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Copies of newsletters sent out by HHM to administrators in 2007
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Over 200 new trees planted and maintained thanks to your work this term.
As part of our environmental work the SEA makes a regular donation to a national environmental charity, which in rough terms allows the Trust to plant and maintain enough trees to replace the trees used to create the paper within these packs.
Obviously we couldn’t do this without your help. Indeed if you didn’t pass these leaflets on more companies would send promotions individually, and that would greatly increase the cost of the products, as well as increase the amount of carbon emissions generated by each promotion.
This term we’ve done more than donate a considerable sum to a national environmental charity. Among other things we launched our second distance learning course for school administrators: The Certificate in Management Practice, and we had nearly 100 administrators join us this term. Our next intakes for this course and for the National Certificate in Educational Administration are early next term – if you would like a prospectus please email prospectus@admin.org.uk or call 01536 399 007, or take a look at www.admin.org.uk
The School Procurement Site was launched, giving details of thousands of suppliers and their products all on one web site, indexed by subject. It is at www.top5.org.uk - and thousands of schools are using it each week. This idea that came from administrators, and we’re really pleased to have implemented it.
Meanwhile we are trying to move as much of the work of bringing new products to the attention of teachers away from paper based systems (such as this pack) to emails which go directly to the teachers, and not via yourself at all. Please do continue to encourage your colleagues to opt-in to these new email services – as it does mean you will have fewer and fewer leaflets to distribute. There is information on www.ednews.schools.co.uk
You can stay up to date with all developments from the School of Educational Administration by joining our School Administrator’s news group. There’s no charge – and you’ll get one email a week covering all the latest news. To join just email ed.admin@schools.co.uk and write SUBSCRIBE in the subject line.
Thanks to everyone for all the messages sent me this year – it is really great to receive your views and thoughts. Have a great holiday, and I look forward to writing to you again next year. Tony@schools.co.uk |
“The school is on holiday from November 27 to November 5” (email, received November 14)
One of the biggest issues for the School of Educational Administration is the drive to find ways to reduce the amount of mail reaching schools, while still giving suppliers a way to get information to teachers about new products. We are setting up a series of opt-in email newsletters for administrators and teachers (see www.ednews.schools.co.uk) plus the School Procurement Site (www.top5.org.uk) which gives details of the products and the suppliers.
However to make this changeover effective we do have to advertise the new services – and that means emailing schools, and although it’s not a central part of my work, I do enjoy the automatic replies that I receive as a result of these emails.
There’s one school that tells me that the target is to reply to all emails within two working days, “but we don’t always meet our targets – so no surprise there”, which is an honesty that I really do appreciate. And since earlier this year I spent 10 hours stuck on the M5 as a result of floods I particular did feel for the school that said, “we are currently under three feet of water, and so cannot reply to your email at this time.”
Notices of the dates on which schools are on holiday are fairly common – although if your school does this you might like to send yourself an email just to check that the dates are right. It might also be a good idea to send an email to your IT person reminding him/her to take the notice down immediately the holiday ends (the email in the headline is but one example of how helpful notices can go wrong when not checked). And while you are at it you might also like to check the spellings of any such note – I don’t mind typing errors at all because my spelling is atrocious and these notes would be unreadable with a spell checker, but not everyone is as relaxed as me about the order of letters.
But perhaps I am most intrigued with the automatic replies that tell me that emails cannot be accepted because of the use of “forbidden words”. In one email celebrating the end of slavery I wrote of children sold into slavery and bondage – and that last word set off the alarms in many schools. More bemusing is the fact that if I mention the surname of the secretary of state for education in England, around 30% of the schools in England send me back a “forbidden word” message. It makes me wonder if any of the government’s newsletters to headteachers actually get through. |
“My school would never pay for me to take the Certificate in Educational Administration.”
The number of administrators taking the courses of the School of Educational Administration rose this term to an all-time high.
And although that made me really happy (since part of my job is to promote the National Certificate in Educational Administration and other courses) I have been concerned by the number of administrators who called us said that they would like to come on the course but that they were sure their school, or their local authority, would not pay for them to take the qualification.
We’ve investigated this issue and have found that this is rarely the case. Some administrators have believed that their authority or school would not pay, or may have been told this by a manager, but this is rarely so. All professional staff in education have the right to in-service courses and training, and I am delighted to say that the overwhelming majority of schools and authorities recognise that this is the case, and do support the idea of having a fully trained and qualified administrative team.
We current run two courses. The Certificate in Educational Administration is a one year, distance learning course for school administrators which are recognised by the QCA, and the Council for Administration (CfA). They are validated and awarded by the Institute of Administrative Management and our one-year course is considered a suitable step towards the Certificate of School Business Management course at the National College of School Leadership. The final date for applications for the next intake is 28 January 2008.
Our Work Management and Administration in Education Course is an extract from the National Certificate in Educational Administration course and is offered as a 2 month stand-alone programme. It too is taught by distance learning, and covers the key topics of Time Management, Stress Management and Dealing with Visitors.
The last date for enrolment for this intake is 13 February 2008 and the course will then run from March to May.
There is more information on www.admin.org.uk and you can obtain a prospectus by emailing prospectus@admin.org.uk or on 01536 399 007. |
I would be really grateful if you could complete this simple on-line questionnaire
The School of Educational Administration is undertaking a research project into the problems that can arise when someone in the school “borrows” a piece of equipment and then fails to return it.
This obviously can be an extremely annoying and frustrating experience – especially when one starts calculating the cost (in terms of wasted time) of trying to track down something that has been moved.
We’re also interested in working out how many items go permanently astray in this way – it may not be a huge amount, but could still represent quite a loss to an individual school where it happens.
I’d really like your help in looking into this issue. With this in mind the School of Educational Administration has set up a survey on the School Administrators web site, and I’d be really grateful if you could complete it.
It will only take you about two or three minutes to answer the questions. There is no request for you to enter your name or school details – so everything will be kept totally anonymous.
What we are hoping is that a significant number of schools will complete the questionnaire, so that we can get statistically viable data. This will help us in our continuing campaign to aid the drive to greater efficiency within schools. And if it stops at least one person “borrowing” a piece of equipment without anyone else knowing, then it could well make life in the school office that bit easier too.
