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Managing your school

This resource provides practical advice on the day-to-day management of your school.

School staff sitting in meeting

Tags

  • AudienceSchool leaders
  • Resource LanguageEnglish
  • Resource typeText/Article

About this resource

Effective school systems clearly communicate the ground rules for everyone to follow. They ensure a measure of consistency in approach and action across the school. Find practical advice, templates, and tools to help you manage strategic planning, evaluation and review, communications, complaints, attendance, finances, employment, and property.

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Managing your school

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Changes to legal requirements

The Education and Training Act 2020 sets out new requirements for schools’ planning and reporting. The legislation takes effect in January 2023, with a transition period until 31 December 2023 as new tools are developed.

The Education and Training Act 2020 amended the objectives for school boards. It sets out four primary objectives focused on what matters most for learners and their whānau. To meet these objectives, boards are expected to pay regard to the Statement of National Education and Learning Priorities. This change to boards’ objectives took effect on 1 January 2021 and boards are expected to incorporate them into their considerations of progress as they develop or review their strategic plans.

Further information

Principals’ annual calendar

This calendar is grouped into sections that cover leadership actions and outcomes concerning specific tasks. Customise the calendar to suit your situation, and keep it somewhere visible and easily accessible. Refer to it often.

See Materials that come with this resource to download:

  • Primary principals annual calendar (.doc)
  • Secondary principals annual calendar (.doc)

You may like to add notes to this calendar so that you can refer back to see what you did and when. Transfer items to your digital calendar and set notifications to remind you of upcoming tasks.

Consider how you might:

  • align your calendar with your planning documents
  • synchronise your calendar with school events and the school board's calendar
  • include team development and performance
  • confirm and protect time for your leadership learning
  • block-in appointments
  • use your calendar to plan, take a systematic approach to reviewing, and meet your reporting requirements.

Note: Your school’s reporting requirements include strategic and annual plans for the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Education returns, policy review reports and curriculum reports for the board, school newsletters, and learning progress reports for students, parents, whānau, and the community.

Effective self-review processes ensure a systematic approach to improving the school’s learning environment and maximising learning opportunities for students. They incorporate a specific focus on the outcomes for Māori and Pacific students, disabled students, and those with additional learning needs, as well as on their aspirations and those of their whānau.

Self-review

Ongoing school self-review is a strategic process of inquiry. It enables schools to systematically find out about successes, challenges, opportunities, and barriers in teaching, learning, and school operations. A regular, planned review process is about fostering a sustainable culture of professional reflection focused on student achievement and school improvement.

Self-review is:

  • a way of thinking and acting
  • a critical tool for school improvement and meaningful change
  • a systematic approach to identifying priorities, asking good questions, and acting based on relevant evidence.

For self-review to be effective, it should be linked to the school’s annual review, planning, and reporting cycles. You can use your calendar to link these cycles and make connections with student assessment and teacher appraisal.

Why it matters

An effective process of self-review helps principals and the board address these questions:

What it achieves

Self-review helps schools to:

  • systematically find out about successes, challenges, opportunities, and barriers in teaching and learning
  • monitor progress in relation to strategic goals
  • demonstrate the effectiveness of teaching and learning through improved outcomes
  • work collaboratively towards improved education outcomes
  • identify professional development and resourcing priorities
  • ensure that the physical and emotional learning environment is safe, inclusive, and free from racism, discrimination, and bullying
  • find out about the effectiveness of school operations
  • identify priority areas for improvement.

The self-review mindset

Meaningful self-review is about developing a self-review mindset—a way of thinking and acting that is curious, reflective, and outcomes-focused. By modelling these behaviours and values as a leader, you can help build a culture of inquiry in your school.

Leaders with a self-review mindset focus on:

  • development and improvement
  • professional and organisational learning
  • open and respectful communication
  • collecting good evidence
  • evidence-informed decision-making
  • feedback that they seek and are open to feedback from all stakeholders, including staff, students, whānau, iwi, and the community.

Self-review and effective school leadership and pedagogy

Evidence about effective school leadership and teacher practice reveals the crucial importance of creating a reflective, professional culture of self-review that focuses on student progress, achievement, and the identification of teaching and learning priorities:

"Assessment for the purpose of improving student learning is best understood as an ongoing process that arises out of the interaction between teaching and learning. It involves the focused and timely gathering, analysis, interpretation, and use of information that can provide evidence of student progress." (Ministry of Education, 2007, p. 37)

"Leadership promotes teacher learning via communities that are focused on improving student success." (Robinson, Hohepa, & Lloyd, 2009, p. 42)

"Teachers and principals need to collect the effect sizes within their schools and then ask, 'What is working best?', 'Why is it working best?', and 'Who is it working for?'" (Hattie, Visible Learning, 2009, p. 240)

"The purpose of internal and external evaluation is to improve education outcomes and to ensure that schools are accountable for their stewardship." (Education Review Office, 2016)

Increasingly, we understand that valued educational outcomes encompass a range of outcomes. This is evident in the Statement of National Education and Learning Priorities, which highlights the importance of foundation skills but also puts value on learners’ identities, languages, and cultures and the aspirations they share with their whānau and communities.

Further information

What is reviewed?

While all aspects of review require detailed consideration, curriculum and learning remain central in a process of inquiry into educational outcomes. As an educational leader, this will be your focus. There are three types of review:

  • Strategic evaluations focus on activities related to the vision, values, goals, and targets of the school community.
  • Regular evaluations are business-as-usual evaluations or inquiries, where school boards, leaders, and teachers gather data, monitor progress towards goals, and assess the effectiveness of programmes or interventions.
  • Emergent evaluations are a response to an unforeseen event, or an issue picked up by routine scanning or monitoring.

Increasingly, schools look to include students, parents, whānau, iwi, and others in the community in evaluation and review. The Education Review Office is also making changes towards a developmental approach that supports continuous improvement. These changes affect how ERO works with schools and the outcomes on which it focuses.

Further information

Gathering the evidence

Some of the sources you can use in self-review are:

  • Analysis of student achievement data
  • Review of documentation (policies, procedures, guidelines)
  • Observation of practice against agreed criteria
  • Questionnaires and surveys (students, staff, parents, whānau, mana whenua, community)
  • Interviews (students, staff, parents, whānau, mana whenua, community)
  • Analysis of statistics (attendance, roll numbers)
  • Audit of resources
  • Anecdotal feedback
  • Use of continuums (basic, developing, integrated) against sets of ideal outcomes
  • Meetings (minutes of consultation meetings)
  • Use of external review (ERO, professional learning consultants).

Further information

 See Materials that come with this resource to download

Reflection exercise

Use these questions to prompt reflection:

  • What do you know about your school and community?
  • How do you know? What evidence do you have for judgments made from first impressions?
  • What sources of evidence are currently available?
  • What further information or evidence might you need to get a complete picture of the school?
  • What level of review is appropriate – strategic, regular, or emergent?
  • What are the most appropriate tools or sources of evidence to use as the basis of the review?

