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Product reviews for Brave Heads
Mike Butler, Chief Executive, Djanogly Learning Trust, Director of the Independent Academies Association
Brave Heads, the latest book from Dave Harris, works as both a very useful handbook full of practical tips that any new headteacher would be wise to adopt, and a timely reminder to more experienced leaders about what matters most in leading schools. For both, it emphasises the perennial privilege of being a headteacher, namely that one is a driver of change that benefits children and communities.
The book takes a refreshing look at both the challenges and joys of leading a school, describing the bravery needed by a headteacher in respect of: facing up to external political imperatives; the design and delivery of the curriculum; the choices one makes aimed at securing both short- and long-term success; the leadership styles one may adopt at different times; and the wealth of research into school leadership that can have real-world relevance and application.
In the first section, Harris describes the inner conflict that can be experienced by headteachers, when, as a public servant working within a system often determined by politics, what one is required to do runs contrary to the values-driven leadership one is attempting to model; it is what some would term existential angst, occasioned by being forced to act in bad faith, against one's own beliefs and empirical knowledge about what is right. The paradox is also evident in Harris's own writing. He acknowledges that for the headteacher, every day is an act, is about adopting a persona for effect, even suggesting at one point that all heads should need an Equity card to do their job properly. He writes that, -˜The good leader-¦is marked out by the way in which his or her internal rollercoaster of self-doubt, negativity and sheer desperation is rendered invisible to the outside world'. He defines bravery as -˜the individual's ability to maintain high external optimism at times of lowest internal optimism'. Yet in the section specifically on leadership, the repeated mantra is -˜Be yourself'! (Although, even this position is perhaps playfully undermined!)
Harris's writing often models and reflects the kinds of leadership behaviours he espouses. Some of his admissions and deeply personal accounts are searingly honest, such as when he describes his suffering from a stroke whilst at work, this anecdote and others providing very real examples of the vulnerability, self-knowledge and willingness to be self-effacing that he argues later in the book are essential qualities of successful school leaders. Yet he skilfully avoids becoming morose or depressing when dealing with often very dark subjects, such as the almost constant sense of fear and anxiety which brave heads must face and overcome, because his writing is riddled with humour and a keen sense of a liking for the bizarre and the absurd, even for occasional silliness. Again, this is all part of the plot: Harris wants us to remember that, whilst educating children is a deeply serious endeavour, people of all ages learn best when learning is fun. All of these qualities, epitomised by the often squiggly, quirky, hand-drawn illustrations (no highly-polished glossy this publication) add to the sense of integrity and authenticity.
The reader should not be surprised at this realism, however, because Harris has walked, and continues to walk, the talk. When he writes about innovation, or the need to engage the local community, he does so from a position of authority, having headed up not only one of the country's first 3-19 all-through school settings, but also the very first academy to be sponsored jointly by business and a university, both establishments rooted within communities suffering from significant levels of deprivation and low aspiration. In fact, for this reader, the book is a poignant reminder of one of the original stated aims of the sponsored city academies movement, namely to make a significant contribution to local community regeneration.
Full of dichotomy, the work itself shifts seamlessly from the intellectually erudite, epitomising what Harris refers to as the -˜informed leader', to direct, pithy advice for practical strategies and coping mechanisms. Indeed, once again, this approach demonstrates the author's point: research evidence and pertinent, high quality information (as opposed to just data) collected within the school, should be used in conjunction to develop and deliver the most appropriate school improvement strategies. For Harris, such strategies are often -˜big' in scale: the projects are big, the posters are big, and so is the ambition. -˜Aim for the sky' he implores as he outlines the twin-track approach to sprint (short-term) and marathon (long-term) improvement measures.
And it is in sticking to his own beliefs, informed by the research of an enquiring mind, through thick and thin, far more than in some of his near-cynical critiques of the current powers that hold sway, that Dave Harris has demonstrated his own bravery, epitomising the aphorism that -˜education is fundamentally an imaginative act of hope '. And if the author has one message, and, indeed, if I have a message for the author, it is this: -˜Keep acting, imaginatively and hopefully', because our children and communities continue to need Brave Heads.
