During the academic year 2024 - 25, Miranda and Michael introduced their supervision offer to Barnet school leaders.  Aimed at headteachers and other senior leaders, the supervisions build upon best practice from the public and private sectors, made bespoke to the particular circumstances of school leaders.

 

Miranda and Michael contend that headteachers have both an entitlement and an obligation to look after themselves, in their own interests and in those of their schools.  Supervision is one of the best things heads can do to benefit their own professional wellbeing and decision making.  It is highly practical, tailored to each individual’s needs, as challenging as you want it to be yet always entirely supportive.

 

The supervision sessions have received consistently excellent feedback with participants judging them to be extremely relevant and helpful as well as outstanding professional development.

 

The supervision offer consists of six one hour sessions across the academic year.  These take place either on line or face to face according to preference.  As well as the regular half termly sessions, Michael and Miranda are available between meetings to talk about any issues arising - this is part of the package.

 

The supervision meetings generally have three key purposes :

• To enable participants to talk through issues, reflect and ‘download’.  Research shows that the act of doing this is in itself highly beneficial to wellbeing

• To share ideas and give practical advice on areas causing concern for school leaders.  These commonly include; staffing issues, your own and others’ workloads, challenging parents, pupil behaviour, working with governors, budget and other resource pressures

• To help resolve difficulties by working in a coaching style where participants talk through issues and come to their own conclusions on what might move the situation forward.

 

In practice, sessions tend to be a blend of all of the above with some other strategies appearing too.  All of this takes place in a confidential, independent and safe space.

 

If you would like to find out more about supervision please contact Michael (michael@abrial.org) or Miranda (miranda@abrial.org).