The good, the bad ... and the plain weird
Copying Clint isn’t enough: heads should be ‘odd’, says Wilshaw
First he said the best headteachers should picture themselves as Clint Eastwood’s characters in his spaghetti westerns, “fighting for righteousness”. Now Sir Michael Wilshaw has more outlandish advice for budding heads.
If you are to succeed as a school leader, according to the chief inspector of Ofsted, you have to be a little bit “odd”.
The tip came in a speech this week to members of Future Leaders, a programme that places young, driven teachers in senior leadership roles. Sir Michael, the former principal of Mossbourne Community Academy in Hackney, East London, told them that as well as being a “lone warrior” who is capable of “fighting the good fight”, it pays for heads to be “strange”.
To illustrate his point, Sir Michael referred to a former colleague of his who had an unconventional method of catching pupils who were misbehaving on the bus to and from school.
“A lot of his children used to be bussed in from Essex, and there were occasional behavioural problems on the bus,” the chief inspector said. “This head used to dress up in disguise, put a false beard on, a floppy hat and dark glasses.
“He would jump on the bus he thought the kids were messing about on and he would gradually disrobe to reveal his true identity.”
While Sir Michael was not encouraging his audience to don flat caps and prowl buses, he did argue that the best heads think outside the box. “Don’t be afraid to be slightly maverick,” he said. “Do things out of the ordinary; don’t necessarily be a conformist. Strange is sometimes good. The best heads are often quite odd people - I think I was one of them.”
It is not the first time that Sir Michael has encouraged heads to do things their own way. He previously likened himself to the Clint Eastwood character Dirty Harry, after spending years as a headteacher in some of East London’s most difficult schools and being forced to “sort out” their problems.
In a different speech last year, he chose another example from Eastwood’s repertoire - that of a gun-toting wild west character - to suggest that heads construct a “tough guy” image. The country, he suggested, needed heads who showed “more ego” and were not afraid of exercising their power.
“Take that scene in Pale Rider when the baddies are shooting up the town, the mists dissipate and Clint is there,” he said at the time. “Being a headteacher is all about being the lone warrior, fighting for righteousness, fighting the good fight, as powerful as any chief executive.”
Sir Michael was once described by education secretary Michael Gove as his “hero” for his impressive feats at Mossbourne. During his time at the academy, it recorded impressive results, with more than 80 per cent of pupils gaining at least five good GCSEs. It also became synonymous with strict discipline, a hard-line approach to uniforms, no talking between lessons and even a “no hugging” policy among pupils.
Sir Michael’s success at Mossbourne prompted one last piece of advice for his audience of aspiring heads this week. “My message is: don’t be afraid to apply for a headship in a school that requires improvement,” he said. “If I was in your position, I would like to go into a school like that, and if you’ve got anything about you, you should too. This is where you can make the biggest difference.”
Comment (11)
The man's a nutter.
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16:28
13 July, 2012
irishaxeman
Perhaps you have to be really odd to be chief inspector of ofsted. But then again we knew that anyway !!
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18:53
13 July, 2012
lucky16
Note that his hero role models are all MEN; he doesn't even acknowledge the existence of female Heads; most likely doesn't approve of them. Sexist nutter!
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19:11
13 July, 2012
Clodia
He is right. All great leaders have an 'oddness' to them. We don't follow boring people.
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20:09
13 July, 2012
leehadley
In my experience those who appoint heads took his advice years ago. What we need are heads with people skills
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8:23
14 July, 2012
MarkRussell43
Right turn, Clyde.
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10:56
14 July, 2012
MrReindeer
I worked for a head who was different and had some brave ideas, to give credit where it's due. But headship is a position of great power and if that person is in the role for their own personal gain, the damage they can cause amongst staff is untold.12 teaching staff left in two years and this ex-colleague remains the most wicked person I have ever met.
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16:06
14 July, 2012
charlie2004
We don't need anymore 'nutter' head teachers and I agree we need head teachers with people skills who can pass on those skills. It is important when dealing with members of the public, work colleagues as well as media. I am not so sure that the staff left behind have standards or principles. Worrying of all work ethics have gone out the of the window long ago i.e. downtrodden support staff.
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17:02
14 July, 2012
Cautious50
How about a head who told OFSTED to stop bullying his/her staff, agreed with staff publicly that there was more to life than flogging the pupils until they 'deliver', allowed pupils to pursue their dreams and not just Gove-worthy subjects, and got inspiration from real geniuses like Albert Einstein who said: "Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything one learned in school." Now that would be really odd.
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22:02
14 July, 2012
Septimus_Lestrange
Most heads have very little people or teaching skills, they got promoted away from teaching. If the Head of the school is the best teacher in the school they should be teaching.
Any read how Mossbourne academy managed so well,triple filter selection and a strict get rid of policy. If every academy got rid of its bad students and every other school was an academy where will all these students go????
Maybe all the private school could take them in and show all us state sector teachers how its done. All these heads that rush to become academies are doing this because they feel it is best for the students or that they can increase their own pay????
Any Head out there that really is a maverick or odd ball lets see you fight the system. That what Dirty Harry and most of Eastwoods films were about.
Viva the revolution.
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23:41
17 July, 2012
archiescout
Just so tired of old men in suits telling us that they were the best and we gotta be like them to succeed.
My head is female (very), positive, a great people person and not in the least odd. She is not egocentric either...
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17:43
18 July, 2012
jjlester