My leadership week: Going Dutch

A week in the life of Martin Coles, executive principal of The British School in The Netherlands – a federation of one senior school and four junior schools centred around The Hague.

Monday

Leave my house to commute one minute to the principal’s office in a converted barn on the edge of the senior school campus. It’s a good idea to be based away from the school sites. I don’t want to appear to be looking over the headteachers’ shoulders all day long. The usual pile of emails trying to sell me things, including one from a company offering me ‘Smart Assess’, which I initially misread with an ‘r’ in the second word. It is a staff training day today, so off to one of our four junior schools on the other side of Den Haag to give a talk to all 450 staff squeezed into the hall. I ask them to be bold and take risks in their teaching. I say I’ll know we are doing something right when I get a complaint from a parent that they can’t see any worksheets in their child’s homework.

Tuesday

Meet the inclusion manager who works across all the junior schools. We are an open door, non-selective, inclusive school, but our success with children who have special needs means these numbers are rising so much that some classes are becoming over-balanced by children who need more than the usual amount of attention. How do we deal with this without shutting the door on children who would benefit from what we can offer?

To the PTA committee in the evening where parents spend time debating whether, in an international community with many religions, and where we have over 2,000 students from 85 different nationalities, the Christmas Fair would be better titled ‘Winter Bazaar’. After 20 minutes, ‘Christmas Fair’ wins the vote.

Wednesday

Meet with the Works Council. Dutch law requires the bestuurder (me) to seek their approval for any changes to working conditions. They ask me about a few class sizes in the junior schools exceeding 24 children. I explain that we try to keep 24 as a maximum, but there is no obligation or regulation that requires us to do so.

A parent emails to inform me urgently that her son has told her that his friend has explosive material in his locker. She copies the police in to the message. Investigation reveals that this story is a complete fantasy.

A visit from the Shell HR Manager and Education Officer. Since this company pays the fees of nearly 30 per cent of our students, I need to keep them happy with tales of satisfied parents and fantastic student achievement. Not difficult of course – but it is also useful to know where their staff recruitment policy is heading.

Thursday

A ‘topping out’ ceremony for the new primary school building today. There is an opportunity for someone to place the final exterior roof beam in place, buckled into the harness of a cherry picker. Our marketing manager suggests I do it. I, on the other hand, consider this a perfect chance to display my delegation skills.

My regular lunch with a group of Y13 students, who have mostly spruced up to meet the principal. I’m sure I wasn’t as poised, confident and articulate as they are when I was 18.

Friday

In the morning a board of management meeting – the heads of the five schools, plus the finance director and assistant principal. It’s brilliant to be able to borrow the brains of seven other expert professionals. We discuss how to judge our success across the broad spectrum of our activities. We are mercifully free of the requirement to do SATs but what then are our benchmarks for pupil progress year on year in key stages two and three? We have first class results in GCSE and ‘A’ level but academic excellence is just one part of a broad, enriching education which we aim to provide, and many of the successes which students have with us cannot be easily measured. Should we perhaps introduce our own version of the school report card?

In the afternoon, write to the new British Ambassador, who is Chair of the School’s Association. Can we get a member of the Dutch Royal family to open our new campus? I wax lyrical in the letter about our facilities and how much positive publicity Princess Máxima might get from being photographed with children from all over the world.

Saturday

Walk the short distance from my house to the playing fields to watch the school rugby teams. One boy kicks a ball towards me and I overhear his friend say “Who is that man? I think I know him.” Memo to self: must spend more time with the students... but not until Monday. Time to relax now – English premier league football on Dutch TV this afternoon.

Next steps:

Share your leadership week at ldr@nationalcollege.org.uk.