Champions, Ambassadors and Lifesavers

The Power of Support

“I’m helping put a man on the moon”

- response by a janitor to President Kennedy’s question about what he is doing to help NASA (1962)

How should we refer to our support staff?  Tricky. Some schools use the following:  support, business support, auxiliary, admin, office or non-teaching.  None feels right because they are all too broad.  They undervalue the vast range of support roles in schools, without which they could not function.  Support staff keep the ship afloat.  They see the school through different lenses, they champion the school – or otherwise – in the community, they interact with pupils, parents, carers and colleagues throughout the day and they carry out a huge body of work which is often largely unseen.  Support staff are able, skilled, multi-talented and enormously powerful.   They should always be dealt in, valued and respected.   The importance and value of support staff becomes increasingly evident to those moving up the leadership path.  They are invaluable, indispensable and deeply woven into the fabric of a school’s culture. 

One of the many problems with the word “support” is that it encompasses too diverse a range of roles.  Here are just a few examples that the term is often used to include:

·       Premises and site management

·       Pastoral care, student welfare, wellbeing, mental health, behaviour management, counselling, safeguarding, student records, parental meetings and multi-agency conferences. 

·       Administration in all aspects of the school, registration, attendance, admissions, midyear admissions, medical information and health visits, staff and pupil records, staffing, reprographics, finance, recruitment, compliance, health and safety and more.

·       Data management both of students’ performance data and school information management.

·       Business management, commerce, value for money, revenue and expenditure and leadership of a huge team. 

·       IT management – administrative, technical maintenance, ordering, replacement and installation, as well as curriculum and network. 

·       Learning support – classroom teaching assistants, one-to-one support, personalised learning, tutoring, mentoring, liaison between home, school and departments. 

·       Catering.  This is hugely important to pupils (and staff), particularly in times of poverty and concerns about nutrition and health. 

This list is not comprehensive nor exhaustive.  It is a snapshot of functions we group too loosely as “support”. 

Much of the focus of a schools’ development is on learning - and rightly so.  However, learning and the roles above are inseparable.  One can learn much about the culture of a school through conversation with support staff.  What they do or don’t say is illuminating.  Support staff are intrinsic to the success and wellbeing of a school.  Where there is a strong sense of belonging, identity, value and purpose, the power is unstoppable. 

Here are some tips to support a high-functioning and effective support team. 

·     Appreciation. Recognise the importance of every role. Take time to introduce all new colleagues and provide a warm welcome

·     Wins. When school results are published, thank all individual members of staff for their vital input. 

·     Gratitude.  Thank staff for their work. For example, at the start of each term, thank the premises, admissions, finance and IT teams for the work they completed over the “holiday”

·     Recognition. All staff contribute to the learning environment and personal growth of students and staff.  Be sure to highlight this. 

·     Team unity. Eliminate “us and them”. 

·     Team purpose. Staff meetings are for all staff.  Missions, goals and vision belong to everyone. 

·     Belonging. Deal people in.  Share goals, information, updates, progress and milestones and celebrate them. 

·     Progression. Encourage and enable career development.  This includes promotion and working towards professional qualifications.  Recognise that many support staff are already highly experienced and qualified and may have chosen their current role because it ties in well with work-life considerations such as family holidays and childcare.  This will mean more to a person than you may have expected.

·    Fun.  Organise team events, social events, staff celebrations, teambuilding, Secret Santa, team fitness challenges and off-site activities.  All too often we focus on outcomes and destinations at the expense of the journey.  It is fun that adds sparkle to the school experience.  Bring in motivational speakers and activities that will appeal to all staff

·    Laugh. Enjoy humour and know when to use it.  Be modest and humble in this.  See the funny side and allow your own pride to be ribbed occasionally.  Be prepared to laugh at yourself.

·    Foster togetherness. Provide good quality coffee, cakes, fruit and other refreshments. Welcome feedback from all staff. Walk the school and talk to people, in all roles, frequently and sincerely.  

·    Be visible.  Walk the talk.  Help out in holidays or with putting out chairs or breaktime duties, for example.

·    Be approachable.  Instead of a hierarchical top-down approach, a sign of weakness and fear, be part of a distributed pattern of leadership in which listening and empathy are highly valued skills. Your door may not literally be open but you can make it easy to find time for anyone who needs it, by appointment.

·     Be considerate.  Give enough run-in time for events and don't underestimate the work required. Follow a calendar of significant events as far as possible.  This helps to prevent gluts of workload or last-minute panics over recruitment, for example. 

·    Care.  People can have the most appalling stresses and tragedies in their lives.  Listen to staff, with equal attention to the needs of support staff.  Wherever possible, try to support and grant the personal requests.  This will demonstrate appreciation and understanding. 

All of the above pays dividends.  In return for a respectful, kind and caring approach to support staff, you will feel a strong sense of satisfaction and reward.  On a practical level, support staff may save your skin in a crisis.  During an inspection, they will go the extra mile.  On open evenings, parental conversations, summer fayres, concerts and performances and across the many functions that exist outside the school day, colleagues will step up, support and champion.  They will be on-message ambassadors both inside the school and within the wider local community.  If something is wrong, they will step in, ask how they can help and pull together to meet any challenge, regardless of adversity.  However strong and efficient a school’s leadership, there are occasions on which crisis management becomes unavoidable.  This is when the strategies above, and the goodwill they foster, will really pay off.  One can only look on in bemusement at a person who is rude to support staff.  It is a folly which sorely underestimates the power of support.  For the wise, who value and appreciate the power of a support team, life is easier and more enjoyable.  For the school and organisation as a whole, the journey becomes infinitely more successful, productive, harmonious and fun.