The Hasmonean head who likes to keep on her feet
HAYLEY GROSS took a “bit of a jump” in January when she moved from being head of one of the youngest Jewish primary schools in London to take charge of one of the oldest.
As founding head of Sacks Morasha in North Finchley, which opened in 2008, she was able to help mould the school from scratch.
Now she is in her first term at Hasmonean Primary in Hendon, which celebrated its 70th anniversary in 2017.
She left Sacks Morasha with “fond memories. I was incredibly happy in my time there. As a head you have a certain shelf life and I don’t think you can be there forever.”
When she was scratching her head to find a home for reading books at Sacks Morasha and it was another staff member who came up with the solution, she thought to herself, “Goodness, it’s time for me to go — I’m not having the ideas any more.”
Now she has come to a school with a strong sense of legacy, which she acknowledged when she invited her predecessors Alan Shaw and Jenny Rodin — who clocked up more than 30 years in the head’s chair between them -— to talk about it on the recent founders’ day.
As a head who naturally wants to put her own stamp on a school, she has had to acclimatise to the Hasmonean way of doing things and “decide if they are right for me”.
For some of her time at Sacks Morasha, she combined her role with being part-time head also at Moriah in Pinner, where she learned “what fits one school doesn’t necessarily fit another. I’m not looking to change things if they don’t need to be changed, that would be silly, but there are some changes in place”.
While Hasmonean enjoys a settled staff — “a newbie is considered someone who has only been here four or five years”— she has found them “welcoming and open to new ideas, so it’s positive”.
With schools more conscious these days of mental health and wellbeing, one of her first innovations is “a lunchtime hub for children who can’t cope with the playground. We’ve had advice that some children who go into the playground have the same fear and adrenalin rush that they have being in a car accident. We’re going to have a hub every lunchtime run by senior leaders for children to have that breather and have that space.”
As for curriculum development, she is focusing this year on history, geography and computing skills, looking at the way they are taught and how children progress in skills and knowledge from the nursery to year 6.
Refurbishing the key stage one area is one hope.”I’m going slow on big projects in terms of spending a lot of money, but there are a few things up my sleeve. It’s like when you move to a new house, you’ve got to live in it for a bit until you work out what you want to do to it.”
She is also looking at “rebranding” the school. “It has a persona of being a bit old-fashioned and stuffy and we want to change that, it doesn’t reflect what is going on… Let’s change that impression.”
She certainly does not intend to be a desk-bound head. “I want to know what’s going on in the classroom, I’m often wandering around, I want to be there for the children and the staff.”
But when she is in her office, “my door is open, I am encouraging children to come in and chat to me. Year six come in weekly to talk about issues that concern them or their work. Being an open and listening school, that’s what we are promoting.”
During her first few weeks, she found herself having to take the odd class with staff away isolating because of Covid. “I’ve been in reception, I’ve been in year four, it’s a really good way of getting to know the children,” she said.
Despite the enforced absences, in general “it’s been very manageable here”. Early morning and after-school catch up classes run for children whose education suffered during the disruption caused by the pandemic.
There is one thing that Hasmonean has in common with Sacks Morasha: both are one-form entry schools (although Sacks Morasha a few years ago became part of the Jewish Community Academy Trust).
Some in the educational world believe that with all the financial pressures, the viability of these type of schools may be open to question.
But she is firmly convinced of their place. “I love one-form entries. I led one, I have come deliberately to another one. As a head I want to know the children and the journey they are on. I like to keep an eye on everything.
“If you are in a bigger school, the headteacher is sometimes more removed from the teaching and learning aspects of the school because they do have a bigger school to manage whereas I always wanted to be at the heart of it and know what is going on.”
My door is open, I’m encouraging children to come and chat