Gary Sheridan is an experienced cover supervisor at a medium sized middle school in Worcestershire, where he has worked for almost two years. His core responsibility is Curriculum Enrichment which means he ensures the pupils are gaining a rounded experience within the school environment through extra-curricular activities such as school trips, sports clubs and other clubs such as chess and language clubs. An experienced rugby player with a contract at a professional club, Gary also runs the rugby club for boys and girls in all age groups.

Gary started Best Practice Network’s Level 5 Leadership Qualification in January 2014. In his words, “I took part in the programme to give myself a better understanding in effective leadership as I was looking to apply for leadership roles within my organisation.”

During the five month programme Gary was asked to set up and run a summer school for a group of children to help them prepare for KS3.

Here is an extract from his assignment:

The group consisted of 7 pupils with expected literacy targets below 4B (100%) and expected numeracy targets below 4B (85.7%). The vision for the summer school was based on the school’s values of “honesty, integrity, diligence and learning as a lifelong experience”. For this reason the vision included a lot of activities outside of the school environment.

I feel that the most effective style of leadership I used throughout this project was the visionary style. I knew the team very well and was therefore able to put my vision across whilst, all the time, gaining their perspective on what we could add. When I gave them the questionnaire on my leadership the response reflected this. For example the question about whether I motivate staff had a very positive response: “I have really looked forward to coming in to work at summer school every day as I knew I was going to enjoy it as much as the kids”.

We asked Gary some questions about his experience of the programme.

What did you find most useful?

Understanding all the different styles of leadership and when is best to use them I found most useful. For example, there is little value in being directive in your approach if the team you are leading are very creative people or if they have a good understanding of the task you are setting them.

How did you use this in practice? How was the summer school received?

The feedback from both the pupils and parents was very positive.

When pupils were asked whether they could think of any improvements the overwhelming response was “no, it was a fantastic week, couldn’t have been better” and “nothing, it’s perfect”. Their main suggestion for improvement was longer or more days!

When parents were asked to what extent the summer school met their expectations the overwhelming response was “Wow! Completely exceeded expectations. Activities were so much fun and (pupil) thoroughly enjoyed her week, that in itself was lovely for us” and “in my opinion the summer school went above and beyond my expectations, the activities were fantastic and (pupil) enjoyed every day”. Also, “exceeded all expectations, (pupil) explained what she did every day and you could hear in her voice that she was loving every minute”.

These responses were made possible through the use of the visionary leadership style, alongside coaching as this enabled the team to provide the best experience possible for the pupils. A key school value is “an ethos of personal achievement, responsibility and leadership and mutual respect for all members of our community”. This is something that was evident throughout the summer school and has boosted the confidence of all pupils within the school environment.

How has the programme helped you develop as a professional?

I feel I have developed professionally because it has given me the confidence to manage staff more efficiently particularly if it is a situation where that person isn't on task or working as hard as the other team members. I have learned how to identify issues with the individual in a specific way so that I am not attacking them as person, and this has meant that I can talk about any issues that arise with confidence.

What does having a qualification in leadership mean to you?

Having the leadership qualification means that I can go and apply, with the confidence, for roles within school with high levels of responsibility and also it will allow me to apply for future jobs with leadership roles.

If you are interested in finding out more about this ILM qualification or if you would like to apply, please visit our Level 5 Leadership page.