We are delighted to bring you a series of interviews from a range of inspiring and emerging leaders in the Schools and Education sector to consider what is and what can be done to expand talent pools at senior executive and non-executive levels. We look at barriers and opportunities and look at how both individual passion and collaborative engagement can make the development and nurturing of talent a standard approach across the sector.
Each interviewee has generously and honestly shared their reflections, hopes and advice for those succeeding to leadership in the sector over the next decade. For our first interview, we are grateful to Emma Taylor, Warden and CEO of the Dean Close Foundation for sharing her insights with us.
Emma, you joined Dean Close as Warden in 2017. Previously Head at Christ College, Brecon, how does this role differ and what challenges or opportunities does it bring as a result?
The roles are very different. Effectively the Warden’s role is akin to an Executive Head in a Multi- Academy Trust or Group. There’s a business element that is more concentrated than in a stand-alone school.
At Dean Close each Head takes responsibility for the educational provision in their school and I have business responsibility across all of them. There is a difference here in terms of the type of relationships this requires. A Head will know a much larger number of pupils and parents, but not in depth. Part of my job is to keep out of the Heads’ way, so they are the person in the spotlight in their schools.
In my role I have between 12 and 20 much deeper relationships. The pupils and the parents in each of the individual schools won’t really know who I am. I don’t stand up every day in front of the school, giving assemblies or inspirational speeches. There are occasions when I will provide training or undertake public speaking when a strategic lead from the front is required. But it’s nowhere near as frequent and this makes it a much lower ego job.
I support the Heads, share my skills and bring my experience to bear. I think of it like coaching, to make sure they feel really comfortable with what they’re doing. That takes some of the risk out of it for them and also for the organisation. I was quite green and only in my late 30s when I went to Christ College, and that was daunting. In our organisation the Heads have an experienced former Head to talk to right from the beginning of their tenure.
This model is different and it wouldn’t be for everyone, but I do believe it’s the way of the future and we can see groups forming all over the place.
However, I would say that our regulatory and compliance structures, as well of organisations such as the Independent Schools Council, the HMC and the Independent Schools’ Bursars Association haven’t all worked out what to do with groups yet or how to treat the Head versus the CEO in these organisations. I hope they catch up soon because that can create difficulties.
If we could project ahead by ten years, what do you see the sector doing and prioritising?
Ten years is a very long time in my view. Strategic plans used to be every five years and now they’re every three, because we’ve now all experienced things that were so far down our risk register, such as the pandemic, but suddenly became the most important thing in our lives and approach.
I think that has taught us that we all need to be a bit more flexible and resilient. We need to think about the business requirements, and the finance which is under a huge amount of pressure with very small margins in some schools. I think the safety of scale and expertise in a group structure is becoming more appealing and lots of schools are starting to see that. The ability to share central services right through to much more fully fledged mergers in the group model is definitely a threat for some independent schools.
Teacher recruitment in some subject specialisms is becoming a significant problem, not just in independent schools, but in the state sector especially. We need to think about how we can make teaching and leadership roles within education more appealing to people, with less risk of burnout or impact to family life. This is just about recruitment but also retention too. We need to make sure that we get really great people and hold on to them. Other professions are managing to do that, so it can be done. Flexible working is pretty significant for this and we need to consider that, certainly much more so in a post-Covid world.
Of course, there are economic and political challenges too. As we now know the independent and private sector will be dealing with VAT on fees. Most schools have been gearing up for that and planning their strategic approach for handling it. We expect that most schools will survive the first year and after that, there will be a significant impact as parents react to whatever fee increases they’ve had to bear.
There also continues to be a number of issues for the young people too and I see this remaining a priority – mental health and social media impacts and the rise of cancel culture. We all have a lot to deal with.
You are a strong advocate for inclusivity across education. How is the current system faring in this respect? And does this apply to the independent, private and state-run schools equally?
In one way, independent schools are not geared up for inclusivity as they do select pupils based on a number of areas, such as gender, academic ability or other requirements. Once you have your cohort, you can be as inclusive as possible.
However, my particular approach is that education is as much about character formation as it is about academic qualifications and therefore learning to deal with all types of people and being exposed to differences in other people encourages inquisitiveness. If you are too narrow or selective you limit those experiences for young people and potentially inhibit them from thinking differently.
This is becoming more and more critical. Free speech is coming under real threat and with that the freedom of academic thought. I believe this is really a critical point for how our young people are growing up and how they will operate in society if they haven’t learned to deal with the people who think differently to them.
That’s not to say that there isn’t room for a variety of different sorts of school, but speaking personally, I would always want to lead in a co-educational environment that is as flexible as possible.
In certain parts of the state sector you might have a very monoethnic local community, whereas at Dean Close we have boarders from all over the world. So we have pupils with very different attitudes to faith, culture, society and family. Therefore I do believe that independent schools, especially boarding schools are well-equipped to introduce diversity. It is my belief that young people will cope better with life if they haven’t been protected too much from everybody else and from other ways of looking at things.
What do you believe is hindering a greater representation of women at senior levels of education in the UK?