Self-review is not the responsibility of the principal alone. It works best when it becomes part of the professional culture of the school. It works at all levels of the school.

A school-wide culture

At board level

  • Vision/values, strategic plan, annual plans, and targets
  • Policies
  • Student achievement and other valued outcomes: The board needs to be informed and involved with achievement at a strategic level (for example, working with school leaders to identify priorities and target areas, direct resources, and evaluate progress).

At leadership level

  • Modelling and promoting a culture of inquiry
  • Focusing on school improvement and student achievement, concerning the strategic goals
  • Analysis of student achievement information
  • Evaluating the effectiveness of professional learning and professional growth cycles.
  • Evaluating the quality of teaching and learning programmes.

At classroom level

  • The teaching as inquiry model is an integral part of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum. It establishes an expectation and outlines a process for improving teaching and learning through purposeful evaluation, planned action, strategic teaching, and focused review.
  • Students require opportunities to provide meaningful and open-ended feedback about their experience of the school (for example, teaching, learning, and culture).
  • Students also require opportunities to participate in goal setting, identify their next learning steps, engage in self- and peer-evaluation, and reflect upon their learning.

Further information

Suggestions for managing the myriad of everyday communications you are involved in as a principal.

Leader’s role

Effective communication underpins the knowledge, skills, and dispositions principals require to have a direct and indirect influence on student outcomes, as identified in the Best Evidence Synthesis on Leadership.

Taking time to think about what you want to say will ensure you maintain your integrity and professionalism, that of your school, and that of the wider educational community. Many problems, in and out of schools, can be directly traced to the effectiveness of your and your school’s communications—whether the information was or was not communicated, what was communicated, how it was communicated, and who communicated it.

Communication planning

Principals apply a range of formal and informal communication skills every day. Communications may be deliberately planned or ad hoc; face-to-face or virtual; written, video, or verbal; digital or non-digital. Use a table like the one below to help you get an overview of your communications.

Who? 

Why? 

How? 

Students 

  

  

Leadership team 

  

  

Teachers 

  

  

Parents, whānau – current and prospective 

  

 

Support staff: office staff, learning assistants, executive officer, caretakers 

  

  

Local iwi and hapū 

  

  

Board members 

  

  

Local principals, mentor or supervisor 

  

  

Other schools 

 

 

Kāhui ako  or cluster 

 

 

Local early learning settings 

 

 

Outside agencies (for example, Ministry of Education) 

  

  

Parent Teacher Association, alumni association 

  

  

Other (e.g., media, local businesses, service organisations) 

  

  

 

Having developed your overview, consider how effective your existing communication strategies are. These questions may help:

  • What are your reasons for communicating with your audiences? What are your key messages?
  • Do your reasons for communicating include the desire to lead change and/or learning in your school?
  • How do you ensure your key messages are communicated clearly and consistently?
  • How does the way you communicate help to build trusting and respectful relationships with your audiences?
  • How have your communication strategies changed over time? Are there aspects of communication you should emphasise during the next year?
  • When did you review your strategies? What feedback have you had? What might you need?

It may be useful for the board to create a policy (or practice) that stipulates who communicates formally on behalf of the school in cases where the board is contacted by the media, for example. It is essential to understand the requirements of New Zealand’s privacy and copyright laws.

In-school communication  

Elements of good practice for internal communication include:

  • championing and being a good role model for clear and consistent communication
  • matching your words to your actions, as this is part of developing integrity as a leader
  • being committed to open, two-way communication
  • face-to-face communication
  • communicating with empathy: communicating bad news as effectively as good news
  • seeing communication as an essential leadership capability, not as a set of techniques.

Things to try to improve your communication

No matter how good our communication skills are, we can all do better. Here are some things to try.

External feedback

Consider using an interviewer from outside the school, such as your mentor or the principal’s appraiser, to carry out a fact-finding review. Try to view criticism as constructive. When you establish that you appreciate feedback and actively take it on board, people will keep you well informed.

You might ask an interviewer to undertake some or all of the following actions:

  • Ask staff what they perceive as the two or three most important actions and intentions you have been communicating to them regarding school development.
  • Ask a range of staff what they think you have been communicating about and how effective you have been. The interviewer takes notes without comment, apart from seeking clarity. Four or five staff from a range of contexts is plenty; in a small school, only one or two.
  • Interview five or six students across year levels. Ask each to describe what you have been communicating. This may be best done in small groups to bring out the range of views.
  • Focus on Māori and Pacific learners, disabled learners, and those with additional learning needs and their whānau. What is going well in your current approach to communication, and what could work better?

Discuss what the interviewer learned about what is working well and where you could improve the ways you communicate that align with your values and purpose. How might you make these improvements? Include this review and your reflections as part of your appraisal.

Internal feedback

Ask a trusted and experienced colleague to provide honest and constructive feedback on any presentations you make. Ask for feedback on a few specific aspects, such as the clarity of your message, the quality of your message, audience response, and presentation style. Or ask for feedback on one thing you did well and one thing you could improve on or do differently next time. Use this feedback strategy several times a year, and remember that this evidence of professional growth and reflection can also feed into your appraisal. 

Visiting staff workspaces

By recognising the individual natures and circumstances of staff members, principals strengthen trust and connectedness across the staff.

In any good communication, it is important to establish trust and confidence. Without this, your message may be lost, misconstrued, or ignored. Build understanding and rapport with staff by meeting in their workspaces from time to time. Staff talking in their workspaces will communicate their views more clearly in context and are more likely to tell you the reality of what is going on. Consider taking informal walks through classrooms or going along to faculty meetings in an informal capacity. Conversely, reprimands, criticism, or any disciplinary communication should take place in your office, where you set the stage and the level of formality you want. Remember: praise in public, feedback in private.

Listening

Effective communication is a two-way process. You will learn more when you are listening than when you are speaking, and people will not open up to those they consider poor listeners.

Consider:

  • focusing on the moment and the person speaking; adopting a listening attitude
  • avoiding distractions (for example, move away from your computer and put away your phone)
  • asking questions instead of just giving answers
  • giving full attention to what is said, not just thinking about what you want to say next
  • focusing on what you might learn instead of what you want to teach or instruct
  • asking how you might help
  • seeking clarification and explanation, especially when the speaker’s tone is somewhat critical
  • restating what you think they have said to seek clarity and agreement
  • agreeing on a next step
  • checking whose voices are missing or underrepresented.

Adopt a listening approach for:

  • "sounds" of learning at your school, such as evidence of curiosity, inquiry, earnest endeavour, shared thinking and collaboration, and teacher facilitation
  • "sounds" of teachers’ shared approach to teaching, such as team teaching, collaborative planning, questioning, and supporting.

Adopt an analytical ear for the sounds:

  • you want to hear that they are absent
  • you hear but would prefer not to hear.

