Your first year as a principal in Northern Ireland: what the induction can’t teach you

If you have just taken up your first principalship, you will already be on the Education Authority’s induction programme, or about to be. It is a year long and it is thorough: finance and LMS, human resources, legal issues, SEND, working with governors, leading ethos, leading change, leading learning with the ETI. You can ask for an experienced principal as a mentor for the year. Take all of it.

What the modules cover is the job. What they can’t cover is you in the job. Here are five things that sit outside any induction, and a question for each.

How to get off the dancefloor

The dancefloor is the daily operation: the phone call, the cover timetable, the parent at the door. In your first year it will take every hour you give it. The balcony is where you step back and ask what is really going on here. Nobody will schedule that time for you. Treat it as a leadership duty, not a luxury, and put it in the diary: thirty to sixty minutes a week.

A question to take with you: where did I spend most of my time this week, and what drew me there?

How to keep your bucket full

Resiliency is not a static entity. I learned that the hard way, and I learned I had to keep my bucket filled while constantly tweaking any unhelpful thinking patterns. The numbers say school leaders are running theirs dry. Research from Dublin City University this year found 86% of principals in the Republic of Ireland reporting work-related burnout, and nearly half of the teachers it surveyed in Northern Ireland said they were likely to leave the profession. Adequate rest is an absolute must, and it is the first thing a new principal gives away.

A question to take with you: what fills my bucket, and when did I last do it?

The voice that says you’re not ready

For a long time I suffered from feelings of not being smart enough, overthinking and over-questioning, and worrying about what others thought. It kept my old narratives alive and it limited my potential. The only barriers to my career and to change were myself. A new title does not quieten that voice. If anything, it turns the volume up.

A question to take with you: what am I assuming about myself that I have never actually tested?

The first honest conversation

Sooner or later there is a conversation you would rather not have, often with someone who was your colleague last year. The induction can give you the HR procedure. It can’t have the conversation for you. What helps is being clear, before you walk in, about what really matters and what you want for the other person as well as for the school.

A question to take with you: which conversation am I putting off, and what is it costing to wait?

Who you talk to

Principalship can be a lonely seat. A mentor has walked your path and gives you advice from their own experience. A coach helps you find your own answers by asking the questions that get you there. You may well need both. The Education Authority also runs a coaching service for principals: seven hours of one-to-one coaching over twelve months. If it is offered to you, say yes.

A question to take with you: who do I have that I can be completely honest with about this job?

After the first year

The induction ends. The job doesn’t, and the need for space to think doesn’t either. The NAHT reports that only one in five senior leaders now wants to be a head at all, so if you have chosen this, you are already doing something that matters. Look after the person doing it.