ABSTRACT

In a school with many departments and areas of work, it’s easy for some people to be below the radar of the senior leadership, unnoticed and unknown. And yet there’s no need for it to be like that. Many head teachers make a point of walking their whole building regularly – once a week, maybe more, maybe less, but it’s the regularity that counts. Sometimes, though, I suspect that they’re taking more notice of the building – a crack in the wall here, some chewing gum on the carpet there – than they are of the people working in it. To that extent, I wonder if a virtual tour of the building plan might not be just as useful. You sit with the plan, you put your finger on every room or space and you say to yourself: ‘Who works there? What’s their name? Who is their line manager? When did I last have a discussion about them?’