In preparation for the final blog of the academic year, my third in post as Principal, it dawned on me that I had to be near the 1,000 day mark of my tenure.

I was right - as of today, I’ve just hit 1,028.

1,000 days is quite a substantial landmark and is often used to describe the initial stages of life - it makes a good first staging post when comparing the time which has represented my ‘first steps’ as leader with the first steps of a newborn.

According to thousanddays.org, “The first 1,000 days are a time of tremendous potential and enormous vulnerability. How well or how poorly mothers and children are nourished and cared for during this time has a profound impact on a child’s ability to grow, learn and thrive. This is because the first 1,000 days are when a child’s brain begins to grow and develop and when the foundations for their lifelong health are built.”

In many ways, the College, or any educational institution for that matter, should be seen in a similar light. The tremendous potential - of student growth and progress - is what drives us to do more and work harder for them. The enormous vulnerability - of the million and one things which could go wrong - is, sadly, ever present.

I’ve regularly discussed the transformation I’ve overseen as Principal at EIC.

When I first became Principal at Ealing, numbers were trending downwards, we were in the midst of a debilitating pandemic and, if I am being brutally honest, the long term future for the institution was not at all secure.

Three years on and a great deal has changed:

-Our pre-recruitment period retention figures for 2023-2024 at the moment are more than the total number of students we were able to get in 2020-2021 or 2021-2022;

-Astute staff recruitment has led to continued stability in terms of teaching and learning, a more efficient and welcoming office environment and a continuation of the preservation of the strong student-staff relationships which we pride ourselves on;

-Within the Bellevue group, our stock has certainly risen given our sound organisational structures and processes.

Recently, a group wide survey highlighted the levels of staff satisfaction at the College - this is something I’ve worked very hard to establish and maintain, and it’s something which was outlined a long time ago to me as a core principle of successful leadership. When I embarked on the Bellevue Emerging Leaders course back in 2016, the opening speech by the CEO at Bellevue, Mark Malley, extolled the importance of getting ‘the right people on the bus’ and in keeping them there.

I was delighted with the results when I calculated our Net Promoter Score amongst staff, following the results of the survey:

When asked the question as to whether staff would recommend the College as a good educational institution to the friends, family or prospective parents, our net promoter score (promoters (9 or 10/10) minus detractors (0-6/10)) was 33.3 (53.5%-20%).

When asked the question as to whether they would recommend the College as a good place to work, our score, applying the same formula, was 26.7.

Within such an analysis, a high NPS (Net Promoter Score) is 30.

-100-0 = Needs Improvement

0-30 = Good

30-70 = Great

70-100 = Excellent

Incidentally, when applying details from the Parent Survey, that score is 53.4%-15.5%, which is 37.9, also in the 'Great' zone.

It is always prudent not to get complacent with such scores in mind. 

I know staff are content, motivated and committed to the College, but I always feel it vitally important to identify, through consultation, their views on how we are doing, what we need to do next, and their opinions on how best we can get there.

I’m really looking forward to receiving the results, and refining College priorities for next year, fresh from a very productive Governance meeting this week, where initial plans were suggested and the agenda set for an exciting period of further change. Staff recruitment, retention and buy-in is truly fundamental to our survival. I want them to feel as much a part of the College as I do.

Of course, I’m very fortunate to be able to say anything of this nature. 

I read, with interest, a couple of tweets this weekend. The first, by Adam Boxer, stated that “recruitment *anxiety* at the start of the year is now *panic*. A fully staffed science department for September is now the exception” and showed the short to medium term vulnerability in the profession. 

The second, by Kevin Courtney, expressed, perhaps more worryingly, the long term catastrophe which appears to be unfolding: “From a friend - Warwick Uni have less than 50 PGCE students enrolled for 23/24. My cohort in 16/17 was about 300-350. Those numbers are for the entire cohort by the way, primary, secondary and early years.”
 

We’re not impervious to these nationwide issues. It took three very dedicated attempts to successfully get a Business Studies teacher who was the right fit, and we’re lucky to have found two new members of staff who are joining us at a time when demand for places at the College is growing. Both teachers, I am sure, will enhance our offering but the fragility around the ability to get staff ‘on board’ is palpable.

I’m feeling extremely glad that we are off the TES jobs merry-go-round, but, as of today, there are still 11,742 jobs in education still to be filled on the website - and it’s very late in the academic year to be finding suitable candidates.

It feels very much like we are out of the mire which many less fortunate schools find themselves in, but that needs to bring with it the desire to strive for excellence as opposed to just being happy with how far we’ve come. It’s hard to maintain the necessarily high levels of positivity - but we simply have to do so.

A new building and redecoration of the College in the summer will, I’ve no doubt, bring with it a great deal of momentum, but this needs to be capitalised on. We’ve never been the sort of College which values cosmetic change as much as what actually goes on day by day in the classroom, but there is no denying that an uplift in the environment generally brings a certain sense of positivity. I know that the only way we can keep the level of sentiment amongst staff where it needs to be is through a relentless drive to keep their jobs manageable, to support their wellbeing and to support them in whichever direction they want their career to go.

There are good teachers out there and the fact remains that, increasingly, there are not going to be enough in the future - but we must find them, encourage them to train, and look after them when they qualify.

Schools and Colleges, along with the education sector as a whole, have endured a really difficult year, with the pressure seemingly growing more intense - but we must keep pushing for better, however we can.

We owe it to the students whose lives we are trying to enrich.