Add all these sounds to your knowledge bank about the school and use them at appropriate times to make progress on development.

Community communication

Begin with the end in mind. Remember that principals strengthen partnerships and networks to enhance student learning. Extend your knowledge so that you become an expert in your school community. Share so that education becomes everyone’s business. Have a broad and simple community communication goal that is appropriate to your school’s setting. For example: 

  • a new principal in a small rural school may decide to ‘develop and maintain strong interactive communication patterns with each whānau about their children’s education’ 
  • a new principal in a large urban school may decide that ‘during the first year, my communications within and across the school community will help me gain a clear understanding of how things are done around here’. 

Check that you are listening and communicating with all of your school community: students, staff, whānau, iwi and hapū, and the local community. Go to them as well as find ways to make them feel welcome at school.

Communication methods

Your mood, actions, and demeanour 

Your body language, moods, and actions convey powerful messages. 

  • Failure to complete or carry out a routine task suggests the routine is not important. Similarly, failure to follow through on a goal or promise will undermine your credibility. Ensure the link between what you say and what you do remains close. If a disparity develops between them for any reason, explain why. 
  • Remaining approachable while being regarded and consulted as a professional leader with significant knowledge about teaching and learning requires you to maintain a cheerful demeanour, even if the going is tough. A principal’s sense of optimism and focus on strengths can quickly permeate a school. 
  • If you are new to school principalship, remember that you are now a public figure and subject to much more scrutiny than you were as a teacher. Be clear, consistent, and transparent so that all members of the community know that what they see is what they get. Enjoy answering questions and discussing the school's vision and goals, and listen attentively to all community members. 

Phone calls and emails 

Treat calls, emails, and other written communications as important parts of the job. These are often the first experiences people have with your school. 

  • Identify yourself. 
  • Have an enthusiastic phone voice and manner, even on your worst day. 
  • Use the email subject line to your advantage—that is, as a summary. 
  • Put aside time to answer phone calls, emails, and other messages. This helps you with time management. Perhaps publicise the best time to ring in newsletters. 
  • If possible, answer phone messages and emails within 24 hours. However, don’t rush answers that you need more time to think about. 
  • Try for a balance of five calls home to praise students for every one that addresses areas of concern. 
  • Check that the school’s answerphone messages, hold music, and so on are compatible with the school's goals, context, and cultures. Make them warm, welcoming, and inclusive. 

Face-to-face communication 

  • Always listen carefully. Try not to interrupt; think about how that would make you feel. 
  • Appreciate critics and thank them. 
  • Treat each conversation as important. 
  • Ensure you apply your agendas; take advantage of face-to-face meetings to initiate discussion about things of importance to you and your school. 
  • Make notes. Record agreed times and dates. Tell the person you are talking to what you are recording. Put follow-up actions on your calendar. 
  • Work on reducing your use of "dead-air fillers" like "um" and "er", as well as cliches and phrases such as "you know", "basically", "to be honest", "at the end of the day", "the fact of the matter is", "sort of thing", and so on. 
  • Difficult conversations with adults will occur. Don’t become defensive; breathe and count to 10.

Communication channels

Internet presence 

What is your school's digital footprint like? You and the board have ultimate responsibility for it.  

  • Decide whether you need closed or public access channels and for whom. 
  • Choose platforms that are easy to use, for your school and the audience(s). 
  • Be clear, concise, professional, and safe in your content. For example, do not post images of children without parental permission. 
  • Check that the content reflects and reinforces your school’s key messages, values, and beliefs. 
  • Have protocols in place to manage the content. 
  • Have more than one person responsible for producing content, moderating content, and monitoring it for inappropriate responses. 

School events 

Treat all events as great communication opportunities. 

  • Make events as culturally reflective and responsible as possible. 
  • Personally meet and greet as many parents, whānau, and community members as possible. 
  • Try not to speak for too long. Keep the focus on student achievement and your school’s current goals. Make it clear what the school’s core business is. 
  • Ensure students feel included and rewarded for their effort and achievement. 
  • Thank and acknowledge parents and whānau for their part in their children’s learning and their support for the school. 

Newsletters 

Find out how parents, whānau, and the local community wish to receive news about the school and events. Offer a range of options. School newsletters should provide the means to inform, promote, gather, and educate. Decide how you want the balance of these four tasks to work in each newsletter.  

To get your intended audience to read your news, it’s best to make it brief, to the point, and customised. People have become very discerning information consumers. 

  • Ensure the newsletter conveys important messages about your school’s vision, values, strategies, and plans. 
  • Align messages to support key leadership activities: leading change, leading learning, and problem-solving. 
  • Establish and stick to a regular publication timetable. 
  • Use a template for easy preparation of each edition. 
  • Enlist others as reporters to gather copy, for example, students, staff, and whānau. 
  • Quality is important, but stick to the budget. Establish the highest standards for accuracy of detail and grammar. Have a neutral proofreader.
  • Make sure the school has parental permission to use any photos of students. 
  • Set aside time to do your part of the newsletter, preferably several days before publication. 
  • Make sure digital newsletters are easy to read online or to download and open. 
  • Be aware of and respectful of your rights and responsibilities regarding copyright.  

Remember, you have overall responsibility for your newsletters. You must have the final say on what is included and how it is said.

Principals’ views on their communication

Ash Maindonald, Principal

Communication is key. I tried a couple of things at my previous school that seemed to make a difference. I visited all the classrooms and asked the children: 

  • What do you love about our school? 
  • What could make it cooler? 
  • What do you expect of me? 
  • What can I expect from you? 
  • What ideas do you have to help us build a family here? 

With staff, I prepared a one-hour My Education Life Journey presentation. I covered who I was and why, what I believed in, how I saw my role, the mistakes I’d made, and the joys and successes. I was open, honest, and spoke from the heart. They understood what they were to me, what they were to the children and community, and what the possibilities were for our journey forward together. 

I published an awesome newsletter with the highest-possible quality photos of kids and different ways of getting our core messages and beliefs through to families. It went out every week, sometimes twice a week. The quality of our newsletter was very important to us. The three foci of our newsletter were to inform, challenge, and celebrate: 

Inform 

To keep you in touch with upcoming events, news, and information. 

Challenge 

To produce a new generation of thinkers. We will be teaching children structured and systematic approaches to thinking and providing opportunities to use these skills. Look out for brain challenges in our newsletter. 

Celebrate 

Our most precious resource is our people. We want to take every opportunity to share with you the wonderful learning experiences that happen here each week. 

Board meetings featured slideshows of the school in action. 

We welcomed and encouraged parents to come to our weekly whānau time—school assembly. The purpose of whānau time was regularly shared: to share family time; to celebrate the things our family members had achieved; to learn more about our family and ways we could be a better family than before. 

