Life coaching ‘can be vital aid to help stressed-out headteachers’
LIFE COACHING has been heralded as vital to aid stressed-out headteachers after new research by Yorkshire academics revealed that increasing numbers of schools are struggling to fill their most senior posts.
Heavy workloads, isolation and the relative inexperience of many of those being appointed to the top positions have all been cited as reasons behind the recruitment crisis, according to the study by Leeds Beckett University academics.
However, having evaluated the results a 12-month initiative which saw a group of headteachers receive coaching to improve their work-life balance, the researchers now believe it could play a key part in improving retention rates.
Principal researcher, Professor Rachel Lofthouse, said: “The emotional support given to these headteachers helped them to negotiate what one described as the ‘everyday quagmire’ of the job.
“Given the nature of school budgets, many of them recognised that it might be regarded as a luxury. However, having seen themselves the impact it had, they all felt it should be seen as a justifiable investment in the system.”
Almost a third of headteachers now leave their post within three years and often the deadline for an advertised position passes without a single application.
Patrick Murphy, speaking on behalf of the Leeds branch of the National Education Union (NEU), said: “As a result of the severe problems schools are facing in recruiting school leaders, it is now common for governing bodies to go through two or three recruitment rounds before appointing a headteacher.
“One result of this is that heads are increasingly being appointed at a relatively young age and at a much earlier point in their careers than in the past. This makes it all the more important that effective support, coaching and mentoring is readily available to new and early career heads. Stressed, overworked and struggling heads will invariably create a stressful environment for other school staff and for children.”
A NEW report has called on the Government to support overwhelmed headteachers as it struggles to address a recruitment and retention crisis in the nation’s schools.
Researchers at Leeds Beckett University evaluated a year-long project by Integrity Coaching that provided one-to-one support for headteachers.
They found the coaching programme helped headteachers cope with increasingly demanding roles, which were having a significant effect on their well-being, work-life balance and capacity to drive school improvement.
Principal researcher Professor Rachel Lofthouse, from the university’s Carnegie School of Education, said: “Headteachers give so much of themselves to support teachers and to make a positive impact on children and young people, and yet they experience some of the highest levels of stress in the system.
“At a time when the challenges in the education system are becoming acute, it is essential that we find approaches which support school leaders and allow them to contribute to sustainable school cultures. This research demonstrates that specialist coaching can make a real difference in the professional and personal lives of headteachers.”
The research comes in the wake of a much-publicised recruitment crisis which has resulted in many schools struggling to fill senior leadership roles.
A survey carried out by the National Union of Head Teachers last year claimed that the number of schools with vacant headteacher positions had risen to the highest level in four years. It said that more than a quarter - 27 per cent - of schools could not fill top positions at all last year – an increase from 12 per cent in 2017.
Official figures from the Department for Education also show that almost a third of school leaders are now leaving within three years of taking up the post. Of the secondary school headteachers aged under 50 who were appointed in 2013, 31 per cent had left by 2016, while one in five primary school headteachers quit their posts over the same time period.
The new report is the first of its kind to explore the relationship between coaching, well-being and leadership effectiveness amongst senior school leaders.
While none of the headteachers who took part in the research are named, two of those who contributed described their school year as being “turbulent”.
Another said: “In my own experience of headship, I felt extreme isolation and loneliness and I always had a sense that I was going to be judged.”
Viv Grant, director of Integrity Coaching, said: “We have now reached a point in the well-being debate where we must recognise that the personal and professional development of headteachers go side by side.
“Too many good headteachers either leave the profession early or burn out because the needs of the person in the role are ignored.
“Coaching is an essential lifesupport system for our school leaders and must be recognised as such, if we are to enable more of our heads to stay in the profession for the long haul.”
The Headteacher Coaching Programme, funded by the National Education Union (NEU), has run for the last three years.
The latest year-long programme involved 39 head teachers from across the country, ranging from new heads to those with more than 15 years of experience in their leadership role.
Coaching is an essential lifesupport system for our school leaders. Viv Grant, director of Integrity Coaching.