To complete the survey please just go to
www.admin.org.uk/research.html
I will be reporting on the results that we get in a later edition of this newsletter. If you have any questions or thoughts about the survey – or indeed about any other topic covered in this newsletter at any time, please do get in touch. There is more information about the work of the School of Educational Administration on www.admin.org.uk |
Do you know what your email says?
You probably are not in the habit of sending emails to yourself very often, but this may not be such a crazy idea as it sounds, because it is the only way you will have of seeing exactly what it is like when a parent, governor or anyone else emails your school.
Quite a few schools have automatic answering systems attached to their emails, which send a message directly back to the sender. This confirms that the message has arrived – and quite often includes some other information too.
That can be helpful – except when it has unexpected consequences. Last week, for example, one school replied to me with the automatic message that “The school is on holiday from November 27 to November 5” Leaving aside the fact that the was sent to me a week after the holiday was over, one wonders just how many recipients got this confusing message.
There’s one school that tells me that the target is to reply to all emails within two hours, “but we don’t always meet our targets – so no surprise there”, which is an honesty that I really do appreciate. And since earlier this year I spent 10 hours stuck on the M5 as a result of floods I particular did feel for the school that said, “we are currently under three feet of water, and so cannot reply to your email at this time.” I felt less positive about the school that wrote back to say “We do not accept unsolicited emails” – which was frustrating since I was responding to an enquiry from a teacher within the school.
Notices of the dates on which schools are on holiday are fairly common – although if your school does this you might like to send an email to your IT person reminding him/her to take the notice down immediately the holiday ends (in the first weeks of September about 5% of the schools I wrote to kindly emailed me back to tell me they were all still on holiday). And while you are at it you might also like to check the spellings of any such note – I don’t mind typing errors at all because my spelling is atrocious and my notes would be unreadable with a spell checker, but not everyone is as relaxed as me about the order of letters.
While on the subject perhaps I can also share with you the oddity of the automatic replies that tell me that emails cannot be accepted because of the use of “forbidden words”. In one email celebrating the anniversary of the end of slavery I wrote of children sold into slavery and bondage – and that last word set off the alarms in many schools. More bemusing is the fact that if I mention the surname of the secretary of state for education in England, around 30% of the schools in England send me back a “forbidden word” message. It makes me wonder if any of the government’s newsletters to headteachers actually get through.
Tony Attwood
School of Educational Administration www.admin.org.uk |
What’s the difference between driving a car and running a school?
The answer, at the most basic level, is the availability of information.
Drive a car and you know at a glance your speed, how much petrol you’ve got, if the water is going to boil, if the oil pressure is ok and so on.
Within school management however most people only know the answers when they specifically ask for information.
What that means is that if the head or deputy head wants to know if a certain department’s schemes of work is up to date, then there will be a request for a printed copy to be handed over. That can mean photocopying, and that can mean that you, or one of your colleagues, may have to handle it.
And if that is not bad enough, it is always possible that it will soon be discovered that the version just copied will not be fully up to date, and so requests have to go back to the department for changes – and then it has to be printed out again.
The same problem can occur when the inspectors call and ask to see the schemes of work. More printing, more copying, more paper used.
Some of my colleagues in the SEA have been looking to solve this problem, as part of the discussion on ways of making school administration more efficient. The idea is that the managers in the school should know at a glance (and without any printing being done) exactly what’s up to date and what’s not.
The best solution I have seen – and certainly one that really did impress me – was the Ariadne management system which provides a set of warning lights to show managers exactly which parts of their management system are “fully up to date”, “about to go out of date”, “obsolete” or “missing”. If anyone wants to review anything they can do so on line, without any printing.
If you’d like to see a demonstration, or want to pass on information on this approach to others in the school please ask them to contact Softorque on 01883 331138 or e-mail ariadne@softorque.com or visit www.softorque.com |
Concerning the sad death of Lord Pratt
Sometimes I run stories here which a few readers find a little amusing, and last term I was asked where the ideas and characters in the stories come from. My answer, “from the obituaries column of the Daily Telegraph” raised eyebrows, so by way of example allow me to cite Lord Michael Pratt who died recently.
According to the Telegraph Lord Pratt’s favourite hobby was arriving at a country house, uninvited, announcing that he was en route to a larger and more important stately home, but would do the owners of this lesser property the honour of staying for only one night. Quite often the "night" would turn into weeks or months during which time Lord Pratt would regale the residents with his stories of those more fortunate in life than these lesser nobility whom he currently graced with his presence. He would never, as a matter of principle, make even the smallest contribution towards the cost of his stay.
As a pupil at Eton, he had “acquired the rotund shape that would stay with him for the rest of his life,” and distinguished himself by emptying a vessel of soapy water over the head of his housemaster and then refusing to see the master to apologise on the grounds that he was “far too busy.”
On arriving at Balliol College, Oxford, Pratt took exception to the state of his rooms, “decamping to the Randolph Hotel until his mother arrived with bucket and mop to render his apartments habitable.”
In fact Pratt always loved to argue. Just days before his death he was involved in a major row over a bill with the owner of an off-licence at Dulwich. He argued with his one and only employer (Lazard merchant bank) and lost his job after just three months, when he attended Royal Ascot rather than the office. He argued with his step-mother who claimed, "Michael has been trying to get at the money and my house… He made some approaches to my solicitor about the will and I find it all very unsettling." He was also thrown out of his London club for what the Telegraph delicately describes as “a spectacular altercation with a waitress”.
Additionally he was a dangerous man to know, being involved in at least two horrific major car crashes (leading the Guardian to compare him to Mr Toad) and in several shooting accidents, one of which was nearly fatal (but not to him).
Thus my point is, with people like this appearing in the obituaries, who ever needs to make anything up? As always you can reach me at tony@schools.co.uk
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I would be really grateful if you could complete this simple on-line questionnaire
The School of Educational Administration is undertaking a research project into the problems that can arise when someone in the school “borrows” a piece of equipment and then fails to return it.
This obviously can be an extremely annoying and frustrating experience – especially when one starts calculating the cost (in terms of wasted time) of trying to track down something that has been moved.
We’re also interested in working out how many items go permanently astray in this way – it may not be a huge amount, but could still represent quite a loss to an individual school where it happens.
I’d really like your help in looking into this issue. With this in mind the School of Educational Administration has set up a survey on the School Administrators web site, and I’d be really grateful if you could complete it.
