At the very start of the school year, there was a big staff reshuffle at my school, which resulted in an opening for an Acting Executive of Student Wellbeing for half a year. Prior to this opportunity, I must admit that I had never given much thought about being a ‘head teacher’ before. My passion has always been teaching and helping students. I’ve always thought that by being an Exec, one would have less contact with students and perhaps even lose touch with the exact reason for becoming a teacher in the first place – to teach! I thought ‘Executive’ was somewhat synonymous with ‘admin’ and ‘paperwork’.

So why did I apply for the job then?

There were a few reasons:

1) I’d been working in Student Welfare for a while already as a year coordinator and had a good idea of the job description.

2) If there was ever going to be an Executive position that allows GREATER contact with students, it was going to be Student Welfare!

3) I knew it was only temporary and chose to see it as an opportunity for a new experience knowing that I wasn’t locked into it. A taste test if you will.

So, I sent my application in and within a few days I was informed that I had been successful.

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry because even though this is my 7th year of teaching, I still feel like a beginning teacher and the title of ‘Executive Teacher’ next to my name for some reason seemed ridiculous and frightening to me all at the same time.

The position ended up lasting for about three terms and I learnt a lot of things about myself, leadership, and communication in this time.

I learnt that I am a lot tougher than I gave myself credit for. Prior to the position, I had always seen myself as a pretty passive person. Seven months later,  I consider myself as very assertive. I had to make difficult decisions in situations where there were no solutions that would please everybody, and I had to stand my ground with students, parents and staff when necessary. I also learnt to at least try not to take things home. Like any welfare position, it can be incredibly emotionally draining. At times I found it really difficult to separate the plight of the student from my own life after school but I quickly realised that it’s essential in order to maintain my own wellbeing, otherwise I won’t be much help to anyone.

As a leader, I learnt the importance of making everyone on the team feel valued and included. I took this simple lesson for granted at the beginning because I had so much faith in every person on the team. I knew they were all very competent in their positions and at the beginning, I just let everyone do their thing. It didn’t take long for me to realise that regardless of how well people can do their job, a team is NOT a bunch of individuals working by themselves on separate things. A team is a bunch of people collaborating together, supporting each other and communicating with one another with a positive rapport. I never realised until then, all of the little things that my previous and current head teachers had done to make us feel valued, included and supported.

The position I was in required me to communicate with not just staff, parents and students, but also a lot of community groups, organisations and local authorities. I got the chance to meet a lot of great educational leaders at various conferences and was inspired to start the Positive Education Initiative (*insert shameless plug here* Facebook / Twitter) so that I can reach out to other teachers who are passionate about school wellbeing around the world.

It’s been a heck of a year but the 12 hour days at school and the endless admin was worth every second. I feel like I have grown as a teacher, a leader and a person through this experience and I would do it all again in a heartbeat.