middle leaders we need to accept.
You are first in the firing line
Don’t worry, I of course do not mean the Alan Sugar type firing line, rather the staff, parent, and student firing line.
When we take on the role as a pastoral middle leader we do it with our hearts on our sleeves. Pastoral leaders are a special kind of breed that allow some vulnerability within the job to show to all.
Here are some firing line scenarios I have experienced, can you relate?
We get an email from a member of staff telling us Student A has failed to follow instructions again and has received behaviour punishment ‘Z’ (I don’t like the word punishment but this is what it is, isn’t it?) after your hours of hard work, phone calls and conversations.
You get into work at 7:00am to get a head start on your emails, to see an email from a parent overnight that criticises how you dealt with their child’s friendship issues and is wanting a meeting to discuss this further.
Break Time - Yes a minute to grab a cuppa and snack … until you enter the staff room that is! Teacher A finds you to “talk” about how fed up they are with Student B in their class and wants you to do something about it.
A student appears in the middle of your lesson angry and in floods of tears because their teacher sat them apart from their friend and they are not happy about it.
These are only a few examples, I am sure we can all think of more.
Hard truth number 1
At first we feel hurt, disappointed, defensive, tired and lost. However, we have to accept that getting defensive will get us nowhere and taking it personally will only make us question our own abilities. The sooner we accept that all of these issues are out of our control, the more efficient and effective we will be in dealing with them.
Here are a few go to’s I find useful when these situations occur:
If in person (teacher/parent) - Always thank the person for coming to you and raising the concern, take down a few notes and let them know you will look into it (and get back to them if it is needed).
If in person (student) - Thank them for coming to you with their concern, reassure them they have done the right thing (depending on the situation), always check how they are, take notes and listen. Let them know you will look into the situation but they may not hear anything.
Email - Thank them for raising the concern/issue and that you understand that this may have been difficult. Address the situation with understanding and respond with what has already been put in place/advice moving forward. Offer a meeting in person or phone call to discuss further and reiterate that what is important is the students wellbeing and learning, and you want to work together to move forward with this.
I love pastoral!
Pre pastoral middle leader role, I thought that everyone had the love for being a Form Tutor like I did, the little buzz to create games for Tutor Period, or just have good honest chats with the students about life and getting to know them.
This inflated balloon of joy was popped when I became a pastoral middle leader. It is no surprise that this acceptance is needed, especially following on from regular confusion re what pastoral care actually is and what it encompasses.
Hard truth number 2
You cannot expect people to love being involved in pastoral care.
I know it's painful to hear isn’t it?
You probably have questions like, why not? Is it not a teacher's role anyway to ‘care’? How can we have learning without wellbeing being addressed? I had and still have those thoughts now but the reality is, it is not everyone's bag and that’s ok.
Here are a few techniques I use to support those teachers who don’t love it:
Offer support e.g conversation starters, resources for tutor period, lesson drop ins, joining in on meetings with students and teachers.
Thank them for the work they do and acknowledge that although they do not love it, you appreciate their efforts to support you and the students.
If a tutor, offer to take a session for them so they can sit it and observe if needed.
Provide structure for tutor periods, reporting etc to stop feelings of anxiety and worry.
How do you say….NO?
Middle leadership is a tough ship to steer. Busher (2005) sums this up perfectly in his article ‘Being a middle leader: Exploring professional identities’ , where he states:
“…middle leaders mediate the values and demands from these contexts to their colleagues, students and their students’ parents and carers, as well as taking account of their colleagues’, students’ and students’ parents’ values and beliefs”.
I mean, just call us jacks and masters of all trades!
We take pride in everything we do (this goes for all middle leaders) and want to do the best for our students. So when we are asked to pop into a lesson to observe, we do it, when we are asked to attend a meeting with the SEN department we do it, when we are asked by our line manager to call a parent, we do it… do you see the pattern?
As a new Head of Year 6 years ago, I felt I had to do everything to be good at my job, make sure I pleased everyone, all whilst trying to keep my own values and ideas running effectively and efficiently. Not surprisingly some things have to give and more often that not sadly, they were your own initiatives you wanted to put in but you had no time.
Hard truth number 3
You have to say no to some things.
It goes against our natural grain as human beings, we like to please. However, when your own values and ideas fall by the wayside because you're too busy keeping everyone else's ideals then this is too much.
Repeat after me “I cannot do everything!”
Here are a few ways to identify if you need to say no:-
You are doing more of your line managers requests than your own work.
You have meetings for meetings sake which take precious catch up time.
You have been meaning to respond to some parental emails for a couple of days but instead you are creating subject resources for the department.
You have an assembly every week but are struggling to come up with an idea - is it really needed?
So what now?
The purpose of this post is not to beat down our inner emotions that are present in a pastoral middle leader role, but to recognise what we can let affect our wellbeing and our job and what to let go off.
Of course, I still have days where I forget all of these things and it is important to not hold yourself at ransom for feeling these things, but to learn to acknowledge those thoughts and then watch them float away with the clouds.
It would be great to hear your feedback on if you have used any of these strategies before or if you have any to add to the lists, this way as pastoral leaders we can support each other to continue to be the professionals we are.
Being a pastoral middle leader is one of the best jobs in the world, you get to know many students in ways you wouldn’t if you just teach them, you get to know families and you get to work with staff that you may not have done otherwise. Whether you are an aspiring pastoral middle leader, or one already, I hope this article can provide you some preparation, comfort and strategies to move forward.
By Annie-Jane Finch-Johnson(views are author’s own)
Annie-Jane Finch-Johnson
Annie is a Head of Year and Teacher of PE at an International School in Lima, Peru. She has a particular interest in pastoral care in education and used her Masters in Transformational Leadership as an additional opportunity to explore pastoral care nationally and internationally. Annie has recently started writing about pastoral care at talkpastoral.com. Connect with Annie: Twitter: @TALKPASTORAL and LinkedIN
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