It will only take you about two or three minutes to answer the questions. There is no request for you to enter your name or school details – so everything will be kept totally anonymous.
What we are hoping is that a significant number of schools will complete the questionnaire, so that we can get statistically viable data. This will help us in our continuing campaign to aid the drive to greater efficiency within schools. And if it stops at least one person “borrowing” a piece of equipment without anyone else knowing, then it could well make life in the school office that bit easier too.
To complete the survey please just go to
www.admin.org.uk/research.html
I will be reporting on the results that we get in a later edition of this newsletter. If you have any questions or thoughts about the survey – or indeed about any other topic covered in this newsletter at any time, please do get in touch. There is more information about the work of the School of Educational Administration on www.admin.org.uk |
How to run a meeting
Meetings in schools bring together two types of people. One group thinks meetings are a great way to escape from their marking and preparation work. The other group resents the meeting because they already have a method of avoiding the pile of work sitting on their desks and don’t need a meeting getting in the way of their recreation.
Meetings are led by leaders (obviously) who are easy to recognise. They get on well with members of the opposite sex, ooze natural authority and have amazing hand-eye co-ordination. But Leaders also have one great weakness - they are desperate to demonstrate to the world that they are, indeed, Leaders. As a result, as soon as the rest of us spot a Leader we tend to do exactly the opposite of what the Leader wants - usually for no other reason than out of mere cussedness.
Once the meeting has got underway and the Leader has been acknowledged, everyone else automatically adopts an appropriate role. First to emerge is the person who always speaks on every subject whether he/she knows anything about it or not. This person is the Anti-hero and like the Leader craves a big role in the unfolding drama.
Anti-heroes are also easy to spot as they eat chocolate. And not just any old chocolate. They eat fancy Continental chocolate with exotic names like “Belgium” on them, often with each item individually wrapped. If you ever spot someone eating such confectionary you are duty-bound to march up to them and blame them for every long meeting you have ever attended in your entire life. They will of course deny it, but that is what you would expect?
You should also note the person-for-whom-life-is-drama. This person says things like “Time stood still for a couple of seconds,” or “I think longevity and long lived success is something that most of us would die for.” Such a person always arrives late having been attacked by a polar bear half way round the one-way system in the town centre.
It is because only the Leader and the Anti-hero are actually interested in what happens during the next few hours that the Leader always gets what he or she wants. In the end the Leader’s deal is: agree that I am right and I will conclude the meeting. Since the Anti-Hero has no power other than to offer everyone a Belgium chocolate, the Anti-Hero always loses, and everyone goes home. |
Want to buy, sell, give away, swap…
Now you can advertise for free
Does your school have a cupboard/room full of items that it no longer needs? They could be anything from books, furniture, sports equipment, projectors, musical instruments, telephones – even computers.
Rather than binning them or leaving them to gather dust you can sell them or even give them away to a good home by advertising on the Top 5 web site free of charge. This is the web site that provides an on-line directory of leading suppliers of products and services to schools, with links to each company’s web site.
The new section is available at www.top5.org.uk/Exchange.html We’ve only just launched this section of the site, so although the rest of the site has lots of items advertised (go to www.top5.org.uk to see an index and a contents list) at the moment of writing this, the Exchange section is empty. But don’t let that put you off: there’s nothing to stop you being the first person to use it.
We are going to promote this service quite widely – so putting up an advert now could result in a rapid sale / disposal of your unwanted items.
All you have to do is send a brief description of the item/s you wish to sell or give away, plus your postcode and your email and/or address/phone number and we will post these details here for 3 months, free of charge. All we ask of you is that you let us know when you no longer need the ad.
There is no restriction on the length of the advert nor the number you can run – so please do give us all the details that the reader will need in order to make a decision. But please do indicate if you are giving the item away or selling it.
With something being given away the person receiving the product will normally pay for delivery – but obviously that is up to the two parties involved to agree. We’ve got no problem with any adverts that offer products for sale, as long as the seller is the school or an administrator or teacher employed by the school.
In the meanwhile I do hope you will find a moment to inform your teaching colleagues in the school about the site, as it will help them find information on companies when you need to get comparative quotations for goods and services.
To place an advert in the free Exchange section just send an email to: anne@hamilton-house.com |
What is the most cost effective way of increasing a school’s efficiency?
This is a question my colleagues and I have puzzled over for some time. Recently however we found an answer – not the answer that we expected, but an answer that really seems to work.
It came about when we asked some of the successful graduates from the National Certificate in Educational Administration course to describe the biggest gain they felt they experienced as a result of taking the one-year distance-learning programme.
Unexpectedly the most common answer we got was “recognition”. The administrators stated they found that having undertaken this course their talents and abilities were utilised much more effectively in the school than had previously been the case. Accompanying this was a feeling among the administrators that they were now treated with greater respect, which also gave them a greater sense of involvement and fulfilment.
The net result was that the administrators often reported themselves to be more enthused by their work. In short, they gained a higher level of motivation – and that higher level of motivation then led to greater productivity, higher efficiency and improved effectiveness.
The Certificate course is recognised by the QCA and the Council for Administration, as well as giving entry to some of the degree courses run by the Institute of Administrative Management, and as a suitable preparation for the bursar courses run by the National College of School Leadership (subject to their other standard entry requirements). Over 80% of local authorities now support applications from school administrators for places on the course.
The closing date for the next intake of students is 5 October 2007. We also offer a shorter course in Education Work Management and Administration. The closing date for that course is October 24.
A prospectus for both courses is available by phoning 01536 399 007, or from prospectus@admin.org.uk There’s also information on the web site of the School of Educational Administration at www.admin.org.uk
As always you can reach me at Tony@schools.co.uk |
We’ve taken three major steps towards making this pack carbon neutral
The point is sometimes put to me that sending teachers information about new products and services through the post can have a negative effect on the environment.
My colleagues and I have been working on this for some time, trying to evolve a system that ensures teachers have information on new books and products for use in the classroom – while at the same time reducing the carbon impact of getting this information to them.
We believe we have now achieved something close to a carbon neutral impact for getting such information into schools. (When I say “we” here I mean those of us involved in the packs that come with this letter from the SEA – obviously I can’t speak for information sent out by other companies).
