The Seven Deadly Demons of Deputy Headship Quotes

“fend off The Wrecker, The Wretch, The Mangler, The Curdler, The Challenger, The Nobbler and The Gorgon.”
― Carole Lorimer, The Seven Deadly Demons of Deputy Headship

“record a bullet point note/phrase for each event that you cover as it occurs in a day:  Tues 05/02/16 Behaviour - Yr5 corridor,  Covered lunch duty, Maths meeting, Spoke to CM re lateness to staff meetings. This takes no time at all and when you look back on your day/week and exclaim that you have not achieved anything you had set out to do, glance back and see what you have in fact achieved, it will surprise and cheer you.”
― Carole Lorimer, The Seven Deadly Demons of Deputy Headship

“Follow up is essential for a number of reasons: People who have completed actions want a chance to share. People who haven’t completed need to be shown that the expectation is there. Ask for reasons — log these in the minutes and if they are not acceptable discuss with the member of staff after the meeting.  It gives the opportunity for people to be thanked for their work and input.  It gives credibility to the meeting.”
― Carole Lorimer, The Seven Deadly Demons of Deputy Headship

“Follow up is essential for a number of reasons: People who have completed actions want a chance to share. People who haven’t completed need to be shown that the expectation is there. Ask for reasons — log these in the minutes and if they are not acceptable discuss with the member of staff after the meeting.”
― Carole Lorimer, The Seven Deadly Demons of Deputy Headship

“Request that matters for AOB (any other business) are given to you at least a day in advance as these can be unpredictable (showing you as unprepared and possibly making you vulnerable) and can develop into a time waster. AOB should be penultimate on the agenda just before ‘Date of Next Meeting’.”
― Carole Lorimer, The Seven Deadly Demons of Deputy Headship

“Sort out your priorities for the session and identify what the outcome will be. This is not the same as identifying what the decision will be i.e. the outcome may be that a decision will be made regarding the method of banding books in the guided reading store, not that the decision to use method X will be the outcome. Helpful elements for a variety of meeting types are Brainstorming (or the more politically correct: Thought Showers) which are good for enthusing and bonding a team, and Workshopping where all work together to produce a finished project/plan/strategy.”
― Carole Lorimer, The Seven Deadly Demons of Deputy Headship

“Only hold a meeting however if you know why. There has to be an intended outcome or people’s time will be wasted which is criminal in this business. Decide beforehand whether the meeting is a workshop where a finished or draft product is the outcome; whether it is a planning meeting where action and timescales will be identified; or maybe it will be a consultation where information/views are needed from people? It may be a mixture of one or more of these or other outcomes.”
― Carole Lorimer, The Seven Deadly Demons of Deputy Headship

“A meeting is for interacting with each other. If there are some things which are non-negotiable in the items under discussion let people know up front.  Let people know the extent of their involvement in items discussed People will want to feel that their ideas are important to the meeting, that their feelings have been considered even if they cannot always be acted on.”
― Carole Lorimer, The Seven Deadly Demons of Deputy Headship

“try the ‘Even Better If’ or EBI activity. As a team write down all the things that are going well with the project/goals and then jot down all the things that would make it ‘Even Better If’. Finally draw up actions to achieve the EBI points.”
― Carole Lorimer, The Seven Deadly Demons of Deputy Headship

“Ensure that your team is solutions based. Getting together and repeating old yarns such as, ‘We tried that already – it didn’t work,’ or ‘The staff will never go for that,’ is not productive. Find out why it didn’t work and what would make it work this time.”
― Carole Lorimer, The Seven Deadly Demons of Deputy Headship

“Note that training needs to be given at the right time – too prematurely and it will need to be repeated, too late and frustrations will already have set in from which it will be difficult to recover from.”
― Carole Lorimer, The Seven Deadly Demons of Deputy Headship

“A change plan will need to be drawn up with responsibilities allocated, timescales set and the order in which events have to happen.”
― Carole Lorimer, The Seven Deadly Demons of Deputy Headship

“you will become an instigator and driver of change and it will be a learning experience every time.”
― Carole Lorimer, The Seven Deadly Demons of Deputy Headship

“Always treat it formally and ask questions such as you would if staff had asked to speak to you personally; “Have you seen his parents about that?”, “Will you let me know if it happens again?”, “How can we help situation X”
― Carole Lorimer, The Seven Deadly Demons of Deputy Headship

“In the boxes write the method on how communication gets to and from the teams selected.”
― Carole Lorimer, The Seven Deadly Demons of Deputy Headship

“When a member of staff approaches you with a request which you have declined, inform the Head of your response so that they are forearmed and can back you up. There is nothing more divisive than staff playing you off against one another and they can be very good at it! If you are not sure what your response should be – let them know that you will get back to them shortly and then see the Head as soon as possible.”
― Carole Lorimer, The Seven Deadly Demons of Deputy Headship

“You are facilitating the solving of problems rather than solving them yourself and allowing people to develop in their own right.”
― Carole Lorimer, The Seven Deadly Demons of Deputy Headship

“You are not the problem solver, the giver of answers – you are part of the Solutions Team. When people come with problems encourage them to come up with the solutions, ask them what they think could be done, how it could be done, who else they could work with to solve this particular issue, and how they could apply the solution to other problems.  This can be difficult at first, especially if you have come into a culture where the senior staff solve things and fix things.”
― Carole Lorimer, The Seven Deadly Demons of Deputy Headship

“You are not there as the all-knowing expert. Yes, you are expected to be an excellent practitioner and have lots of great qualities and be experienced in your field – but you don’t have to keep proving yourself: you have to establish yourself.”
― Carole Lorimer, The Seven Deadly Demons of Deputy Headship

“A Head looks to appoint a Deputy who will support them in their role, someone they can work closely with and who has potential to grow their school.”
― Carole Lorimer, The Seven Deadly Demons of Deputy Headship