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LeadSpace home > Knowledge area > Managing your school
Knowledge
Managing your school
This section is where first-time principals can find practical guidelines, developed by the LeadSpace facilitators, which give step-by-step advice on how to deal with a range of school management-related issues. Guidelines can be downloaded as PDF files. More guidelines will be added over time.
Making a good start
Overview
Making a good start in a new school is very important for principals; first impressions do matter. This guide offers some suggestions that will help you to:
- make the first terms as positive as possible
- avoid major problems
- develop good processes for the future.
It includes case studies from graduates of the First Time Principals’ Programme, and some useful references to follow up.
Making a good start (PDF 1.15MB)
Annual financial reporting
Overview
Providing an annual financial report is part of being accountable for how public money is spent. Such reports show how a school is funded and from which sources. As a new principal it can be a challenge to know what is required and what the timelines are for getting things done. This guide will help you to:
- make a success of this annual requirement
- avoid major problems in the school’s financial accountability.
It includes a case study from a graduate of the First Time Principals’ Programme, an examination of some of the problems and issues you might have to deal with, and some useful references to follow up. A month-by-month timeline is included in this guide.
Annual financial reporting (PDF 1231KB)
Facing the time challenge
Overview
Managing time effectively is a major issue for school principals, particularly for those who are new to the role. Prioritising, setting time limits, and making judgements about what can be safely left to one side are all skills that develop with experience. Early on though, it’s easy to become bogged down by the many transactional tasks that make up a school day, only to find that you have no time left for the important things.
These time management suggestions have been summarised from an online discussion about time challenges, held by a group of New Zealand secondary school principals.
The principals grouped time challenges into three areas: managing yourself; fitting in your own learning; managing others’ time agendas.
This guide will help you to:
- establish priorities for dealing with the time challenges that compete for your attention in the course of a school week
- apply simple, broad principles for managing your time effectively.
Facing the time challenge (PDF 1.05MB)
Dealing with complaints
Overview
Holding a leadership position inevitably means that you will find yourself receiving and dealing with complaints. These could be complaints that you have to deal with on behalf of another person, for example, a staff member; or they might be about you and/or the school in general. Complaints will vary from minor to major and may escalate rapidly from one to the other if they are not managed in a manner that is both timely and appropriate.
These dealing with complaints suggestions have been summarised from an online discussion about complaints held by a group of New Zealand principals. This guide will help you to:
- apply simple, broad principles for dealing with complaints effectively.
Dealing with complaints (PDF 347KB)
The primary principal’s year
Overview
Because the school year is so busy, many primary principals find it useful to develop a month-by-month overview of what’s ahead. Developing this kind of overview helps to highlight priorities and enables a balance to be maintained between these key elements of your work:
- building relationships
- vision and strategy
- applied decision making
- school operating systems.
This guide will help you to:
- organise your school year so that all tasks are managed and all deadlines met.
A Word document is provided, in addition to a PDF, so that principals can customise the overviews.
The primary principal’s year (PDF 417KB)
The primary principal’s year (Word 68KB)
The secondary principal’s year
Overview
Because the school year is so busy, many secondary principals find it useful to develop a month-by-month overview of what’s ahead. Developing this kind of overview helps to highlight priorities and enables a balance to be maintained between these key elements of your work:
- building relationships
- vision and strategy
- applied decision making
- school operating systems.
This guide will help you to:
- organise your school year so that all tasks are managed and all deadlines met.
A Word document is provided, in addition to a PDF, so that principals can customise the overviews.
The secondary principal’s year (PDF 420KB)
The secondary principal’s year (Word 79KB)
Understanding school finances
Overview
This “just in time guide” provides aspiring and recently appointed principals with information about school financing and resourcing. Because it is not a set of rules or regulations you also need to refer to the specific Ministry of Education regulation and/or legislation when you are applying financial procedures in your school. It covers:
- Sourcing general financial information
- School funding sources
- Keeping the accounts
- Preparing the budget
- Reporting and reviewing school finances
- A financial checklist
Understanding school finances (PDF 415KB)
Understanding school employment
Overview
This “just in time guide” provides aspiring and recently appointed principals with information, weblinks and scenarios that relate to school employment. It aims to expand your understanding of school employment processes and links this aspect of school management to leading learning.
The scenarios offer opportunities for reflection, discussion, carrying out research in your own school, and developing an employment portfolio. Using them will also help confirm that you are able to apply regulations and requirements in terms of the relevant legislation. As the leader of learning, you are always seeking the best appointees for your school. You need to use processes that ensure new staff members are able and ready to help advance school development. This “just in time” guide contains the following parts:
- Legislation and regulations
- Getting the payroll right
- Appointing staff
- Individual and team performance
Understanding school employment (PDF 825KB)
Leading your school’s learning environment: Engagement
Overview
This “just in time” guide encourages thinking and leadership action about learning engagement in your school context. In particular:
- Your school, engagement, and NAG 1
- The culture of learning in your school
- Engagement levels – students, staff, and parents
- Creating the new – not just solving the problems
This guide contains scenarios that will support discussion and action about engagement.
Leading your school’s learning environment: Engagement (PDF 79KB)
Leading your school’s learning environment: Attendance (presence)
Overview
The principal has a central role in leading student attendance (presence) processes and issues. Attending to students’ presence (and engagement) are key underpinnings for achievement – a good attendance system needs to be in place before quality learning can occur.
This guide looks at:
- Presence and absence in New Zealand schools: The administrative requirements
- Your school – attendance as it is now
- Engagement and attendance – getting beyond just data collection.
Leading your school’s learning environment: Attendance (presence) (PDF 94KB)
Leading your school’s learning environment: Curriculum design and review
Overview
This guide offers suggestions for actions principals can take as they lead work with their schools to review and confirm their curriculum. The checklists link The New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) with sets of actions suggested by experienced school principals and the Pedagogy section of the draft document Kiwi Leadership for Principals (KLP 2008) to confirm a range processes that support leading learning.
Leading your school’s learning environment: Curriculum design and review (PDF 134KB)
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