In fact we’ve arranged matters so that each mailing we do has a positive impact on the environment. Here’s how…
First, all the energy used in our offices and warehouses comes from renewable sources such as our local wind farm in Kettering, Northants. We don’t use energy that comes from oil, coal or gas.
Second, for each company that puts a leaflet in one of these packs we donate part of the fee we charge the firm to the Woodland Trust. Research suggests the average tree used for producing paper will produce around 8500 sheets of A4. We are helping plant a tree for each customer that mails out 5000 sheets – which means we are more than replacing the tree that is used. Further, because these leaflets are sent in a pack together, using just one envelope, we’re also cutting the environmental cost of the journey from our warehouse to you.
Third, we’re using recyclable polythene for the envelope. This has far less environmental impact than using paper envelopes, which naturally have to be made of rather heavy paper – and which use up more trees and add to the fuel used during the transportation of the mail.
This is not the end of our environmental drive. There are quite a few more things we are doing to ensure we have a positive environmental impact. I’ll provide more details in a later mailing. Tony@schools.co.uk |
Losing children on a school visit:
how the school office can help.
It is frightening, but all too true. When teachers take a group of young children to a historic site, to the zoo or to any other interesting location, it is always possible that one child might get separated from the group. It can happen no matter how many helpers there are, and no matter how vigilant.
And the problem is, before you know anything about the incident, you in the school office are the person who receives a phone call from a really anxious and upset parent demanding to know where the child is and what is going on.
The big problem is that few children ever remember exactly where they are supposed to meet up if they get lost, and few know the phone number of their school. In these circumstances what many children do is give officials at the site their home phone number – and it is that which results in the parent phoning you in the school office in an agitated state.
As many of my colleagues in admin have told me, the simplest way to sort this out is to have the adult who finds the child phone the school office, so that you can phone the teacher’s mobile – thus allowing everyone to sort out the matter calmly without anyone alerting the parent. But it seems that in many schools for this to happen it is the office that has to take the initiative and suggest putting a new system in place to ensure the opening call does come from the site to the school office, not to the child’s parents.
The simplest way to achieve all this is through having every child wear a wristband with the school’s name and phone number on it.
SG World make these – they are highly coloured, immediately visible, and printed to include the school’s name and phone number (or indeed the mobile number of the teacher in charge – which cuts you out of the loop totally). The wrist bands are virtually impossible for the children to remove and ensure that, no matter what the situation, the first phone call that is made goes to the school or to the teacher on site.
School Visit Wristbands are available from 45p each from SG World via www.theeducationcatalogue.co.uk or by calling SG World on 01270 588 211. |
Ten Things We Have Done This Summer
1: Launched a shorter course: the Work Management and Administration course which includes the key topics of Time Management, Stress Management and Dealing with Visitors. It’s only two months long and available by distance learning. More details on www.admin.org.uk
2: Cut the number of leaflets we send to schools. This has been achieved because of the launch of Education Management News (see below)
3: Launched Education Management News as an opt-in news service to carry many of the items that were previously carried in this paper based service. If your managers are not subscribers please do ask them to take a look at http://www.ednews.schools.co.uk/
4: Pushed for a national wage structure for administrators.
5: Launched www.top5.org.uk - a web site listing thousands of companies that supply services into education. If you need to find a supplier and want to compare several companies’ offerings, this is the site you need.
6: Set up a link to every school in the UK from one web site – and within that provided a link to every school’s web site – where we have the information. Please do have a look at www.schools.co.uk - and if we don’t link to your school, just drop me an email with the web site details.
7: Gained accreditation for the National Certificate in Educational Administration course from QCA, the NCSL, and the Council for Administration, and given everyone on the course a second free year’s membership of the Institute of Administrative Management.
8: Written more humorous newsletters (the most requested item of all!!!)
9: Expanded www.admin.org.uk to include many more topics.
10: Tried to be nice and friendly all year long and to reply to all emails within one working day. (If I didn’t, my apologies – I have really tried.)
This is the last mailing of the term. Have a good summer. Tony@schools.co.uk |
You asked for a comprehensive web site showing alternative sources for everything the school needs…
The whole point of the School of Educational Administration is that all school administrators throughout the UK can make comments on what they would like us to do, and where possible we try and deliver.
Last week, for example, I mentioned that the campaign for a national pay scale for administrators – a campaign that at the behest of thousands of administrators we have been actively supporting for four years – seems to be on its way.
This week we’re launching something completely new – but again something that we have been encouraged to develop. It is a web site that you can use to locate thousands of products and services that schools often need to buy.
Of course we haven’t included everyone and everything – but we’ve made a start, and now I’d like your input. If you think there is someone we ought to be including whom we have missed out, just give me their email address, and I’ll write to the firm and see if they want to be included. (We charge a very small fee for inclusion – but that is all clearly explained to each firm when we get in touch.)
I’d be grateful if you not only take a look at the site yourself when you have a moment but also let your colleagues throughout the school know that the site is there, and already filled with hundreds of pages of information and thousands of contacts.
The site is called The Top 5 of Everything (because when we started out the aim was to have five providers of each and every product or service to schools). It is at www.top5.org.uk |
New course in Educational Work Management and Administration
The work of the School of Educational Administration is to a large degree stimulated by ideas from readers of this newsletter. For example it was the readers of these notes who raised the point that there was no national qualification for school administrators, and it was that point which led to the creation of the National Certificate in Educational Administration.
Since the launch of the National Certificate two years ago we’ve worked primarily on getting recognition for the course. This is now complete with the Qualification and Curriculum Authority (QCA), the Council for Administration, the Institute of Administrative Management and the National College of School Leadership all recognising the course.
So now we’ve been looking at the next issue that has been raised. The option of administrators doing just one part of the certificate course, rather than having to sign up for the complete year-long programme.
With this in mind we’ve now taken the Work Management & Administration part of the course, and later this year we will be offering it as a two-month stand-alone programme. It will be taught by distance learning, and will cover the key topics of Time Management, Stress Management and Dealing with Visitors.
Once you have completed this short course you will be able (if you wish) to join the full National Certificate course, obtaining an exemption from the module on Work Management and a reduction in the overall fees.
The cost of the Work Management and Administration course will be £150 plus VAT and it will run from November to January, with the last date for enrolment being October 24. If you would like to receive more information on the course please call 01536 399 007 or email Prospectus@admin.org.uk (and indicate that you are interested in the Work Management & Administration course).