The function and family life can be a challenge, particularly in boarding where weekend and evening work is necessary. I’ve been fortunate enough that my husband didn’t mind being at home and that allowed me to do evening duties and Sunday duties, and all the things that make it more challenging in a boarding school leadership role. If you don’t have that support it can make it much more difficult.
In my experience, the executive search firm has a really crucial role to play, and I have seen this when applying for roles. I have only worked in schools that were previously all boys’ schools and always in boarding. However, I have also worked on governing bodies of other schools who are themselves not very diverse. They have been very male dominated and typically quite conservative in their approach.
When they have looked to appoint a new leader, they have typically shortlisted more men. It definitely takes a more open mindset, and an appetite, to consider someone different. I think that also requires a search firm to dig more into that and think about the questions that might open up more diverse thinking and challenge the norms.
How can this imbalance be addressed in your view and why is this important?
Schools have a responsibility to think hard about this and particularly at the middle leadership level where Heads and senior leaders can make a real difference. Those of us women who have been appointed to senior roles have a responsibility to mentor and support our upcoming female colleagues because it has got to get easier for them over time.
It requires staff engagement, listening to people and asking what they want. We can’t always promise everything but there has to be more consideration of what is fair and reasonable and how much notice and planning time we give them. We have to work hard to change a mindset that during term time, we ‘own’ these staff without any consideration of commitments elsewhere.
There are definitely things we can do in school but I also think there is a point about leadership style. I’m really careful about generalisations because I think it’s counter to everything we’re talking about here to categorise how men and women work, or girls and boys learn, but it also about characteristics and being collaborative, more team based and a bit less strident.
We have to avoid ‘command and control’ leadership, and introduce more self-awareness and understanding of how we each work and the way we adapt and encourage others.
At Dean Close we’ve introduced the Healthy Leadership programme, which encourages self-awareness, thinking about our strengths and weaknesses, and styles as leaders. It does definitely encourage more diversity and considering of others’ approaches. It makes you more aware of what it means to be on the other side of you, and understand how people experience you. It can be quite uncomfortable but it does enable you to adjust your perspective and approach.
What gives you cause for optimism in the education sector?
I am naturally an optimist, so it takes quite a lot to get me down. But there are two areas I would particularly highlight.
The first may be predictable for any educator but the young people themselves give me fantastic optimism. They are so optimistic themselves, and they come with a desire for justice and a passion about causes, and an ability to imagine things being different than they are. They believe they can make a difference to the world and when things are wrong they want to do something about them. Those things are enormously inspiring.
If I get too bogged down in my strategic plan or my budget meetings, quite often just by going to spend time with the sixth formers and asking them how they would approach certain problems, I find that they are so thoughtful and interesting. The wonderful openness of youth really gives me optimism in schools but also beyond for the wider world.
My other point is on the business side. When there is churn and flux and things are unpredictable, it’s not comfortable. But, it does give us a chance to change things and to have conversations about what might not be possible.
One very real example of this, is emerging in the group structure. Historically schools have been very bad at talking to each other about possible partnerships or mergers, as it can be seen as a sign of weakness. Those conversations are happening all over the place at the moment, and they are really positive. They may or may not lead to anything or they may lead to different sorts of cooperation and ways of supporting one another rather than full charitable mergers or something else. But that’s got to be positive, surely, having more open conversations about what can be done?
Emma Taylor, Biography
Emma Taylor has been the Warden and CEO of the Dean Close Foundation, a group of five schools and six day nurseries based in Cheltenham, since 2017. Emma has been in school leadership for 20 years; for 10 of these she was Head of Christ College, Brecon, one of the oldest and most prestigious schools in Wales. Emma was a boarder herself from the age of 8, and after studying Politics, Philosophy and Economics at New College, Oxford, she began a career teaching at Stowe School in Buckinghamshire, where she subsequently went on to run a Sixth Form girls’ boarding house, before moving to Canford School to open a new 13+ boarding house at the outset of full coeducation at the school.
Most of her teaching has been in Economics and Philosophy, but she has also taught subjects from Critical Thinking to French, and has enjoyed a wide ranging career from coaching U13 rugby to directing school plays, singing and touring with school choirs and helping to lead expeditions and school trips from Nepal to Japan. Her current role involves appointing, training and supporting the Heads and other senior leaders in the schools while overseeing the strategic direction and development of the Dean Close Foundation. She is married to Simon, formerly a teacher of French and Spanish, and has two daughters, both of whom have attended Dean Close at various stages of their schooling.
Saxton Bampfylde has a strong track record of identifying and placing leaders across a broad spectrum of schools and settings. We are continuously challenging the approach to increase diversity in the sector by encouraging a wider scope for candidates, as well as by supporting internal talent development. We believe there is a great opportunity for inclusion and the positive outcomes that delivers.
About our Schools’ practice
We have a firm commitment to the independent, maintained and commercial education sectors and are proud of the impact made by the appointments with which we have been involved. We advise a broad range of schools and educational organisations from the iconic and world-leading to the small and distinctive, supporting the appointment of Heads, Bursars, Chairs of Governors, and business leaders.
For a discussion on how we can help to support your School’s next leadership appointment, please get in touch with Emma Hattersley, Head of Schools’ Practice.