ABSTRACT
Motivating people around a vision often requires challenging staff and students with high, even tough, expectations. This can demand courage and a readiness to take risks. A new head had been appointed to turn round Pendre High School, a failing school on a large, deprived housing estate in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales.2 The academic performance of the school was poor. The staff-for all their disappointment-comforted themselves with the thought that with such poor material to work with they were unlikely to do better. The issue of standards came up at a staff meeting, and the usual excuse for poor results was given. The head was furious. In the words of one teacher, ‘He tore into us and pointed out in no uncertain terms that we were letting the kids, the school and ourselves down. If we expect nothing, we shall get nothing,’ By the end of the following year the results were dramatically better. Morale had improved, new and more flexible learning projects were in place and staff and students had begun to feel good about themselves and each other. The head had taken a lead. He had risked a showdown with his staff on a matter of principle and the risk was rewarded with success and mutual appreciation. He had shown how it is necessary to ‘walk the talk’. Leadership of this kind is about citizenship and it is infectious. It spreads to other people.