Applications for the next intake of the full certificate course need to be lodged by October 5th. We had a record intake in May this year, and if you are interested in taking the course I’d urge you to apply sooner rather than later. Tony@schools.co.uk |
Is multi-tasking real – or just a myth?
I recently did a little experiment, asking a group of school administrators if they felt they were called upon to undertake multi-tasking as part of their office work. The answer in over 90% of the replies was that multi-tasking was a central feature of life in the school office. In fact, I was told, without the ability to multi-task the work of the school office would not actually get done.
I asked the question because I had just read a report which suggested very clearly that driving while talking on the phone using a hands free kit was rather like driving at three times over the alcohol limit. There was no way that it is possible to multi-task driving and talking on the phone while remaining safe, the article said. Hands-free didn’t make the activity safe.
Now obviously most tasks in the school office do not fall into the “life or death” situation of car driving, but it does raise the question, does multi-tasking affect efficiency? Might we all be better off just doing one thing at a time?
According to psychologists, if you are focussed on one issue, and another one turns up unexpectedly you take much longer to deal with the unexpected event. Even when we try to spread the focus, the largest number of very simple events we can keep track of at any one time is four – less if the events are complex. So we might feel that we can talk on the phone, and simultaneously finish typing a totally unrelated letter, (two highly complex tasks) but by and large we can’t.
However there is evidence that with a lot of practice some people can execute two less complex tasks simultaneously as competently as if they were doing them one after the other. But not everyone has this ability equally and many people can’t learn it at all – so we should never take it as something everyone can do.
Thus the belief that we can all multi-task can result in a significant number of people simply doing several jobs at once poorly, when they would in fact be much better off doing them one after the other.
For those of us in the older age ranges there is even worse news. Our ability to multi-task peaks in our twenties and then it is downhill all the way (and I write this as one who has gone about as far downhill as it is possible to go.) The other is that there is (at least according to the psychologists who investigate this issue), no sex difference in the ability to multi-task. Sorry about that. |
Everyone is afraid of something, and it’s good to know there is a word for it.
One of the biggest problems that one might possibly have in the school office, or indeed any office, is an irrational fear that interferes with one’s work. Those people who don’t share your fear will by definition find it impossible to understand what you are worrying about and so may be quite unsympathetic.
Thinking on this subject I decided (as one does) to look around and see if there was such a thing as a fear of administration, or a fear of offices, or perhaps of receiving and opening letters. But no, it appears not.
However my research was not wasted, for during the course of my studies I came across the website www.changethatsrightnow.com which helps it’s readers live free of fears, phobias and anxiety attacks – which is of course a positive thing. For some reason I meandered towards the listing for Telephonophobia, which is fairly obviously the fear of telephones. Its not that I have this, but just that I don’t like getting telephone sales call during the working day, and I just wondered if my dislike of this fact might mean I had a spot of phobia.
Very helpfully the web site said, “to learn more about our 24 hour phone phobia program please call us at 1-800-828-7484”. (Which for some reason reminded me of the card I recently bought in advance for my grand-daughter which said, “Happy 1st birthday” and which came with the helpful note that it was not suitable for children under 36 months.)
Wandering further into the world of phobias, I suppose my long-term favourite is Aibohphobia – the fear of palindromes (which I may have mentioned before – but if not, you might care to ponder it for a while). And there really is a phobia called Didaskaleinophobia — fear of going to school, along with Scolionophobia — which is a fear of school itself.
I did also wonder if some phobias have past their sell-by date. Do many people in the UK suffer from Walloonphobia — fear of the Walloons? But I was on better ground with Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia – a fear of long words, and ultimately I found Phobophobia – a fear of fear itself. Although that was on a web site that had a listing for “A fear of Isaac Asimov” (the author) which seemed to be pushing it all a bit far.
None of this leads anywhere – but I thought you might just like to know. |
Be careful where you gut your fish
My local school is now a Specialist Sports College – a status it was helped to obtain following generous donations from the local tourist board. In order to repay this kindness, the governors have opened up some of the facilities so that they can be used by local residents and visitors to our esteemed neighbourhood.
Of particular interest is the newly created Lake Angel that has been established on land reclaimed following the closure of the uranium mine in 2002. It is a truly magnificent site, the area being used by those interested in biology, science, technology (the dam is local wonder), rowing and of course fishing.
However although this integration of education and tourism seems a good idea, it has brought with it some problems – not least in terms of those who come to fish.
At the lakeside, the munificent benefactors of the new school have built a number of fine tables at which school students can sit and work on their projects.
However some visitors who have been fishing have been known to cut up their catches ready for cooking on these self-same tables. After several attempts to stop this process (which leaves unwanted bits of fish both on the table and the ground) our Head of Sport decided to be more forthright, and he put up a notice that read, “Do not gut your fish here. Take them to the table provided near the Lodges. Anyone caught cutting up fish here will be ejected from the area. Which part of this notice do you not understand?” A forthright comment indeed.
Unfortunately it seems that despite all these warnings, some people simply get so carried away that they cannot resist the need to prepare their catch at the first table that comes into view after reeling the fish in. Thus it was that we were presented with the sight last week of our beloved Head of Sport running towards a group of tourists waving above his head a mallet procured from the croquet lawns while shouting “out, out, now, get out!” and words to similar effect.
The party in question who were visiting as part of a cultural exchange set up by the Britain & Norway Cultural Exchange Committee, ran to their car (dropping in the fish) and drove off without even gathering their clothes and belongings from the Visitors’ Lodge. However as they hit the bend in the road at the southern edge of the lake the driver took the corner too quickly and the vehicle spun out of control, ending up in the ditch right next to the sign erected by members of the Year 10 Leisure and Tourism class a week earlier, which says, “Don’t worry, he doesn’t mean it”. |
National Certificate in Educational Administration accredited by QCA.
The National Certificate in Educational Administration, the nationally available qualification for school administrators, has now been fully accredited by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA). The QCA is responsible for regulation, development, and modernisation of the curriculum, assessments, examinations and qualifications.
This accreditation comes in addition to the recognition given to the course by The Institute of Administrative Management which is responsible for ensuring that the course is of a high quality and is at an appropriate level. As a result of this recognition all students on the one-year distance-learning course now automatically become student members of the IAM for the year of the course, and for a further one year thereafter.
