MiP Conference: “Empowering everybody” is the key to effective change, says super head

Wendy Hick, head teacher at Cranmer Primary School in Mitcham, south London, gave an inspiring talk to delegates about how real staff engagement and a positive, reflective approach can turn struggling organisations around surprisingly quickly.
Hick helped her previous school, Manorfield Primary in Tower Hamlets, escape from special measures and achieve an “outstanding” rating from Ofsted in less than eighteen months.
“Normally, people go in and take a troubleshooting approach, they look to get a quick fix,” Hick told delegates. “I took a very different and more considered approach. I thought what am I going to do to raise the morale of the staff at this school?”
“Our main focus was not to look at what was going wrong, but first to look at what was going right,” she explained. “I think that was the crux that really changed their perception of me as a leader, and of the approach that I was going to take. I could immediately see it from their body language.
“It’s fair to say Ofsted and the local authority were surprised by my approach,” she recalled. “But when they started to see the impact it was having – and quite quickly – they turned their views around. And they’re now starting to use that approach in a lot of other schools.”
Related News
-
Managers paying a heavy price for 3.6% NHS pay rise, says MiP
Most NHS staff will get an annual pay rise of 3.6% after the government accepted the recommendation of the NHS Pay Review Body. But board level managers are set to get less and doctors more under pay awards announced today.
-
It’s your future: our guide to consultations in your workplace
As yet another round of reorganisation gets underway in the NHS in England, our new guide to workplace consultations will help you to help yourself, support your colleagues and protect the services you manage.
-
MiP responds to the abolition of NHS England
Government risk repeating same mistakes as Lansley by abolishing NHS England and cutting more staff from ICBs, says MiP.