1. I’ve been reading various #booth related threads and feeling at a loss. I have no strong views on booths. I have strong views on the profession, on educators leading by example and on having unconditional positive regard for human beings.
2. So, I took to the Framework for Ethical Leadership in Education commissioned by @ASCL supported by @NGAMedia @CharteredColl & many more. I know, it is aimed at leaders but frankly if we can’t insert ‘educators’ where it reads leaders something is up & we need to fix it.
3. The framework states that Leaders should show Leadership through a number of personal characteristics or virtues.
4. I wholeheartedly agree with all of them and share my thoughts on these virtues (if you will) in relation to the discussions on booths with an awareness that much of this could be applicable to other raging debates on this platform.
5. Trust | leaders are trustworthy and reliable. We hold trust on behalf of children and should be beyond reproach. We are honest about our motivations.
6. This makes me wonder how we educators can ensure that we are trustworthy adults for all children, being clear that all children can rely on us and no one falls outside of our scope.
The current narrative excludes certain children from being permitted access to adults they can trust and the current system means that teachers have to balance the complex needs of so many children in ways they make them nervous.
8. Feeling like you can’t be trusted to maintain safety in a classroom situation is scary. But the answer can’t be to insist that those children we have labelled bad are forced into situations that perpetuate social exclusion. Why not? Read on.
9. Wisdom | leaders use experience, knowledge and insight. We demonstrate moderation and self-awareness. We act calmly and rationally. We serve our schools and colleges with propriety and good sense.
10. The way the current discussions about children’s behaviour are conducted on social media don’t always feel wise, calm or rational.
11. I have heard more rational and constructive solutions and insights put forward about the behaviour of peers by the very children whose learning was potentially being disrupted.
12. There is sometimes an undertone of dislike evident in the way children who display challenging behaviour are described which is distasteful & brings the profession into disrepute. Wisdom about interactions with children can be achieved when we light the way with compassion.
13. Kindness | leaders demonstrate respect, generosity of spirit, understanding and good temper We give difficult messages humanely where conflict is unavoidable.
14. I don’t see kindness in an awful lot of the debates or on the ways they are conducted. I try to teach my son that there is always a way of treating others so that their dignity remains intact - this offering means you retain your dignity.
15. I wonder if we could take more responsibility as a profession for generating kindness and ensuring it is the foundation for all action.
16. That doesn’t mean you never use school exclusions, it doesn’t mean you never remove children from mainstream provision, it means all acts begin with a generosity of spirit.
17. Justice | leaders are fair and work for the good of all children. We seek to enable all young people to lead useful, happy and fulfilling lives.
18. Social exclusion will get us nowhere. It isn’t working, it does not work. We need to find ways as a profession of injecting a spirit of Ubuntu to our work. We are as strong as our weakest members, we are as successful as those that struggle the most among us.
19. We are as well behaved as a society as those that challenge its rules the most. We have the capacity, the brains and the courage to enable all children to fulfil their potential - why not focus more on that?
20. Service | leaders are conscientious and dutiful. We demonstrate humility and self-control, supporting the structures, conventions and rules which safeguard quality. Our actions protect high-quality education.
As we lay it all out on social media the golden nugget of what we do ‘service’ ‘humble service’ feels lost. So lost. The way we talk and act - our gesture of service should be evident in the way we talk about the children we are here to serve.
22. Too often it feels the debate favours the adults arguing their point and makes no dent in the mission to serve.
23. Courage | leaders work courageously in the best interests of children and young people. We protect their safety and their right to a broad, effective and creative education. We hold one another to account courageously.
24. Having worked as a PRU Head, led inclusion in a large secondary and spent years in urban English classrooms I know how much courage is required to step up and work in the interests of all young people no matter what. But, that is what we signed up for.
25. Courageous work should be in our wheelhouse and finding creative solutions to the challenges we face should be exciting not combative. I witness the debates on booths and think our hive mind could come up with so many more bright and brilliant solutions.
26. Optimism | leaders are positive and encouraging. Despite difficulties and pressures, we are developing excellent education to change the world for the better.
27. New teachers, potential teachers, folk on the edge of signing up, returning teachers, teachers reaching for that vocational succour must read some of these threads and scratch their heads.
28. Devoid of the spirit of optimism they offer no way out and they certainly don’t support the notion that we can change the world for the better. #letsdobetter
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