Building relationships with parents  

A principal has offered these comments about the importance of relationship building: 

I found establishing relationships with each parent of a child at the school to be quite beneficial. I always use the common ground that we, as parents and teachers, have the best interests of the child at heart. This has always been a great starting point. 

Initially, the process was quite time-consuming. I try to make time for every parent, whether it is for 5 or 10 minutes. I found that it makes a huge difference for our parents that they are acknowledged. 

Even parents of children who regularly find themselves in some form of strife at school value this open relationship. They report that they prefer being kept in the loop, even during the tougher times for their children. As a result, I know that they are just a phone call away and are always willing to support their child or other school initiatives. 

Term gatherings help. Sometimes it is just a morning tea to say thanks. At other times, it is a whole school hāngi. Turnout at our last parent–teacher–student (p-t-s) interview was over 90 percent. Parents want to make time for their children. I have told them that one way to do so is to come and listen to their child report back on progress and achievement at the p-t-s interview. 

I think back to a few years ago ... things were a lot different. It was difficult to get most parents through the school gate. How things change! I put it largely down to relationship building. 

Further information  

Types of complaints

No matter how experienced you are, all school leaders receive complaints. These can range from informal, verbal comments up to formal, written complaints and from minor to major concerns. They may come from students, staff, parents, whānau, or members of the wider community. They could be about students, teaching or non-teaching staff, you, the board, your school policies, or school events. Some you might be ready for; others will come out of the blue and surprise you.  

Without good management, complaints can escalate rapidly. It is better to have processes in place and rarely need them than to have nothing in place and end up with an issue with the potential to flare up. One principal suggests, "You deal with the complaint at the lowest level possible. An escalated complaint is like a hurricane; the more emotional the heat, the more ferocious it becomes."

Is it a complaint?

It is not always obvious when someone is making a complaint, so be alert to the possibility. Complaints can be made in the form of softly presented expressions of concern about something or someone. These types of complaints can often be missed by busy principals and grow in seriousness over time. If this happens, a complainant could justifiably say, "I asked you to do something about this six months ago!" However, you don’t want to be overreactive, so it’s important to seek clarification at an early stage. Ask, "Are you making a complaint?"

Find out whether the person or group involved has seen your school’s complaints policy. Make a note of the response you receive.  

Remember, if it seems tricky, don’t hope it will just go away. It won’t.

Involving the board

If the complaint is made to you, use your judgment. Try to achieve resolution at the lowest level possible. Don’t involve the board unless you feel you are going to need help. If you think things might escalate, inform the board chair of the measures you’re taking so they will not be suddenly surprised by what has become a major concern. You may also need to alert the school’s insurer if the complaint is ‘high level’ (for example, if it could become a personal grievance case).

If a complaint is addressed to the board, it must go to the board. You will play whatever role the board requires of you. For example, you might be asked to gather and pass on the evidence. If you collect and present the evidence, natural justice says you should not be involved in any judgment; let the board make the decision. If the complaint is about you, the board must handle it without your involvement but with your knowledge.

Being prepared

Check your school policy  

You need a process ready that is respectful and follows the principles of natural justice. If you’re new to the school, check the policy for dealing with complaints and when it was last reviewed – every three years is ideal. If there is no policy, develop one with your school board. 

When checking your policy, ask: 

  • Does it conform to best practice and is it open to legal scrutiny? 
  • Has the school board ratified the policy? 
  • Does it include a flowchart of the process which is easy to follow? 
  • Is it inclusive? Does it reflect our community? 
  • Is it available in the languages used in our community? 
  • Have we given copies to parents or whānau? 
  • Is it easy to find on our school website? 

Check employment agreements and rules  

Be familiar with the requirements and processes set out in the employment agreements of teachers and other staff members. Know what you must report to the Teaching Council and how to do that. 

Seek advice 

If in doubt, always seek advice. Contact the NZSTA advisory service or your sector representative group. They are there to provide advice and guidance and it's better to talk with them than to try and handle things on your own, especially if you are inexperienced or unsure in the particular situation. 

The points below can be incorporated into a complaints' policy. They come from an online discussion involving a group of secondary school principals. 

Further information  

When you receive a complaint

Listen  

  • Let the complainant speak. Make it clear you have heard the complaint. Say something like, “Thanks for letting me know. I’ll follow this up and get back to you by …” Name an achievable time. Report your progress towards resolution at that time to the complainant. 
  • Make the complainant feel you value their coming to you. Do this, even if they are angry. Remain calm, even if what is said seems unfair. You are the one in control of the situation. 
  • Write down the specifics of the complaint. You might need to get the complainant to pause while you gather things with which to write. 
  • Check back that you have the details right. If it seems appropriate, ask them to write down the complaint as well, so that you can compare what you have written with what they said. Keep this written documentation safe, as you may need it later. 

Investigate  

  • Depending on the nature of the complaint, you may not need to respond straight away, other than to thank the complainant for letting you know. However, if you deem the complaint to be serious (for example, if it involves the safety of a student or staff member) you may need to take immediate action before an investigation. This may involve the removal of a person or contacting external support. Do not assume blame until you have gathered all the facts. 
  • Make a judgment call about the time you need to deal with this complaint. Ask yourself about the likely consequences of not dealing with the complaint immediately. 
  • The complainant may want an instant response. Reassure them you will give them a response as soon as you have had time to consider it. Use this time to assess the gravity of the complaint, and then you can prioritise it. Don’t leave dealing with it for too long, though. Small issues can grow out of proportion if not dealt with smartly. The priority scale you use will probably be: now, later today, tomorrow or the day after, rather than next week. 

Inform where necessary  

  • Let everyone who needs to, know what is going on. Any staff member who is the subject of a complaint must be told about it and any investigation as soon as the complaint is received. 
  • Tell all parties that discussions are confidential.  
  • Keep those who are affected informed about what is happening, especially if the investigation takes longer than expected. Clear communication will help people feel confident that you are handling the situation appropriately. 
  • Procedure must be strictly followed, or you might find yourself in an employment-related situation. There has been at least one case where a person was not told of a serious accusation until several weeks after an investigation had been carried out to determine whether an offence had occurred. Because of this procedural omission, the person was found not guilty in court and the board was required to pay the person $40,000. 
  • Call on NZSTA or your sector representative group to help follow the correct procedure. 
  • Taking too long to act invites speculation and encourages those who don’t need to know to become involved. 

When you have the evidence

Seek to resolve the issue  

  • Keep a record of everything. 
  • Consider all possible resolutions and unintended outcomes. You might want to discuss these with a trusted colleague, NZSTA, or your sector representative group. 
  • Meet with the complainant to convey your decision or discuss options for resolving the issue. 
  • If the complaint involves two parties (that is, one person complaining about another person), you might need to decide whether to bring the parties together. Depending on the seriousness of the complaint, you might need help to plan and manage this process. Again, use one of the services available. However, in more difficult cases this may not be an option. 
  • Decide. Acknowledge any errors made, if necessary. Ask the complainant whether they are happy with the outcome. If not, offer options for further action. 
  • Follow up with a letter to the complainant detailing the discussion, the agreement you have reached (if any), and the intended actions. 
  • If the complaint involves an employee of the school, then you may need to put copies of the complaint, letter, and resolution on the employee’s file. 

