December 2012

The know zone

  • A sixth sense
    Make sure your admissions criteria add up if you want to avoid attracting the wrath of the LGO, warns Richard Bird. More
  • Quids in
    How much teaching does £1 buy? It’s a crude estimate but with finances under increasing scrutiny, it could be a useful starting point for assessing value for money, says Sam Ellis. More
  • The leader as servant
    Janet Nevin is principal of Ashton-under-Lyne Sixth Form College in Lancashire, which was named outstanding school or college of the Year in the 2012 National BTEC Awards. A former part-time Ofsted inspector, she has also researched and reported on the career experiences of women managers in Catholic sixth form colleges. More
  • Red Nose Day 2013
    Red Nose Day is back – a chance for schools and colleges to have some fun, raise money and transform the lives of people in desperate need. More
  • Lead vocals
    Quotes from Barack Obama, Nelson Mandela, Oscar Wilde, Winston Churchhill, Indira Gandhi More
  • Adding value
    When budgets are tight, keeping staff healthy ensures your workforce is productive and supply costs are kept to a minimum. More
  • Telling fortunes?
    Will the government’s plan to replace GCSEs with EBacc Certificates have the potential to help raise standards as is intended? Or will it have the opposite effect? More
  • Leaders' Surgery
    The antidote to common leadership conundrums... More
  • Cause for grade concerns
    The ASCL Council meeting in Reading on 11-12 October was dominated by curriculum and qualifications – not just the GCSE English legal challenge, but also proposed changes to GCSE exams and the introduction of the English Baccalaureate Certificates (EBCs). More
  • Supporting success
    Many very capable leaders are put off working in challenging schools because of the vulnerability of the roles. It is better support, not higher pay, that will turn this around, says Brian Lightman. He outlines what an effective support package should look like. More
  • A war of nerves?
    Trying to win over the hearts and minds of potential students and parents is no easy feat – in many aspects it’s as daunting as facing the dreaded Ofsted inspector, says Ross Morrison McGill. More
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Janet Nevin is principal of Ashton-under-Lyne Sixth Form College in Lancashire, which was named outstanding school or college of the Year in the 2012 National BTEC Awards. A former part-time Ofsted inspector, she has also researched and reported on the career experiences of women managers in Catholic sixth form colleges.

The leader as servant

What sort of leader are you?

One who is informed by a Christian faith and believes in treating people with respect. I want to make sure this is a happy place to be and work and for everyone to feel valued. I’m a great believer in servant leadership; my job is to support the staff and not just show them who’s boss. There are so many pressures on young people; we’re in a relatively poor part of east Manchester and a lot of them have to get jobs in order to feed their families rather than buy luxuries.

But some of those kids have seen how the other half lives, haven’t they?

We have links with a college in Uganda and we took some of our students out there last year. It was heartening to hear them say, “We thought we weren’t well off but we’re rich compared to this.” The Ugandan children were mostly orphans whose parents had been killed or who had died from AIDS. One of the BTEC students who made a film of the trip said the word he thought of when we went was ‘poverty’ but the word he came back with was ‘happiness’.

Why did you go into teaching originally?

I sort of fell into it, to be honest; funnily enough, I remember one Christmas when I was about eight and I received a teacher’s set as a present. My younger sister got a doctor’s set and the youngest one was given a nurse’s set. And those are all the jobs we went into! I taught at two London schools and I wasn’t sure about what I was doing. It was a real shock to have been in the hallowed halls of university one minute and having a Year 11 tell you to F-off the next. It was only when I moved to a sixth form college that I knew I was where I was meant to be. I then grew to love the job, teaching young people on the cusp of adulthood who are so interested and interesting.

Was the Ofsted stint an eye-opener ?

It was very useful but I wouldn’t want to do that all the time because I’m quite an institutional person and like being part of a place and a community. I saw that inspectors sometimes cannot be as flexible as they would like to be as they have to follow a framework.

What informed your work regarding women in Catholic schools?

My own experiences, really; I remember being interviewed by boards of governors that had members of the clergy on them and the type of questions I was asked. Catholic colleges are, of course, very supportive of women having children, pastoral care and valuing the individual are positives. There have been negatives, too, however. I remember once seeing a shortlist for a principal of one college that had a woman’s name on it. A member of staff made a very derogatory remark about it, which was a bit of a shock.

Interview by John Holt and Julie Nightingale

Pro.file

Do you know an ASCL member with an unusual story, interesting background or exceptional achievement to share? If you’d like to recommend someone else or yourself to appear in a future profile, email; leader@ascl.org.uk


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