The Council for Administration (CfA) has also confirmed that the National Certificate in Educational Administration has been accepted as an Administration Technical Certificate for the Business and Administration Apprenticeship and Advanced Apprenticeships.
I would also add that the National College of School Leadership recognises that the National Certificate in Educational Administration as a suitable preparation for its own Bursar Development Programme, subject to the normal entry requirements.
This recognition by QCA, the IAM, the CfA and the National College of School Leadership is a significant step in the achievement of a unified approach to the professional training and development of school administrators in the UK.
The National Certificate in Educational Administration is based on the practice of running a school office. There is more information at www.admin.org.uk, or you can read more in our prospectus. For a printed copy just send your name and address to Prospectus@admin.org.uk or call 01536 399 007.
The next intake for the course starts on 21 May 2007, with the final date for application and registration being 14 May. Given the widespread recognition the course has now achieved, most schools now pay in full for administrators who wish to join the course. |
Just in case you have just started opening the school’s post...
I’d just like to say congratulations on landing such a
wonderful, exciting, enjoyable, jolly, and ever-varied job.
Well, perhaps not – handling packs like this is not everyone’s cup of what-not but what I’d like to do is try and convince you that my colleagues and I really do think a lot about your work, and we honestly do want to try and make your post-opening work a little less onerous.
I know that a standard reply to such a grovelling piece of prose is “you can make my life better by not sending all this mail into school”, but I would like to explain what we are doing to help, and crave your indulgence for a bit longer.
Every year schools in the UK spend over £8 billion on goods and services (or around £800,000 per secondary school, excluding salaries). Two years ago we undertook research asking heads of department how they make decisions on how their part of the £8 billion is spent – and the near-universal answer was “through reading the mailshots”.
The point is that without these direct promotions, teachers would be forced into always buying from the same supplier – and while that can be a good thing at times, of itself it does nothing to help the school get the latest products and services for the lowest prices.
Of course we recognise the environmental implications of what we do – which is why we mail in single packets such as these (making a huge saving on postage and envelope costs), we use recyclable polythene, and for this school year we have cut the number of packs such as this we are sending out by 30%. Meanwhile we have expanded our email services, again reducing the level of items sent via the post.
We still have a way to go, and we recognise that people such as yourself who pass on the mail do have a difficult task. So we’ve tried to give you something back through setting up and running the School of Educational Administration. To see what we have been up to (and almost all of it is as a direct result of suggestions by school administrators) please take a look at www.admin.org.uk |
This pill makes you brainier
“After taking VegEPA daily for three months the children showed an increase in reading age of well over a year… it was as if these were the brains of children three years older.” Those are the words of Basant Puri, a GMC registered doctor from Imperial College London.
But before you slip some VegEPA into your lunch, I should tell you the research (funded by Endemol, who make Channel Five programmes) was a load of tosh. Yet even though the programme was not broadcast the news about the wonder pill made various news channels including the Times and the BBC.
In fact the “research” was only carried out on four exceptionally overweight children, and instead of giving them the drug and having a control group who didn’t get it, there was no control, and the entire life style of the four children was changed. Even the measurement of what happened in the brain was rather dodgy – the NAA changed, but apparently this changes over time naturally and seems to have no relationship to intelligence, behaviour or anything else.
In other words four children with problems got loads of attention, had their lifestyles changed totally, and were made to feel special. In the middle of this they were given a pill that almost certainly did nothing. Then all the credit for the change was said to come from the pill.
But there is something positive in all this. It is a fact that if you make people feel that they are special and part of an important experiment their approach to work will change. It’s called the Hawthorne Effect and it is written up in most psychology courses.
Sadly the change only lasts a short while – but it does happen. In the original study the lighting in rooms was changed a bit. Everyone was told they were in a special study to see if more lighting made them work harder, and lo and behold they did. (The same result came out when the lighting was reduced, or when people fiddled with the lights but made no real change). Tell your colleagues that they are in a special study to see if factor x makes a difference to their efficiency and it will. (I leave it to you to try it out in the office).
This story appeared recently in Education Management News – a regular free news service for school managers. To read more about Education Management News and other services we run please visit www.ednews.schools.co.uk |
How shared mailings to schools caused the Dark Ages
If you are a regular reader of this newsletter you may recall that I recently wrote a slight monogram on the subject of what I took to be the world’s first direct mail letter to teachers – placing its origins firmly within the 13th century. (If you missed it you can read it at www.admin.org.uk).
However no sooner had I left my quill out to dry than the emails began to arrive claiming that I was wrong by 1000 miles and 1250 years: mailings such as these started much earlier, and had a calamitous effect.
According to my correspondents the real story centres on August 410 when General Alaric deposited his world-weary Goths in the car-park of the Northern Ringroad Specialist School at an abandoned FE College just outside Rome.
At the same moment a group of lower school Morrischildren under the protection of the Venetian Doge Sir Hardly Anyone approached the city on their way to an international folk dancing and neurosurgery competition in Giggleswick. Aware of the traffic chaos Aleric was causing, the Emperor Honorius attempted to warn the teachers in the school of the impending danger of listening to morris music by forwarding vast numbers of promotional leaflets which were delivered by a troop of design technology veterans left over from the Third Hellenic War.
Unfortunately it was at this moment the Egyptian poet Claudian declaimed his muse which effectively accused the Morrischildren of having a malign destiny and silly clothes. Outraged, Sir Hardly gave a speech ending with a rendition of the Venetian fighting song “Let me Pick-u-Uppo”. Within seconds the previously lethargic lower school children were ready for action. Rome fell and Morris dancing was established in southern Europe.
Amazed, Claudian instantly wrote his famous treatise, “A mild strengthener for human invalids” in which he offered to sell the lyrics of “Let-me-Pick-u-Uppo” to every school in Europe. Interestingly he also included an advert for embalming fluid. However the leaflet was poorly designed and so most of the nation’s school administrators failed to pass it on to the teachers to whom is was addressed, the promotion made a loss, the Dark Ages arrived, and it took another 1000 years for direct mail (not to mention Europe) to recover. |
Returning to the more serious issue of professional development just for a moment
If you’ve been reading my notes on a regular basis you may have noted that this year has seen a return to what some might call “rather funny” newsletters (and which others define as a “total waste of space”.)
