Keeping in touch in tough times
Newsletters written by Coach Paul Cassar to support principals in difficult times.
READ THE INSPIRING LETTERS THAT KEEP OUR PRINCIPALS GOING.
Let’s Shine the Light on Deputies
This year I have the privilege of coaching three newly appointed deputy-principals. Our policy is to mentor only those young deputies whose principals have already enjoyed an association with the Principals Academy. Investing in the development of young leaders in...
Experience Matters
You can imagine how much experience matters in a police station, a maternity ward or a food processing plant. And no different in a school. Just look around and see how many principals and senior teachers are about to retire in the next few years. One place literally...
NSC 2023 Results – a Coaching Perspective
We’ve had two weeks to digest the 2023 NSC results and to look beyond the self-congratulatory political electioneering and the media hype. I fully realise that the cohort in question was most seriously affected by the pandemic, but having a lifetime of Grade 12...
It’s All Systems Go
This is my fourth day-one letter to principals who are tasked with bringing a school, its staff and learners back to life. My purpose is to list a few issues which help to shine a bright light on the leadership of instruction. Links to last year’s first letter - very...
THROWBACK: Flight 2023 is Ready for Take-Off
Flight 2023 – very much a joint operation – is ready for take-off. Just like your staffroom on Monday, everyone is involved, with timetables, detailed year plan, updated organogram, job descriptions, class lists and textbook procedures all at hand. Very few schools...
19 Letters, GSB 2023 and Gratitude
This is letter number 19 for 2023 – that’s 114 letters since Keeping in Touch in Tough Times was born as the pandemic started. If you’ve missed a few this year because you were otherwise occupied, find them in your inbox and do some holiday reading. Here are the...
RICA Values – Easily Memorable for Maximum Impact
As a principal I tried, with stakeholders, to develop a list of values to reflect what we were about as a school. However, over the years, we added and refined the list in line with the policies, programmes and projects we developed. At last count, our values -...
Lessons from the Springbok Team to the Staff Team
I know and understand that rugby and the Springboks are not universally supported in a country with as complex a history as ours, but, as a principal, I love the lessons for teenagers, and especially for a team of teachers, that three victories by a single point over...
Do you remember that advert?
It’s good to see how schools in the market for a principal or deputy are verbalising their needs. Here are a few phrases from adverts in one magazine. Firstly, for a principal: “…the ability to manage multiple competing operational and strategic demands and be able to...
Classroom Management and the Institutional 3Rs
Looking back on our valuable experience as teachers and school leaders, we all know that, whether we have one or two degrees, our training as teachers only really started on our first day as full-time classroom practitioners. It’s in that cauldron - that forty-plus...
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