The Secret Teacher: Few principals have the training and experience required to manage a large organisation

Spare a thought for all the individual lives behind the headlines reporting stress in school principals. Recent years seem to have brought a serious downturn in the quality of their working lives. I don’t remember this featuring as a media story prior to Covid, and anyone with a heart truly felt for school leaders during the pandemic.

Despite the fact that nobody anywhere could know for certain what was for the best, principals were expected to lead and guide school communities while devoid of any certainty that what they were doing was in fact “right”. Guidelines they received from higher authorities frequently came late or had already leaked out before they had their official word. Families who needed answers looked to principals, who did their best to reassure while they themselves queued up for answers. The Covid years were not a happy time for anyone in school leadership but we had a sense of how hard it must have been. A global pandemic is anything but an everyday occurrence, and while we may have desperately wanted principals to have answers, we knew why they didn’t.

Once firmly intertwined, Covid and principal stress have now undergone a shift in terms of their place in media headlines: as Covid has faded into the background the stresses and strains of being a principal have a regular slot at the forefront. This is sometimes because it weaves its way into other topics, most prominently now the teacher shortage, but it is nonetheless most definitely a news story of its own.

[ The Secret Teacher: Ryan, a hard-living 17-year-old, is scratching his compass on the desk. He is crying out for warmth and affection ]

One study came just as primary schools were closing and secondary schools finished hosting the State exams. School leaders’ duties around timetables, planning and recruitment were put on hold as they shut down the screens and switched off mentally. If only the latter of those could happen as smoothly and as instantly as the former does. Nonetheless it was finally time for senior management to join their teaching staff in being off the premises for a few weeks.

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The data for the research, released in early summer, was collected by an Australian university for the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals and the Irish Primary Principals Network. Its contents were horrifying, and I do not write that lightly.

Findings for post-primary leadership included that 64 per cent are experiencing burnout due to stress (typically 34 per cent in the general healthy working population). Some 40 per cent reported requiring prescription medication in 2022 (compared with 18 per cent in a 2015 survey).

Is it time to look to the many capable individuals in other sectors? Could it be that hiring more broadly would actually be of enormous benefit to schools?

This alone paints a stark picture and it only becomes more worrying the more we explore. The questions we need to ask may seem harsh, heartless even, but not to pose them is unthinkable. The research findings reveal a real need that cannot be ignored. We start by exploring how it is even possible that such an overwhelming number of principals share the same struggle. We know we are making tangible progress when action is being taken to do something about it.

Are adequate support systems in place for principals? Is the job description at fault? Perhaps a combination of the two if the role has evolved and changed with the times without adequate provision being made for emerging needs.

Is the fundamental problem in fact the broader leadership structure in schools? On paper, it looks as though schools are well provided for in terms of middle leadership teams, but typically these posts are in addition to full teaching timetables so perhaps there is a shortage of time and resources at that level.

If the on-site support structures for principals are not strong then they may feel they are working in a vacuum where neither the higher power external support nor the in-house post of responsibility structures are meeting their actual needs as the person in charge of the organisation. Because that is what schools ultimately are. They are organisations with budgets and personnel, and few principals have the training and experience required to easily manage a large organisation.

[ The Secret Teacher: Binary thinking is wrecking young heads ]

Which leads to some of the more delicate questions: are those in the roles adequately equipped with the qualifications and personal skills required for the job? And given that there is an increasing shortage, isn’t it increasingly problematic to turn away the only interested parties even if there are doubts about their suitability? Are we setting the bar high enough – or broadly enough – in terms of what we seek in prospective candidates? Is it time to look to the many capable individuals in other sectors? Could it be that hiring more broadly would actually be of enormous benefit to schools?

Nobody thrives under a stressed-out principal. That is not even up for discussion. Decisions taken by those suffering from stress, burnout, anxiety, depression, etc, do not carry any less weight and yet they may be highly questionable. Clarity of thinking and effective decision-making are inevitably impacted, meaning that many parents, students and teachers are currently subject to decisions made under these circumstances.

And when it comes to what we ask of our principals, all stakeholders have a role to play in not wasting their time or adding unnecessarily to their burdens. Perhaps we need to look at how we may be contributing to the statistics and the symptoms behind them.

Or perhaps we don’t. Maybe the harshest perspective of all is the one that points out some of the key skills in the new junior cycle. “Managing myself” and “staying well” are two of immediate relevance here. Whatever the external factors and however severe the lack of available supports, we each have a fundamental responsibility to look after ourselves.

There is no more effective way to convey this to the youngsters in our care than to model it.