It has been interesting this week to work with individual senior staff in a school around working with an exceptionally tricky parental situation. This work has arisen from some training that I have been doing for schools and Trusts around communication with families.
We should never underestimate the challenge that senior staff, particularly headteachers/principals feel when handling challenging situations with parents/carers - it is a lonely job sometimes.
The Finding Common Ground project, coupled with long experience of senior management in schools, has given me a good understanding of these issues and a great deal of empathy for the pressures that come with them (on both families and school staff). My work on the project has principally been directly with families and then in training education professionals, but if there are other individual senior staff who would benefit from a confidential listening ear and perhaps the chance to run through potential solutions, then please get in touch.
Interestingly, when I started Finding Common Ground a year or so ago, a colleague suggested that this kind of support would be a really good idea - maybe she was right? I shall wait and see!
James Harris
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