I’m more or less alternating between the informative and the ridiculous in my newsletters because that’s what my correspondents tell me they like. Indeed a significant number of administrators protested at the reduction in the number of humorous items last year, along with a corresponding increase in more serious topics. However a smaller number of administrators reprimanded me for indulging in the surreal – which shows as always just how diverse we all are.
If you have missed a previous posting and would like to stay in touch, all of the newsletters since January this year are recorded on www.admin.org.uk (click on “Stay in touch” on the left of the screen).
Perhaps of more note on this site is the gathering together of the various articles that have been written on issues relating to educational administration (Click on Articles). There is a small charge for downloading these – although students on the National Certificate in Educational Administration course can access them without payment.
However not everything is being charged for – The School Efficiency Project remains free of charge – and if you have not had a look at this I would recommend it – for following through some of the ideas in that article can significantly reduce your workload. For details once again go onto www.admin.org.uk and then click on Latest News and scroll down to the Efficiency Project heading.
Meanwhile the articles that have been produced in the past covering topics such as the legality of contracts, personal development plans, conditions of employment and the like, remain free of charge in the “Current Issues” section of the site.
If there is anything you would like to see on the www.admin.org.uk site, which we have not included, please do let me know. Most items on the site are there at the request of readers of this newsletter, and the site is intended to reflect your needs and interests, as indeed is this newsletter. We are also constantly working on www.schools.co.uk which contains information on every school in the UK, with a link to school web sites. If we don’t have your school linked, just click on Update School Details in the main menu, top left on the screen, and we’ll get it sorted.
Tony@schools.co.uk |
| The completely true story of
the first ever direct mail campaign to schools
On the afternoon of 22 June 1286 an earthquake disrupted the foundations of the Upright Post (community centre and sixth form college for the elite of Northamptonshire and Rutland) destroying much of the building and severely damaging the internationally renowned public house next door that had once been visited by King Balance the Unstable.
At first it was believed that the nation’s most precious relic – the signed robe worn by Dyvid B’ckham when he kicked a ball from Uppingham to Cumbernauld in one go – had been lost to the mayhem. As Billy the Wolf, headteacher of the Upright Post, wrote that evening in his daily blog, without the relic the citizenry of the town would be unlikely to give of their time in helping the rebuilding of the Post, and schooling in the two counties would thus inevitably go into decline.
Meanwhile in the high-rise police station opposite, Superintendent Sir Notworth Bothering-Wyth was passing the time talking to a cluster of down-and-out lecturers in graphic design on the need to find a new way to engage the youth of the town and stop them passing their days in hog-baiting, fish-curdling, and guessing the name of vegetables, when he witnessed a procession of Morrismen emerge from the ruins, bearing the ancient robe aloft.
The graphic design lecturers immediately seized upon this as a symbolic event and five days of celebration were called. However a passing necromancer inadvertently dropped a lighted candle onto the pool of crude oil that had begun to bubble up from the Post’s foundations, and the entire city caught ablaze.
Feeling this to be a great opportunity, Sir Notworth put quill to paper and wrote what is believed to be the first direct mail letter – an appeal to the teachers of Rutland and Northants to join forces, put out the fire, lecture children on the dangers of vegetable-based quiz games, and finally rid the city of Morrismen.
Ultimately a collective of passing building surveyors did indeed clear the site where the Upright Post had been and built in its place a simple memorial to the events of that summer. Unfortunately they didn’t dig the foundations deep enough, and the memorial fell down two days later and was thus renamed the Toppled Bollard. Now each year on 22nd June two Morrismen are ceremonially carried from the Bollard and thrown into the River Slydge which oozes past the site.
Leaving your application until the
very last moment can, occasionally, cause a problem.
I
am always slightly dubious when I see notices that tell me that availability of
something is limited, so one must apply early. I often think to myself –
if that were really true, then why would the advertiser care? If you have
50 copies of the latest Rod Stewart album to sell, and everyone is desperately
trying to buy them, why bother to say, “quick, hurry,
don’t be disappointed.” Your job is just to sell the things
(although I must admit that I’m not too sure I’d be any good at selling Rod
Stewart albums, given the state of his voice.) But
I was forced to reconsider my view a little (that is my view on saying “please
apply early” not my view on Rod Stewart) as we closed the applications for the
February intake of our National Certificate in Educational Administration course.
This
is the course that we launched two years ago, following consultation with
thousands of school administrators. Initially we didn’t seem to have
a problem with late applications, but with the January 07 intake what we found
was that a number of schools were asking for application forms in the week
leading up to the closing date, and that left very little time to get the forms
completed and back to us before the final deadline.
The
next intake of students will join us on 21 May, and the absolute deadline for
getting applications to us is 14 May. This will be our fifth intake
of students, and given that the number of administrators who join the course
has risen with each intake, contrary to all my previous feelings on the matter,
I would urge you to request your application form as soon as possible if you
are thinking about joining the course.
It’s
a one-year distance-learning course, recognised by
the Council for Administration and the
Institute
of
Administrative
Management
. There are no classes or day
schools – all the communication is undertaken through our virtual learning
environment.
If
you would like a prospectus please do call us on 01536 399 007, or email prospectus@admin.org.uk
You will also find information on the course on our web site at www.admin.org.uk
from where you will be able to read more about the course and join in one of
the projects. If there are any specific questions that you would
like to have answered, by all means drop me a line at the usual address: Tony@schools.co.uk
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Supposing you could find a way of making your work at school
much more efficient…
I’d
imagine that you would probably be quite keen on this. After all,
increased efficiency means less time spent on annoying or pointless tasks, a
greater chance to do each job properly, and overall a much more pleasant
working environment, quite possibly with a few extra minutes each day to relax
between tasks.
The
problem is how to achieve this. How does one spot an
inefficiency within everyday work and then do something about it?
This
is a problem that my colleagues and I have been pondering since almost the very
first meeting of the
School
of
Educational Administration
four years ago.
Last
year, as part of this pondering we asked all the students on the IAM
National Certificate in Educational Administration course to talk to us about efficiency
in school administration, and to tell us if they had had any experiences of
trying to improve efficiency and effectiveness in their workplace.
The
responses we got told us that not only was seeking out areas of improvement
sometimes an issue, but also said that when suggestions for improvement were
made they could very easily be blocked or ignored by school managers.