The book takes a refreshing look at both the challenges and joys of leading a school, describing the bravery needed by a headteacher in respect of: facing up to external political imperatives; the design and delivery of the curriculum; the choices one makes aimed at securing both short- and long-term success; the leadership styles one may adopt at different times; and the wealth of research into school leadership that can have real-world relevance and application.
In the first section, Harris describes the inner conflict that can be experienced by headteachers, when, as a public servant working within a system often determined by politics, what one is required to do runs contrary to the values-driven leadership one is attempting to model; it is what some would term existential angst, occasioned by being forced to act in bad faith, against one's own beliefs and empirical knowledge about what is right. The paradox is also evident in Harris's own writing. He acknowledges that for the headteacher, every day is an act, is about adopting a persona for effect, even suggesting at one point that all heads should need an Equity card to do their job properly. He writes that, -˜The good leader-¦is marked out by the way in which his or her internal rollercoaster of self-doubt, negativity and sheer desperation is rendered invisible to the outside world'. He defines bravery as -˜the individual's ability to maintain high external optimism at times of lowest internal optimism'. Yet in the section specifically on leadership, the repeated mantra is -˜Be yourself'! (Although, even this position is perhaps playfully undermined!)
Harris's writing often models and reflects the kinds of leadership behaviours he espouses. Some of his admissions and deeply personal accounts are searingly honest, such as when he describes his suffering from a stroke whilst at work, this anecdote and others providing very real examples of the vulnerability, self-knowledge and willingness to be self-effacing that he argues later in the book are essential qualities of successful school leaders. Yet he skilfully avoids becoming morose or depressing when dealing with often very dark subjects, such as the almost constant sense of fear and anxiety which brave heads must face and overcome, because his writing is riddled with humour and a keen sense of a liking for the bizarre and the absurd, even for occasional silliness. Again, this is all part of the plot: Harris wants us to remember that, whilst educating children is a deeply serious endeavour, people of all ages learn best when learning is fun. All of these qualities, epitomised by the often squiggly, quirky, hand-drawn illustrations (no highly-polished glossy this publication) add to the sense of integrity and authenticity.
The reader should not be surprised at this realism, however, because Harris has walked, and continues to walk, the talk. When he writes about innovation, or the need to engage the local community, he does so from a position of authority, having headed up not only one of the country's first 3-19 all-through school settings, but also the very first academy to be sponsored jointly by business and a university, both establishments rooted within communities suffering from significant levels of deprivation and low aspiration. In fact, for this reader, the book is a poignant reminder of one of the original stated aims of the sponsored city academies movement, namely to make a significant contribution to local community regeneration.
Full of dichotomy, the work itself shifts seamlessly from the intellectually erudite, epitomising what Harris refers to as the -˜informed leader', to direct, pithy advice for practical strategies and coping mechanisms. Indeed, once again, this approach demonstrates the author's point: research evidence and pertinent, high quality information (as opposed to just data) collected within the school, should be used in conjunction to develop and deliver the most appropriate school improvement strategies. For Harris, such strategies are often -˜big' in scale: the projects are big, the posters are big, and so is the ambition. -˜Aim for the sky' he implores as he outlines the twin-track approach to sprint (short-term) and marathon (long-term) improvement measures.
And it is in sticking to his own beliefs, informed by the research of an enquiring mind, through thick and thin, far more than in some of his near-cynical critiques of the current powers that hold sway, that Dave Harris has demonstrated his own bravery, epitomising the aphorism that -˜education is fundamentally an imaginative act of hope '. And if the author has one message, and, indeed, if I have a message for the author, it is this: -˜Keep acting, imaginatively and hopefully', because our children and communities continue to need Brave Heads.
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03/12/2012 00:00
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