Feedback   

Seeking feedback helps you review policies. One principal uses this form to get feedback on the school’s handling of complaints. It is sent out to a complainant after the matter has been dealt with. 

Recently you brought an issue to our attention. [Issue is described]. To ensure we have dealt with it effectively, please let us know by answering these questions: 

  • How well did you feel we listened to you? 
  • How comfortable did you feel about approaching the principal, staff member, or other school representatives? 
  • How happy did you feel with how we resolved the issue? 
  • Do you think there is anything that we can do to improve our system? 
  • Other comments? 

When seeking feedback from parents on your policy be clear about the purpose. Consider using a scale for answers, such as 1 (not at all) to 4 (completely). 

Further information

Things you need to know

  • The law about attendance  
  • Ministry of Education attendance regulations 
  • School boards’ responsibilities regarding attendance 
  • Procedures for monitoring attendance and the processes for their regular review 
  • Attendance expectations and monitoring procedures are communicated in written form to students and whānau 
  • Attendance expectations are emphasised in teachers’ discussions about student progress 
  • The capabilities of electronic attendance registers (eAR). 

Further information  

Presence and absence: The administrative requirements

A good attendance system supports quality learning. It has simple, clear goals and effective procedures that everyone knows and expects. Directions, regulations, and practices for managing student attendance are well-defined and available online.  

Further information 

  • MOE: Managing School Attendance has information on: 
    • the legal responsibilities and national guidelines  
    • using electronic attendance registers (eAR) 
    • attendance guidelines, sample policies, and practice tips. 
  • The downloadable publications on this page include: 
    • Improving Attendance (2010) 
    • Attendance Matters (2011) 
    • an update to Attendance Matters to align with the Education and Training Act 2020. 

Your school: Attendance as it is now

Collecting attendance data daily involves every member of the school community. In schools where the average presence is consistently higher than 90 percent, attendance checks are easier. Where average presence drops into the 80–90 percent range, it can take more time. However, as a daily, familiar routine, attendance checks can lack urgency and importance in the minds of some students and their whānau. Analysing attendance data to understand patterns is an effective use of management systems to support and enhance student learning.

Analysing the data  

Visit Education Counts for: 

What do you notice? 

  • Find the data for your school. 
  • Take your in-school attendance data for a representative period this year (for example, May) and analyse the attendance patterns for different ethnic groups, year levels, genders, and Mondays and Fridays. 
  • Look beyond averages and medians. Look at the bottom 10 percent. What is the impact of their poor attendance on their achievement and school achievement? 
  • Compare your attendance analysis with the nationwide picture. 
  • Identify any issues that need consideration (for example, in-school variations and truancy). 
  • Provide staff and the board with regular snapshots of absence issues. 
  • What do students think is ‘poor attendance’? ‘excellent attendance’? Is there a need for a change of perspective? 
  • Are you satisfied with your school’s absence record and the processes used to implement the collection, analysis, follow-up, and benefits gained from the processes involved? 
  • Use the attendance data you collected (for example, for May). Take the data for those who have excellent attendance and analyse it. 
  • Provide a report to the staff and board on those who attend well. What is done about students with very high levels of attendance? 
  • Do the characteristics of students with excellent attendance offer insights to help raise the attendance levels of others? 

Identify your school attendance patterns 

  • What are the correlations between attendance patterns and student achievement for specific groups? 
  • What can you do about altering the present attendance situation? 
  • Keep these results readily available to assist school decision-making and action. 

Dealing with poor attendance

Check that your decisions and actions arise from the analysis of the school’s attendance data. Read the Systems section of Kiwi Leadership for Principals (pages 19–20) to confirm the professional characteristics used as you work on this process. 

See Materials that come with this resource to download:

  • Kiwi leadership for principals 2008 (.pdf)

Put in place a school-wide attendance focus  

Use the principal’s checklist below and the guidelines in "Attendance Matters" to help you ensure schoolwide processes are in place and working to improve levels of engagement.  

Attendance Matters  – Ministry of Education

Principal’s checklist  

This checklist will help you focus on schoolwide attendance as part of your engagement in learning strategy. 

  • Our daily recording of attendance provides accurate and timely summaries, week in and week out. Reworks to overcome entry errors are rare. 
  • In our school, a range of people (class or form teachers, deans, and senior staff) use the attendance data as a basis for strengthening student engagement through personalised approaches and systems. 
  • At the very least, our monitoring of attendance data meets the criteria in Attendance Matters. 
  • Our parents and whānau are regularly informed about their children’s attendance, and, where necessary, we work with them to find pathways to improvement. 
  • There is a schoolwide process for acknowledging excellence in attendance.
  • We apply absence and truancy procedures fully and consistently. We work collaboratively with other schools, attendance services, and other agencies. 
  • We make full or increasing use of computer technology to record attendance and absences to reduce the financial and human costs of schoolwide monitoring. 
  • At least every six months, we reflect on attendance issues of concern to teachers. Where necessary, we act based on our analysis of the data collected from day to day. 
  • We review attendance processes annually, using criteria such as those in Attendance Matters, pages 8–9. 

Note: Around 70–80 percent of students and whānau will respond satisfactorily and meet the communication demands of the school's systems for reporting absences (for example, whānau members will phone to report absences).

Engage support agencies, counsellors, and other services 

Take responsibility for attendance issues by participating in local, national, and regional support systems. Identify who is in this group. 

  • Attendance Services, Ministry of Education Learning Support staff, social development agencies, drug and alcohol counsellors, iwi authorities, and other social services may all play a role in working with the students who have the worst attendance. 
  • Develop effective communication systems with these agencies. Ensure daily information flows are working well, as required. 
  • Participate in local attendance initiatives and support any local committee. 
  • Recognise that at the intermediate and secondary school levels, the complexity of working with students who are not attending school is often beyond the resources of your school alone. 
  • Ensure there are means to reintegrate students who have had lengthy absences so the ‘pull factors’ of school can get to work. 

Further information  

Attendance Services is a national service funded by the Ministry of Education. 

School funding sources

Schools receive funding through the Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga | Ministry of Education.

Resourcing: 

  • Operational funding, also called "Bulk Grant" (BG)
  • Staffing entitlements also called "Teachers’ Salaries" (TS)
  • Property: Property funding for capital works and funding for special activities. 

Other types of funding include ESOL funding, the International Student Wellbeing Strategy, Boarding allowances, and other funding for schools and students. 

The Resourcing Division administers operational funding and staffing entitlements, and the Infrastructure Division administers property funding. Schools can also generate income from activities such as fundraising, donations, trusts, or fee-paying students.   