As
a result we developed “The Efficiency Project” – a school office project that is
now open to everyone – not just the students on the course.
We’ve
produced an article that you can read about improving the efficiency of your
office (and thus making life much more palatable for you) along with how you
can ensure that the changes come into effect even if your managers don’t seem
very keen. You can also exchange thoughts and ideas with fellow
administrators across the
UK
through a VLE on the same site.
To
read the article (free of charge, obviously) just go to www.ool.co.uk/CEA (the CEA bit does have to be in capitals).
And
if you’d like to tell me about any ideas for efficiency improvements in your
school, please do get in touch.
The
address, as always, is Tony@schools.co.uk
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Our annual works outing.
As
a benevolent employer I feel it is important to give my staff an annual outing
that they will remember all year. With this in mind every February I
“invite” all my colleagues to take part in a cross-country run. The
run is, I will admit, something of a challenge for the unfit, the design being
lifted from Dante’s Inferno, but I reward those who come out of the event alive
by allowing them to join in the February shoot of anything that moves on nearby Corby Moor. How fascinating an experience
my colleagues find this depends of course almost entirely on whether they
remember to be at the right or the wrong end of the gun.
Then
it is off to the local hostelry for my inspirational speech to my staff.
This
year I reminisced. “I remember I was writing on the topic of
administration when I was five,” I said. “I don't know what I did before
that . . . just mucked around, I suppose. But finally I got my act
together ensuring that my mother and father behaved in an altogether more
effective manner (not least over the question of Christmas presents), before
turning my attention to my brothers, cousins, the milkman and the people who
ran the local corner shop. I used rigorous experimentation and exciting
innovation which led by the age of 12 to my mission to convince the world to take up better ways of administering.”
There
were nods of agreement; these people know which side their P45 is
buttered. But two events conspired to ensure my speech did not reach its
planned conclusion. First there was a noise which I took to be an
unexpected collision of two tectonic plates beneath our fair city, but which
turned out to be our landlord munching on some celery. Second there
was a definite “huh!” It was spoken by one of those whom the cross
country had not treated kindly.
The
speaker looked at me with the sort of look I suspect she normally reserved for
untrained rats she wasn't fond of. “Convince the world?” she questioned.
“They won’t listen! Every year you tell us to inform headteachers how they can make their schools more efficient, and how they should double the
salaries of all administrators. But in effect we have as much
chance of persuading them as a one-armed blind man in a dark room trying to
shove a pound of melted butter into a wild cat’s left ear with a red hot
needle.”
It
was an interesting point, we all agreed, but the lady in question is, I am
sorry to say, no longer with us. Thus it is not a topic I can explore any
further.
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What we are doing to your work load,
and to the environment.
The
School of Educational Administration (the people who bring you this news letter
and run the National Certificate in Educational Administration course) and HHM (who organise the distribution of adverts and notices to
schools) might seem to have conflicting interests – but we are working closely
together both in terms of reducing the number of
promotions that you have to pass on to teachers, and reducing the environmental
impact of advertising.
You’ll
appreciate that if HHM simply said, “we’re cutting the
number of leaflets we send to schools” then one of our many rivals would be
delighted to take up the work and nothing would be achieved. So instead
we are working to persuade companies to use alternative means of advertising
which have lower environmental impact, and which also reduce your workload in
the school office.
We’ve
had quite a success at this, and in fact have cut the number of items we are
sending out in packs like these by around 40% compared with 5 years ago.
Much of the promotional work now goes via email, and is combined with a free
news service for school managers. (Go to www.schools.co.uk and click on the News Services section, top right of the screen if your school
is not part of that).
On
the environmental front we’ve moved across to buying all our energy from a
renewable energy only company. Additionally all the polythene envelopes
we use are recyclable, many of our old computers are refurbished and given to
schools, a growing number of our staff use a car sharing scheme, and 70% of the
miles that we travel on business trips are now by train and bus.
In
terms of our paper use, all our paper comes from the EU which is now fully
self-sustaining in tree production for paper. And in terms of public
service, by continuing to use Royal Mail for delivery (unlike some government
departments now using private contractors) we’re contributing to keeping the
cost of postage down (RM makes a profit on this type of bulk mailing, but a
huge loss on ordinary single letter posting. If RM did not have bulk
mail, a first class stamp would cost over £1).
I know this all sounds very much like
saying, “look – aren’t we good”, and I am sorry if it sounds too self-serving,
but I really would like to say that we are working to cut the number of items
mailed, and doing our bit for the environment at the same time.
Tony@schools.co.uk |
Mahatma Kane Jeeves addresses the audience of a live broadcast of the ITV hit show “Name that Veg!”
It
was indeed a great honour for the regulars of the my
local public house not only to attend a live broadcast of edition 5,624 of
“Name that Veg!” the nation’s favourite afternoon quiz show but also to have Mahatma Kane (or Jeeves as he is known to his pals) as the guest after-show speaker.
MK’s theme was The Role of the School Administration in
Existential Reality. “The real world,” he told us, “the world that is
full of wildebeests, catastrophic disasters, unexpected legacies and people
winning millions on the lottery – that only happens in the media. You see
it on TV, read it in the papers, hear it on the radio – but do you ever witness
it personally?”
We
agreed we did not.
“Now
consider that strangest of creations – the daily newspaper. It contains
the same number of words – give or take – be it Monday, Tuesday or
Wednesday. The fact that there might be more or less news on one day
doesn’t make any difference. Is the world really always the same
size?”
We
agreed it was not.
“And
remember what
Sheridan
said of the papers: ‘they are the most villainous, licentious, abominable,
infernal… not that I ever read them of course…’ Is that not how we feel
about the school staff meeting?
We
agreed we did.
And
so we must consider this simple fact. Is it conceivable that something as
exciting, strange, odd, different, stimulating, vibrant, and even occasionally
jolly as the school office could actually exist in the same world as the
newspaper? Is it not more likely that the entire notion of school
administration is in fact entirely a figment of your imagination – something
that has occurred because you have watched too much daytime television and dozed
off? I ask you, what is the most likely: that your job is real or
that you will wake up in five minutes to find it was all a dream and that in
the interim you have inadvertently ordered six egg whisks, 25 CDs by Pat Boone
and an upgrade to Microsoft Word?”
We
agreed that it was, and went home much the wiser. Tony@schools.co.uk
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