Journey of a principal

So holy moly...I survived...in fact I really have to be the luckiest human ever! It is week 5 and I have no idea how we got to halfway through the term already.  It has been a rollercoaster of a ride...with huge highs and some moments of whoah..this is too much! From dealing with a school in debt and then realising that yes I have inherited debt...but unfortunately I need to get more in debt as some systems aren't in place and some health and safety needs action NOW! To the realisation that there is no system, organisation or action around areas like appraisal, assessment and self review Tie all that together with building relational trust with a staff that have been damaged due to the nature of what has happened for them over the past year and boy am I exhausted ......my 15 year old daughter said to me via Skype the other night...wow mum you look like hell...those bags under your eyes are nasty! and she is right...I am pooped. As my family are still in Auckland and I am

Wow...what happened there! It is now go plus 4 days and I think I have lost 4 days of my life..it has all blurred into what feels like only a couple of hours! Monday was my first official day and the first thing that happened in the morning was the most lovely Powhiri I have ever attended. The students at my school have such a clear understanding of their heritage and connection with their area...I am very lucky to be leading a school like this! Since Monday I have been surrounded by a miasma of paperwork as I madly try to get up to speed. The trick there is to make sure I have ...do now...do later...and WTF as my filing system! I have also had so many lovely people come into the school to welcome me to the area...it reinforces my faith in educational and other leaders. I have also gotten to be in classes with my students...and what a superb bunch they are...makes all the paperwork so worth while! We have also had more team building exercises to bond me and my team together..

So there is 6 days to go till I legally take over the reins....and at the moment I am running around trying to get up to speed with budgets, property works, planning, organisation and a completely lacking H and S system I feel a lot like a thunderbirds puppet...wanting to focus on the big aim...teaching and learning....but some puppeteer is pulling strings that mean I need to focus on admin a lot at present! Still, I guess once I have knocked these systems on the head we can then get back to the fun bits:) At the 6 day mark I am also drafting and re drafting my speech...need to make sure I stick to a script...something I am notoriously bad at...but I'm pretty sure my usual...feel the vibe and then wing it philosophy is probably not appropriate! I am also doorbell watching waiting to see if a bottle of water from my river in the UK will make it through customs so I can mix it with the water from all my students rivers on my Powhiri day...something I have never encountered in

Running my first Teacher Only Day! I had a bit of a crisis about this....It's my first school and I am desperately excited about implementing all I have learnt on my leadership journey...the good stuff...not the bits that make you think " what the hell!!" Then I stopped and thought...I remember along my journey when a principal came in and on the first staff day derailed everything that we had spent 3 years creating. On top of the stress we had been through over the past few years this was a step too far and with hindsight I think this was the nail in the coffin that saw that principal resign two terms in! Because they hadn't gauged the situation, didn't stop and think " how do my new staff feel? what have they been through? what do they want/ need at this point? So despite my burning urge to run ahead and start to implement everything I know is needed in my utopian dream school.....I didn't! I entered it around my staff...what did they need? What

The thunderbirds seems to represent how I feel at the moment as I start the 16 day countdown to officially leading learning at my first school as principal! Though the paperwork has started already!! I've been at my new school twice this week to begin connecting with my team, meeting students and joy of joys writing contracts! It was the contracts that caused me to finally realise, holy heck, I'm a principal... when I finished the contracts and went to turn to my principal to get a final check... and realised... oh yes, that's me!! Lucky I'm a systems nerd so I'm damn sure they where correct:) It was a bittersweet day today as I did a last day of work in one of my favourite schools. But the excitement of the journey to come won the day. Now the hard work will start ! Thunderbirds out