Further information  

Operational funding

Operational funding covers a school’s running costs, including the wages of all non-teaching staff, property maintenance, classroom materials, purchase and depreciation of capital items, leases and rentals, and staff professional development.  

Operational funding is calculated using school rolls and other factors such as the equity index. It is responsive to roll fluctuations. The Ministry pays it directly into your school’s bank account every three months. The amount of the quarterly payments varies across the year.  

Further information 

  • Operational funding – Read a full explanation of the processes around operational funding.

Staffing entitlements

Staffing entitlements are also calculated using a formula. The Ministry pays the salaries of the school’s teachers through the school’s staffing entitlement. The Ministry uses an agency to pay these salaries directly to teaching staff.

As principal, you are responsible for making sure: 

  • the level of school staffing does not exceed the levels confirmed by the Ministry of Education 
  • the specific payments to teachers are correct in terms of their employment agreements. 

Each teacher should have an employment file where pay increases and other relevant information are located and noted through a ‘bring-up’ system. Read the school staffing information on the Ministry of Education website for a clear explanation of regulations and processes for staffing and salaries.  

Further information  

Useful forms and templates

Banking staffing

"Banking staffing" is a process for monitoring teachers’ pay that gives boards some flexibility in timing the use of their staffing entitlement. It is important that all principals fully understand how this works.

In one year, schools can choose to: 

  • anticipate up to 10 percent of their staffing entitlement by using it in advance or going into overdraft 
  • save up staffing to use later in the year—under-using or banking. 

It’s best to start carefully with banking staffing, as schools need to repay any debt at rates that are set each year by the Ministry. These debts can become costly.

Further information  

Keeping the accounts

As principal, you and your board need to feel sure you can account for all the money coming into the school and how it is spent.

Schools or financial service providers generally use a financial management software package to easily generate all necessary reports. This means keeping the accounts involves a data entry process. In small schools, it can be tempting to save money by doing the data entry yourself. However, this is neither a safe nor sensible practice. As a significant community business, it is important that your school pay all money due on time and in full to maintain healthy community relationships. 

GST: Schools usually make GST returns on a two-monthly basis. Make sure staff know that GST invoices or receipts are essential records of expenditure. Invoices and receipts should be given promptly to the person responsible for GST accounting records at the school. 

Attendance dues accounts: State-integrated schools must provide audited annual attendance dues accounts to the Ministry of Education. 

Further information  

Preparing the budget

Good financial practice means managing money and money processes, so the budget is aligned with the school’s strategic plan. Budgeting is an important process that allows for some delegation of financial tasks and responsibilities in larger schools. 

The Ministry of Education has regional financial advisers who are available to provide advice on budgeting in schools.  

Further information 

Reporting on and reviewing school finances

Monthly and annual reporting is a key part of keeping your financial systems secure and successful. Before each board meeting, your financial service provider or executive officer should prepare a management report. This should include the following: 

  • An income statement, a balance sheet, and notes associated with these reports. As a minimum, the reports should include information to date, the budget amount, and the percentage spent. A variance report showing obvious "unders" and "overs" is also recommended. 
  • Bank reconciliation is required for all accounts the school uses. 
  • Progress reports on capital expenditures planned or underway, such as property or ICT purchases. 
  • A financial forecast to the end of the year. This could be a cash flow forecast, which is a good monitoring tool and can be obtained from your service provider. 
  • Banking staffing usage for the year-to-date and planned usage for the remainder of the year. 

Remember, as principal, you and the board chairperson sign off on the annual report. You need to know how your school’s finances work to be able to do this. 

Before attending board meetings, ensure you are comfortable answering the following questions: 

  • Has all income and expenditure been properly reported? 
  • Are capital expenditure purchases reported separately from the regular financial reports? 
  • Does the financial report provide an end-of-year forecast? Is the school on track to meet the budget? 
  • If the forecast indicates the school is not on track, what steps are you taking to rectify this? 
  • Do you know the status of banking staffing—is it under- or over-used? Are you and the board clear on the impact of banking staffing?  
  • Do you have a clear understanding of the cost of both teaching and non-teaching staff? Has this been expensed to the operations grant?

Financial self-checklists

General

  • I know and understand the formal financial delegations put in place by our board. 
  • I know that robust financial structures are in place with our office staff, accountant, and service provider. 
  • I know how money is receipted, how cheques are drawn, where the cheque book is left at night, and where the cash is kept overnight. 
  • I understand the internal financial controls and know the staff is applying them. An order book system is in place. I know how to call in order books if spending gets out of hand. 
  • Our financial filing systems are easy to follow. The process for looking up payment is straightforward. 
  • Financial timelines are adhered to (for example, monthly reporting to the board). All financial reports are available at the board meeting. Before meetings, I read about and understand our current financial position. 
  • I know how the plans for ten-year cyclical maintenance and five-year property funding work, and how the ten-year plan is linked to the budget. (For example, I know that a school is required to budget to keep exterior paintwork up-to-date.)
  • I know about replacing assets and ensuring funds are put aside for this. I plan so that there are no surprises. I review depreciation and benchmark rates annually. 
  • As a primary school principal, I ensure the roll is checked against the operational funding notice after the 1 March and 1 July roll returns.  
  • As a secondary school principal, I know that my school’s operational funding will be reviewed at the time of the quarterly payments.  
  • I know that a roll change up or down impacts the year’s operational funding and will affect budgets. Roll changes will impact future staffing as well. 
  • I do not create large reserves. The money is provided annually for the students and should not be squirreled away unless it has a specific purpose. 
  • I ensure appraisals are carried out for office staff who handle cash and do accounting work. 

Planning and budgeting  

  • I use robust and transparent budgeting processes. These are linked to the charter and strategic plan. Good budgeting also assists with the preparation of our Statement of Variance at year's end, as it is written from the annual goals. 
  • I prepare my budgets in Term 4. A draft is adopted before the end of the year and finally adopted in February or March. 
  • I monitor spending within budget. I know that an overspend in any part can mean disaster, even if other budgets are underspent. I look out for annualised support staff payments, knowing that January can be expensive, even though no staff member is in attendance. 
  • I delegate. A principal can delegate the financial functions to another person but they still have to know what is happening with the finances. 
  • I teach staff budgeting processes so that everyone is involved. 
  • When necessary, I liaise with the service provider. This is a good training source and checking device to ensure all processes are working well. 
  • I talk with the auditor when they visit. 

Policies  

  • I ensure all financial policies are up-to-date and reviewed annually with the board.  
  • I know what a policy and a procedure are. I know not to get bogged down with too many policies when a sound procedure provides the control we need. 

