If you’re a subject leader, you have to make friends in school strategically. If you’re the head of English like me, you firstly need to befriend whoever guards the gate to reprographics needs the bounciest, sunniest, most dribblingly sycophantic version of you that you can muster. We’re talking bottle of wine at Christmas, chocolate egg at Easter, flowers on their birthday. Because they can do something that you could never do since the highest qualification you’re likely hold is in English Literature (or the one pertaining to your subject), a degree that required you to pontificate on postmodernism for 2 hours a week – they can fix the photocopier, a machine so psychopathic, so actively engaged in the utter destruction of your soul, that it makes HAL 9000 seem like a Care Bear. “I’m sorry James, I’m afraid I can’t do that,” you imagine it says as it mangles your Year 10 mock exams in its hot, metal, inky gob.

Every school year is a cycle of activities that require administrators to maintain attention to detail. At the same time you must keep an eye on the big picture.

I don’t believe any educator or administrator wishes to start a cult, but far too often our leadership approach mirrors this kind of approach. Without knowing it, we can create a school or classroom that depends on us; one that revolves around our personality, our authority and depends on our presence to run smoothly.

The line up of high-profile industry pioneers at Bett Academies (16th-17th March 2017, NEC, Birmingham) has grown to offer inspiration for senior leaders in academies, MATs and schools exploring academisation. Running alongside The Education Show at the NEC Birmingham, Bett Academies is free to attend and offers visitors the highest quality continuing professional development (CPD), advice and guidance. Innovate My School will be at Stand D8, so be sure to come by and say hello.

At this year’s Education Show (NEC Birmingham, 16th-18th March), attendees will see the launch of Bett Academies (16th-17th March), an event designed to meet the needs of the increasing number of schools with, or that are converting to, academy status. Innovate My School (Stand D8) is partnering with the Bett Academies team here, with the event set to be the national centre of excellence dedicated to providing the very best advice, guidance and inspiration to academies, MATs and schools exploring academisation.

I truly believe that poor, ruthlessly judgemental leadership of teaching and learning will damage morale, unnecessarily increase workload and therefore create avoidable anxieties that inevitably damage teacher wellbeing. On the flip side, and what I feel this article is all about, is how we can enhance wellbeing through effective leadership of teaching and learning throughout our schools.

Do you feel powerful?

Because the modern, effective school middle leader is powerful, an incredibly powerful member of the school community. Not powerful like Darth Vader is powerful. I’m not suggesting you wave your hand to magically make minions do your evil bidding. I’m talking about being the powerful agent for change that the role of middle leader has become. In your hands, you have the power to design a creative, rich curriculum; the power to motivate and inspire a team of teachers and support staff; the power to drive advances in pedagogy; the power to make decisions that will change children’s lives.

Given the current turbulence in the education system, is it a good time to be a school leader? Having direct experience in the education system, our (Costa Constantinou and Paul McGreavy) automatic and resounding response is YES.

Three years ago, when the government announced the new linear A Levels, I began looking for ways to help students meet the challenge, both at this level and at GCSE. In History and Politics these changes promised courses would be more rigorous, content heavy, and demanding. While I support the shift to a knowledge-based curriculum, I did share many colleagues’ concerns about the feasibility of adding the demands of this new curriculum to an already incredibly demanding working environment.

If you’re a member or school leadership or administration, there are so many things to consider, but really, the first thing should be the welfare of the teachers at your school. How do you do this? Well, how often is this a topic for discussion among administrators? Not hardly enough. The fact is, there are very few people in a school whose main job is really to ensure that teachers are well supported and cared for. The principal or headteacher is at the top of this list.