On 2nd April 2026, I bid a very sad farewell to the place I didn’t think I would leave. Manchester Communication Academy (and Manchester Communication Research School) had been my professional home for nine years and I can honestly say I loved it. Then one day, a friend said to me ‘Why don’t you just have a look at Hathershaw College, I think you’ll love it there too.’
And as they say, the rest is history. On 20th April I walked into Hathershaw College as the new Principal; filled with pride, excitement, nerves and an anticipation of what was ahead.
Hathershaw College is an 11 – 16 comprehensive school in Oldham. The school has been open just over 70 years and so is well established in the community with many of our current parents or wider family of students also attending Hathershaw as students. Many of the staff at Hathershaw are also fiercely loyal with the majority of staff being employed at the school for over 10 years. They are experienced, knowledgeable about the students and the community and, as I discovered really quickly, at their collective core is their care for those they serve.
Any new principal will embark on a process of change and I was quite quickly figuring out which elements of school we could develop, improve or even change. I knew that if any of this was to be successful, we needed to consider careful and effective implementation.
In my previous role as Director of Manchester Communication Research School, I spent lots of time with the EEF’s School’s Guide to Implementation. I think it’s fair to say I knew it well. However, what I realised quite quickly is that revisiting this through a new lens-as a principal, in a new school and a new context-meant that I needed to access it and use it differently.
The guidance emphasises the importance of three main leadership behaviours:
In my previous role in school leadership, I leaned into these and I felt confident in my ability to adopt these behaviours. However, when I revisited these through this new lens, what I soon reflected was that the ability for a leader to engage people, unite people and enable them to be vulnerable enough to reflect relies on a foundation of trust and really strong professional relationships. What I felt was a strength in my leadership, suddenly felt a bit fragile.
Here was the lightbulb moment; I might be ready to start some school improvement work and introduce some changes but anything I do here will be futile if I don’t build the foundations first. I needed to begin to build those effective relationships and establish some trust. I needed to listen, to be present and visible, to have a clear vision that made sense to those that knew the school well. I needed to learn from the other experts around me. This was going to take time.
I realised that these learning behaviours that I thought I knew how to do well, I needed to relearn how to enact in order to meet my new colleagues where they were. I needed to adapt and consider the following questions:
How do I present a vision quickly to demonstrate my leadership whilst also making sure I know enough about the school and its community to inform a vision that is relevant, meaningful and engaging?
Which is the right priority to pick first? If I get this wrong, those who know the school and the community better than me (about 160 staff) will lose faith and rather than uniting with me will disconnect?
How do I facilitate reflection, which is a behaviour that can make people feel vulnerable, in a space where they feel safe and secure enough to do so when they don’t know me well enough yet to know how I will respond to any level of quality assurance and evaluation?
We know as school leaders that we often need reminding to slow down but we also know that colleagues are looking to us to see what we are going to do and what difference we are going to make.
I don’t have the full answers to these questions yet but I have decided to prioritise the following:
Do the research and keep doing the research about the community. Before I started, I looked at the demographic of the community and the cohort demographic. I found out the statistics-not just the big headlines but the detail. I made sure that staff knew I was bothered and I cared about Hathershaw. This was the basis of a vision-it meant something. Now I continue to engage with community partners and I ensure I talk to families each week. Context is king.
Listen as much as possible. Have meetings, have lots of corridor conversations, see things in actions and ask for people’s take on it. Test ideas by bringing initial thoughts based on your own monitoring and enable collaborative development. I don’t know all the answers but others are looking for me to have the answers without being over confident. I also know that what worked elsewhere won’t necessarily work here. So I aim to rely on evidence-informed practice; I am familiar with the evidence base, I have some experience, I can evaluate what I see here but I can also draw on the knowledge and expertise of those who know this school well and bring their own expertise and experience.
Find the thing that is already taking root and has the potential for impact with some additional acceleration and focus. For me, this was our T&L toolkit; the green shoots and the intentions are there and we are now focusing on fluency and consistency. Refocusing on this through increased communication, professional development and feedback has allowed us all to unite around a priority that already exists.
Whilst I was born and grew up in Oldham and know the town fairly well, what I have realised is that understanding context is really about understanding the nuances and the detail. Effective evidence-informed practice and the implementation of that relies on this nuanced knowledge of place and people.
I am making it my mission to learn as much of that as quickly as possible but I am so grateful to be surrounded by other leaders and colleagues who have that in abundance. They are so generous with their professional knowledge and their personal kindness. They are brilliant, as are the students and community I am now privileged to lead. Every day is filled with warmth, curiosity and joyful interactions. Some might say I have been rewarded with a new hello and my friend was right, I do love it here too.