Payroll  

  • I know how to read payroll and banking staffing reports. 
  • I monitor the fortnightly payroll system and keep a record of all staff, pay rates, annual leave balances, sick leave balances, and pay increment dates. 
  • I ensure staff paid from operational funding are paid as per budgets. 
  • I conduct an annual review of the hours of staffing paid from operational funding. I know that a drop of 20 in the roll may mean a reduction in hours. 
  • I ensure claims for relievers and so on are actioned regularly. 
  • I have checked that all people named on the annual Staff Usage and Expenditure (SUE) summary report are on the school’s payroll. 

Further information  

Remember

  • Do not rely on others for financial information. Knowing about school finances is part of being a principal. If you don’t know, ask. 
  • Get to know your financial contacts. Seek support from the Ministry of Education’s financial adviser for your region. 
  • If you have a cash flow problem, call your local Ministry office. It is much easier to help a school at an early stage than to find out when it is potentially too late. 
  • A cash flow concern does not happen overnight and will not happen if good monitoring processes are in place.  

Legislation and employment agreements

Several legal requirements, Ministry of Education regulations, and agreements exist for employment. 

The Education and Training Act 2020 provides the legal basis for all school operations and processes. It established the present systems of governance and management for state and integrated schools. Employment agreements confirm the conditions of staff employment. Each staff member must have an employment agreement. 

Further information 

Payroll

Even a few dollars missed on a payment or, even worse, having to wait for pay can result in financial difficulties for people. This list will help you check that your school is using all the staffing it is entitled to and that your staff members are getting paid. 

  • Confirm the staffing levels determined and paid for by the Ministry of Education. 
  • Confirm who is paid directly by the Ministry of Education from Teachers’ Salaries (TS). 
  • Confirm other staffing determined and paid for by the school board. 
  • Confirm who is paid from the Operational Grant (BG). 
  • Confirm that the full cost of wages and salaries to be paid from the Operational Grant for the year matches budget expectations. 
  • Check the Staff Usage and Expenditure reports to see that all staff have been paid correctly. Their level of pay must fit the conditions of their employment agreement. This includes special allowances, responsibility payments, and any adjustments from a previous pay period. 
  • Confirm that your school’s banking staffing processes follow the pattern you expect. 
  • Ensure pay adjustments for the next pay period are made before the cut-off time laid down by your pay authority. 

Further information 

Appointing staff

Use processes that ensure new staff members are able and ready to help advance school development. This list will help you plan the steps to work through for staff appointments. 

  • Check whether you are able to offer a position and what type of appointment, if any, you can or should make. Use curriculum needs, Ministry of Education regulations, confirmed staffing levels, and school boards’ budget affordances and limitations. 
  • Know and use the school’s advertising and appointment procedures. Ensure procedures meet the requirements of the Collective Employment Agreements. Use NZSTA guidelines to assist. 
  • Be methodical in building a picture of each applicant on your shortlist. During the selection and appointment process, carefully check the background and performance of applicants. Start with registration, contact all referees, ask searching questions about capability, and think of and ask about what has not been stated on paper or in an interview.  
  • Know and use the school's induction processes to help the new staff member adapt to their new place of employment. 

Further information 

Teacher performance

Teacher registration and performance management are parts of the New Zealand school scene. They are confirmed as law in the State Sector Act, Education Act, and Employment Relations Act. You must follow the requirements of these acts and related Ministry of Education regulations and requirements. Be aware of how collective or individual employment agreements regulate some aspects of the Professional Growth Cycle (PGC), attestation and performance. This list will help you to review how you approach individual and team performance at your school. 

  • We have a robust PGC system in our school. 
  • I can use this PGC to understand the qualities of our teachers. 
  • I know and am satisfied with teacher development processes at our school. 
  • I know from regular reviews how teacher development is progressing and how to formulate development goals and strategies for the future. 
  • I know and understand the processes related to dealing with teacher competency issues. 
  • I am prepared to apply those processes to deal with competency issues. 

Further information 

Ministry of Education 

Teaching Council  

NZSTA  

Concurrence

"Concurrence" is the Ministry of Education's approval to offer an employee different terms or conditions from those set out in the collective agreements or the Ministry’s individual employment agreements (IEAs). As boards have the authority to offer extra payments to teachers, concurrence is most often sought for different terms or conditions from principals. Concurrence is not guaranteed, and each application is considered on its own merits. 

Boards can apply for approval (concurrence) to offer extra pay or benefits to a principal who takes on duties and responsibilities outside the scope of a principal’s normal duties and responsibilities. Boards need to show that the extra payment or benefit: 

  • will further the aims of the school 
  • will not put the school at risk of negative publicity 
  • will, in the case of sensitive payments, be no or very little personal benefit for the principal, either actual or perceived 
  • represents the best value for money 
  • is within the board’s budget. 

The Ministry has granted pre-approval to boards for some types of sensitive payments (for example, home internet charges). For all other extra payments or benefits, boards must request and gain concurrence before making a formal offer to a principal. Retrospective concurrence is not granted for past payments for which concurrence has neither been sought nor granted. Reasons usually considered an acceptable basis for extra pay or benefits include management of and responsibility for: 

  • residential or boarding hostel owned by the school board 
  • additional unit or functions that occur across several schools (for example, an alternative education unit) 
  • significant initiative that earns extra revenue for the school and is in addition to the principal’s normal role 
  • a school that is considered an exemplar of practice from which other schools seek information and advice on achieving and maintaining high levels of practice. 

Reasons usually not considered an acceptable basis for additional remuneration include providing: 

  • a performance incentive for a principal 
  • a recruitment or retention incentive for a principal 
  • a personal benefit (for example, health insurance, club or gym membership, private use of a board-owned vehicle, or subsidised housing). 

Further information  

Roles and responsibilities

Principals and school boards have a key governance role in managing school property. Your roles and responsibilities are outlined in the Property Occupancy Document (POD), a legally binding document. They include: 

  • aligning the school’s property plan with the school’s vision 
  • working with a qualified 10-year property plan (10YPP) consultant to develop a 10YPP to ensure your school is well maintained and the physical environment supports your school’s vision for teaching and learning, within budgets provided by the Ministry 
  • complying with current Ministry property policies and requirements 
  • overseeing the day-to-day management of your school property to ensure it is kept in good repair and students and staff have a safe environment 
  • engaging qualified project managers to manage school-led building projects. 

The principal is key to building and maintaining strong working relationships with the Ministry of Education, consultants, and project managers. You are not expected to be a property expert. Your skill is recognising when you need help and knowing where to go to get it. Some schools have board members who do much of the property policy and implementation work. Good use of board members, consultants, and project managers means you can learn quickly about property matters and not get buried in the details. 

Further information 

Ministry of Education 

Property planning

Developing 10-year property plans (10YPP) ensures your school is well maintained and the physical environment supports teaching and learning within the budget provided. The 10YPP sets out the property work to be completed over a 10-year timeframe. The aims of the plan are to:

  • prioritise:
    • work that ensures the health and safety of building and site occupants
    • essential infrastructure work that ensures the integrity and structure of the site and buildings
  • plan for: 
    • modernising learning spaces
    • maintenance work
    • potential changes in roll numbers

  • request additional capital funding, if needed, such as for new teaching spaces for roll growth. If your roll is growing, contact your property advisor.

