What is Important to me as a Leader

The Purpose
A stronge moral purpose

• To raise student achievement. All students (no matter where they come from) should leave school being well connected, resilient, self aware and with a curiosity about learning. 
• They should achieve academically, socially, and emotionally to be able to fully participate in our ever changing world, becoming a GLOBAL CITIZEN. 
• Becoming a leader I wanted to make a great impact on student achievement, not just with my own class, and be able to provide every child with the best possible chance to achieving. 
• The use of data is important to me (GEEKY just a little). I like to be able to think things through and solve problems through collaboration and reflect on the impact of this. 
• I have a very strategic way of thinking. 

Passion

• I love my job (lucky). When interviewing people for a position I always look for people who are passionate about what they do. You can't give people passion along with critical thinking. 
• I never want to stop learning and trying new things. 
• I want to pass on that passion to other people and work with them.

People

• Everyone is a leader and contributes to the leadership within a school. 
• Supporting staff to take ownership of their own professional development. 
• As a leader you want to do 30% of the talking and the 70% to come from the other people.
• Reflective when working with people and not reactive. 
• Making sure words match the action. 
• Creating a positive school environment for everyone to develop and learn. 
• Frank and open conversations and being an active listener. 

Personality

• What drives you to be the leader you are. Important to acknowledge your own strengths and weaknesses. 
• At this point my knowledge, passion, commuication and expertise are the strongest points and I really need to develop relationships based around trust but also show more of my fun side with staff at appropriate times. 
• At times I can come across and too professional and series. I have always believed I am at work to do a job so get it done. I also need to make sure all staff feel valued and respected. 

The Beginning of my Leadership Reflection so Far

This is the leadership Model set out by the document Leading Through the middle. (Ministry of Education 2012)

Factors affecting the success of middle and senior leaders

There are a number of factors that influence the success of those in middle and senior leadership roles. These include:

• leadership and trust that emerges out of expertise first, not position;

• leaders’ support for and active engagement in planning how vision, policies, and practices are put into effect;

• a team culture, where the whole leadership team seeks opportunities to collaborate and actively cultivates and develops leadership capability;

• sound planning and resourcing of middle and senior leadership roles and activities;

• negotiated job descriptions that balance the management and educational leadership aspects of the role (Cranston, Tromans, and Reugebrink, 2004; Farnham, 2009);

• opportunities for leaders to engage in professional development and learning;

• school use of research evidence to inform change and develop practices that will directly or indirectly improve student outcomes. 

I feel that this is where my leadership journey began. I was promoted through my knowledge and expertise in the classroom. Now I look back and think at the beginning of my leadership I relied heavily on Systems and pedagogy and not enough on relationships/partnerships.

This is where I want to really investigate  and explore my leadership skills over the next few years. I want to ensure as a leader all staff feel motivated and supported as a team to raise student achievement. t