A survey I undertook into the interaction between school business leaders and their governing body has shed light on how few SBLs work with their governors to monitor standards and outcomes for pupils. Worryingly, a significant number of SBLs reported ‘irregular practices’ in their school or academy trust ranging from concealing bad news from governors …
Continue reading "Survey sheds light on SBL and Governor relationships"
I read two things yesterday that both moved me to respond to them – but they contained such different views that the only place I could start was Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities and it’s famous opening lines: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age …
Continue reading "A school business leader’s cry for help"
This is the text of the opening address I gave in place of Stephen Morales at the final NASBM Annual Conference (NASBM becomes the Institute of School Business Leadership tomorrow). It has had minor edits to make it suitable for reading but is 98% ‘as delivered’. The slides appear in the text at the …
Continue reading "Professional Prominence: opening address from the last NASBM conference"
Election Outcome What a week it’s been. We now have a minority Conservative government which will need alliances and compromises to achieve a working majority. It looks like the Democratic Unionist Party have the whip hand in these negotiations for the time being. Inevitably this will temper some of the policies and plans the Conservatives …
Continue reading "SBM Roundtable and election reflections"NASBM has confirmed the timeline for its conversion to the institute status and has announced that the new Institute of School Business Leadership will open its doors on the 20th November 2017. Conversion to Institute status is the latest development for the school business leadership profession and is designed to promote and further professionalise the …
Continue reading "Launch date announced for the Institute of School Business Leadership"
It’s time to celebrate the concept of public service and to encourage our some of our brightest and best graduates to serve in the wider public sector beyond Whitehall and the Civil Service Fast Track programme. I want to see able young men and women follow me into school business leadership. But administrative careers are …
Continue reading "Serve First (an SBM equivalent of Teach First)"
All over England, school business management professionals are worried. They want to know if they will have a job at the end of the year. Each day brings a fresh round of claim and counter-claim about the pros/cons of a fully academised school system. Is there a future for single-site school business managers? This is not …
Continue reading "Is there a place for the single-site school business manager in a fully academised system?"This is the recreated text of an off-the-cuff speech given to close the National School Business Management Awards in London last week http://www.theguardian.com/national-school-business-management-awards-2015 Wow! What a wonderful profession school business management is. It has been wonderful to have so many iterations of the profession here today; from primaries to special schools, academies and secondary schools, …
Continue reading "School Business Management is an amazing profession"