Designing a Future Focused Leadership Team

Designing a future focused leadership team was one of my first priorities when I was appointed as Foundation Principal at Matua Ngaru.  We know that having the best people, committed to the "ubiquitous learning, on a wave of change" vision is essential to our success.  I had discussions with the EBoT at the first board meeting I attended and all were in agreement that we wanted to appoint our Deputy Principals as soon as possible.  Fantastic!  But wait there's more.  Reflecting on my learning from establishing Ormiston Primary School as a foundation Deputy Principal, I made a pitch.  My pitch was based on creative ways to recruit Lead Learning Coaches for Term 4, 2018.  Why?  Because time for induction of the leadership team and educators needs to be a top priority and a huge takeaway for me from my time at OrmPS is that you need time to induct well.  So my rationale was to recruit two Lead Learning Coaches (LLCs) in addition to the Deputy Principals (DPs) all to start in 2018.  I worked with the Board, our governance facilitator and staff at the Ministry to use our establishment year staffing creatively.  My hope was for one DP to start in Term 2, one DP to start in Term 3 and the 2 LLCs to start in Term 4- effectively costing us the equivalent of one educator for one term.  So we designed our recruitment process with Cognition Education as follows:

For DPs:
What we did:

• Advertise in the gazette with an application pack that included a job description and person specifications
• Shortlist to 6-8 with EBoT using a ranking matrix
• Visit applicants in their current school
• Informal meet and greet at cafe
• Shortlist again to 4-5
• Final Interview and presentation with EBoT and Principal
• Letter of Offer signed and Appointments made

What we noticed: that we had a diverse range of experience and expertise in our candidates. Because it was so important for us to design a team of complimentary skills, personalities and experience we looked closely at how each demonstrated leadership capability and capacity, genuine enthusiasm for the role and a proven growth mindset.  We found that our process gave us multiple 'performance pieces' to critique and learn about our shortlisted candidates and the school visits and informal coffee sessions were very valuable components of our decision making process.  

Our appointments: we were thrilled to offer the positions to:

• Wendy Ness, an experienced DP and acting principal from Henderson Primary School who demonstrated a passion and committment to leading a future focused school with proven experience partnering with community, leading the learning of educators and advocating powerfully for all learners
• Kirstin Anderson-McGhie, an experienced Vertical Team Leader and Connected Educator who demonstrated a growth mindest and committment to lifelong learning along with influencing change for learning with digital technologies, trialing innovative approaches and championing her learners and colleagues

For LLCs:
What we did:

• Advertise in the gazette with an application pack that included a job description and person specifications
• Shortlist to 12 with EBoT using a ranking matrix
• Collaboration evening: applicants to conduct a personality test and participate in the NZCERs Curriculum for the Future game with 3 Board trustees acting as the Panel, Principal and DPs acting as ethnographers/observers and candidates randomly placed in 4 teams of 3 each representing one of the curriculum options:
1. Competencies Curriculum
2. Co-developed with Learners Curriculum
3. Artificial Intelligence Curriculum
4. The Localised Curriculum
• Shortlist to 5-6 with EBoT
• Visit applicants in their current school
• Final Interview and presentation with EBoT and SLT
• Letter of Offer signed and Appointments made

What we noticed: that we had a room full of high quality, invested candidates.  The passion and enthusiasm that each candidate demonstrated was truly amazing.  Again, the multiple performance pieces, along with references, painted a picture for what we could anticipate.  We needed to balance this with ensuring our team had the depth and breadth of skills required for leading change within our expected junior heavy school.

Our appointments: our leadership team design completed when we appointed our successful applicants:

• Heike Micheel - an experienced educator who successfully moved a team towards innovative learning pedagogies in a traditional school with 5 and 6 year olds in a team of 4.  A proven learner herself and an agent of change who has provocated and advocated for collaborative learning approaches, Heike, who hails originally from Germany, absolutely enhances our SLT with her junior expertise
• Michael Davidson - a global educator, Google Innovator and MakerEdNZ initiator has been a mover and a shaker when it comes to innovative learning approaches and integration of STEM in NZ schools. Michael is a Canadian who is passionate for how digital technologies can leverage the learning and amplify learning experiences for all of our learners.

Update: Lastly, in Term 2 we advertised and appointed our Office Administrator.  This is a person who has a role pivotal to the Strategic Leadership Team and the Board was thrilled to appoint Amanda Culverwell who has a passion for learning, a love for learners and a commitment to our school.

and so we are the ... Matua Ngaru #DreamTeam:                                          

			Office Administrator:   ~Amanda Culverwell Principal:   ~Diana Wilkes Deputy Principals:   ~Kirstin Anderson-McGhie & Wendy Ness Lead Learning Coaches:   ~Michael Davidson and Heike Micheel Learning Coaches & Support Staff: ~TBD

See the advertisements here.