Ministry support for schools

The property pages on the Ministry website are an essential reference for all new principals and board members. The pages explain the regulations and requirements for state schools and describe the processes to follow in each stage of the property management process. The focus is on state school property, but there is some information for integrated schools. 
  
Key pages for property management include: 

Key pages for health and safety are: 

Property portal 

The Property Portal is where you can: 

  • get information on your school’s annual property maintenance grant 
  • view up-to-date school property data 
  • work out whether your school has the space it is entitled to. 

Ministry property advisors 

Every school has a locally-based Ministry property advisor. They should be your first point of contact for all property issues. A property advisor is available to assist you with any aspect of your property portfolio. Contact your property advisor at your local Ministry office or email the property help desk. 

[email protected]. 

Local ministry office contacts 

Emergency response coordinators 

When you have an emergency that affects property, such as a fire, flood, or earthquake, contact your local emergency response coordinator. They are available 24/7 to respond to property damage. 

Emergency response coordinator contacts – Ministry of Education 

Other Ministry resources 

Te Rautaki Rawa Kura – The School Property Strategy 2030  

Useful forms and templates:  

Planning

Plan your appointments and weekly schedule a week in advance rather than from day to day

  • Add in time for the unexpected. 
  • Establish patterns for regular activities, such as board reports. 

Take a long-term view

  • Sometimes strategic tasks, like a building project, need to be worked on over months. Such tasks need close attention, so plan time for them. 

List long-term and short-term priorities

  • Pin them up for easy reference. 
  • Make all your time decisions with these in mind. 

Anticipate and keep ahead

  • Note how you handle annual routines and think about how you might handle them next time. For example, in dairy farming districts, there can be a significant roll change at the beginning of June, while in other places, enrolments outside the start of the year or at the start of a term often involve transient students or students who have not felt engaged in school. 

Don’t procrastinate

  • Large jobs are more manageable when they're broken into smaller tasks. 
  • Putting off a big task now will only cost you more time later. 

Use a to-do list

  • Most principals swear by these. 
  • Writing down tasks and prioritising them will help focus your time. 
  • Reprioritise as circumstances change, with your long- and short-term priorities in mind. 
  • Don’t use your inbox as your to-do list. 

Set agendas for meetings

  • Prepare in advance to focus meetings on what you need to achieve. Poorly planned meetings waste time.

Administration

Keep the paper moving

  • Every time a piece of paper lands on your desk, do something with it. Either file it to deal with at another time, pass it along, bin it, or act on it. Try to handle things only once. 
  • Be systematic and use your administrative support so you are not the only one who knows where things are. 

Declutter your work area

  • It will make a big difference to your sense of being on top of things. 

Be highly productive in short bursts

  • This gets paperwork done. 
  • Know your own best times for getting things done; use them, and make sure others know this is how you work. 

Control interruptions

  • Try to respond to voicemail and email messages only once or twice a day, if possible. 
  • Identify and maintain 'closed door' times like early morning and after 4.30 pm. Use these as high-productivity sessions.

Delegation

Delegate

  • You don’t have to do everything. Many system processes, such as finance, property, and support staff management, can be delegated. 
  • Get someone else to lead a meeting or write a policy. This also helps to build leadership capability in others. 
  • Delegate effectively to your teachers and, if you have them, your management team, and then leave them to it. They are often better than you at some tasks. Know and trust their capabilities, but make sure they report back to you; delegation is not abdication. 

Trust your staff

  • Control the flow of staff through your door by building their confidence and independence. 
  • Give genuine responsibility and delegated tasks your strong support, even if they are not done exactly the way you would have done them. 
  • Try to reduce any overdependence on your decision-making. 
  • Use even the smallest time allowance to empower your administrative staff to keep routines moving by making decisions within their responsibilities. 
  • Treat these close supporters with respect and consideration, and trust them to do their best for the school. 

Use a team approach with staff

  • Setting this expectation makes it easier to share workloads and reduces the likelihood of having to rework something later. 
  • Regularly discuss teaching and learning issues with others so that the daily decisions and actions they take are in line with school goals and plans. 

Get help

  • If your budget allows, consider employing additional support staff or rearranging their time and responsibilities to free up your time for working on team development, teaching and learning, and relationship building.

Fitting in your learning

Take your learning seriously.

  • As an educational leader, you need to build time for your learning. 
  • At the start of the year, identify the areas of skill or knowledge that you want to improve or develop over the coming year. Make these priorities part of your appraisal process. 

Remove yourself.

  • Successful reflection requires time and space. Some suggest that leaving the school altogether enables better reflection. Even spending 10 minutes away from your desk can clear your head and give you thinking time. Go for a walk around the school and see what’s happening. 
  • Treat reflection time and mentoring or professional learning group opportunities as time-saving activities that develop the capacity of your team and reduce time pressures on you in the long term. 

Refresh your mind.

  • Regularly allocating time for mental and physical refreshment gives your brain the best chance to be receptive to learning and problem-solving. 
  • Investment in refreshment helps increase productivity. 

Access easy links to learning sources.

  • Save learning time by using systems to record or save useful sources that are relevant to your learning. Learning sources can be other people, online, or written. Aim to have access to these sources within a few clicks of your mouse or a phone call. 

Further information

Managing others’ time and agendas

Managing time pressures created by others deserves special mention. Often, priorities need to change to accommodate the unexpected. Phone calls, unscheduled visitors, mail you did not ask for, and even some meetings fit into this category. Staff and board members passing the buck can also be an issue here. 

You’re in charge, so keep things in perspective and don’t rush. 

  • Don’t be forced into quick decisions because of someone else’s time agenda. Say, "I’ll get back to you in an hour (or whatever, but do specify a time) about that." 
  • This is particularly true if you are contacted by an organisation like the media that wants a response to something. They can wait. You need to think things through. 

Close the open door sometimes

  • Parents and visitors do not always need to see you. Use newsletters or an email tree, managed by another staff member, to educate the wider school community about who to contact about things. In larger schools, a secretary can direct visitors elsewhere. 
  • Principals in small schools often find much of their release time taken up with scheduled and unscheduled appointments. Try to educate your community that there are times when you are simply not available, except for emergencies. 

Listen and focus

  • Active and critical listening is crucial; practise it frequently, as it can save time. 
  • Tell people how much time you have available, and give them a time that suits you. "I have set aside 20 minutes (for example)—is that okay with you?" 
  • Specifying a length of time means you can focus on what they have to say and, hopefully, they will be able to be concise in their message. 

Keep responsibilities where they should be

  • Always help staff and board members solve their problems, but stick to the delegation principles above.

A final thought

Accept that you will never have all the time you want. Aim to schedule as much of your time as you can. Maintain reasonable working hours.

Heading