Doing the Right Thing

Wouldn’t it be great if you didn’t need a lengthy job description for your role but could summarise it entirely by the four words: Do the Right Thing? In my role as chair of a MAT, I was recently working on the pages and pages that provide a job description and person specification for a new CEO, prior to the assessment day conducted entirely through Zoom. Writing the JD was a pretty feeble attempt to make the world stand still for long enough to capture exactly what the leader of our organisation needs to do and be. Of course, the document ends up like an appeal for a superhero. You cannot write a precise algorithm (sorry to bring up the A word) for managing a complex organisation which is constantly adapting to the changing environment around it. But maybe you can say to someone who is keen enough and skilled enough to take on the role: just do the right thing.

Such a lot is assumed in that statement. It means that in every circumstance, the leader has to make a judgment from the options open to her, and choose the right one. Do I admit a child whom I recognise will soak up a lot of support in the early days, but probably thrive in the longer term? Do I allow a timetable to go ahead where I know that Year 6 have maths lessons at unorthodox times of the week, because that is the only time that my part time (but competent) maths teacher can teach them? Do I suspend a child for bullying, even though their parents are just about to make a sizeable donation to the new arts block, which will benefit all the other pupils? Do I insist that the head of football be more inclusive in his selection of team players, because that is more in keeping with the values of the school, even though he says that they’ll lose their place as league champions as a consequence?

And the list can go on and on. The world is changing rapidly, and the leader must be better and better informed across a wide range of subjects, particularly in times of crisis. How do I ensure I treat contracted and non-contracted staff fairly without causing a cash crisis? How do I sort the honest hard working parents from those who have a history of claiming poverty despite driving swanky cars, when it comes to offering time-limited fee-furloughs?  Get it wrong, and you’ll soon enough notice the abuse on Twitter or Facebook. Get it right and, apologies, you’ll probably still be criticised. Leading a school, or group of schools, is all too often akin to walking a tightrope, trying to keep the needs and expectations of increasingly factionalised parties in balance.

Please let me depress you just a bit more before I bring any joy. Once you are able to start thinking more expansively, rather than managing the mature phase of the current crisis, how can you do the right thing when it comes to creating a cleaner environment for the people impacted by your establishment? Consider the following:

The worst impacts of climate change will be irreversible by 2030

The 20 warmest years on record have been in the past 22 years                                                               

More than a million species are at risk of extinction from climate change

Insects could vanish within a century at their current rate of decline

Two-thirds of extreme weather events in the last 20 years were influenced by human activity

Schools, organisations and the government should now be looking to prioritise actions which create a low carbon future. The Covid19 crisis has given us a brief snapshot of what a future climate crisis could look like. We need to act, and this recovery can provide a starting point.

When I left my role as CEO of The Key, I had a very vague notion of what I wanted to do next. At 57, I felt too young to retire. I studied for a professional certificate in Coaching at Henley Business School, which took about nine months. I had many cups of coffee with various organisations that wanted to have a chat. I ended up being persuaded to help two organisations that are both bang in the middle of the carbon reduction movement.  It has made me realise how I used to think all this stuff was tree-huggery and rather fringe. Now, I see it as a fundamental aspect of what we are doing in schools.

If we are to do the right thing, then we should lead the sprint towards reducing carbon emissions. I encourage you to consider the following:

Without paying (of course), get your lighting audited to find out how you can improve its efficacy in every area of the school and find a means of paying a monthly service charge for newly-designed and installed lighting rather than having to fork out on a large capital outlay. Estimate by how much you are going to reduce carbon emissions and get your pupils involved in this. Compare this to something tangible like trees, so they can get a sense of the scale of what you are attempting. I know a primary school in Walton on Thames that has become completely carbon neutral. The organisation I have been working with in this regard is eLight.com. I like the fact that they are a listed company, design a bespoke solution for each school, and use the best lights on the market. They are not always the cheapest, therefore, but their solution will last longer than those of competitors. I’m also delighted that I persuaded them to take into account the current financial pressures that many independent schools are under, and schedule payments in the most flexible way possible.  I should point out that there are other companies out there that are also trying to lower carbon emissions in schools. Just choose wisely. 

Reduce your Carbon Footprint with better lighting. Doing nothing shouldn’t be an option.

Educate parents to realise that driving a single child to school each day is hugely polluting. Putting them on buses or coaches is far preferable, where one vehicle can take forty plus children. For an organisation that manages route planning, coach choice and driver-checking, think about Transport2.com, which uses a clever app to keep parents informed as to where the bus is at any time, and where their child is in relation to it. Better still, get children to walk or cycle. Encourage staff to do the same. Get nerdy about cycling: make it attractive and impressive, just as you have tried to do with reading.

Find a way of permanently raising the agenda of carbon reduction in the minds of your parents and staff, so that they are all looking out for how to push their own houses towards carbon neutrality. Just before the lock down, we had solar panels installed on our roof at home and yesterday our Tesla battery app told us that we provided 100% of our electricity directly from the sun. It made me feel pretty good about what we were doing for the planet. Imagine if you could do a deal with a local company to enable many of your parents to use sustainables in this way, for a discounted price.

I am not a member of the Green Party. I wear leather shoes. I fly when I go on holiday. So, I’m not your typical advocate of pushing a carbon reducing agenda. But I passionately believe that this is what schools should be leading. When they do so, they are doing the right thing.

For more information on eLight visit elight.com or email [email protected]

The transport solutions company (I am no longer involved in this) can be found at https://www.transport2.com/