I’m a PT Languages (0.4) and Gaelic teacher and completed the Aspiring to Middle Leadership programme in 2022-23. My blog provides a bit about me, why I decided to take part, my reflections on the learning and my next steps.

I worked in politics for five years before doing PGDE and I am now nine years post-probation. I have always been a solo subject teacher in my school so I have had a lot of autonomy and had to take full responsibility for development, uptake and promotion of my subject. I was successful in gaining a 0.4 PT role in 2022-23.

I chose to participate in the Aspiring to Middle Leadership programme because I knew that the 0.4 PT opportunity was coming up, and even if I hadn’t been successful in getting it, I wanted to be prepared for any further opportunities that might arise.

My own professional learning matters because no teacher is ever perfect. We should always be striving to improve our own practice, learn from others and develop both personally and professionally to be the best we can be.

The content of the programme was really practical and was easily adaptable to my own practice. I particularly liked the different PLAs – these don’t have to all be completed during the course itself and you can spread your learning out if you want to. Being able to choose which dates suited you for each session was an added bonus and made this course easier to fit into your schedule. It was great to be able to interact with other practitioners from a variety of settings and at different stages of their career in the break-out rooms and I can honestly say that I learnt a lot from those times.

There are more facets to the middle leader role than I realised. The more learning I did in the programme, the more I appreciated the multitude of hats that middle leaders wear.

My practice has definitely changed in terms of my interactions with others and managing people. One quote that stuck with me is ‘being an effective leader is about supporting others to be the best that they can be’ and that has certainly been the most illuminating part of my new role. It isn’t just about yourself and your teaching; it is about shaping the wider environment and developing the skills and strengths of everyone in your department.

Thinking about changes in my practice as a result of being on the programme, as a single subject teacher, it has given me a more strategic approach to languages in our ASG and school. Being able to see the impact of my subject in relation to others and in the context of wider school attainment has been very beneficial. Instead of being a single isolated cog, I now can see the impact that my teaching has on the whole machine.

As a middle leader I have taken on board the big difference between distributive leadership and delegation. This was not something I had really considered in the past and it is clear that this helps foster a better working environment.

I have made big changes to how I view and handle my time management. I’ve always prided myself on being highly organised but the pressures on time (our most valuable commodity) are amplified hugely in middle management. The time-management review questions in the PLA on the Administrative Role are something I now refer to frequently and it has allowed me to work more effectively.

I think this course does a lot to help reduce elements of imposter syndrome that we all feel when taking on a new role as you are able to talk and create links with others.

I didn’t expect this course to be so in depth in analysing how and why I do certain things. It made me take a step back and re-evaluate elements of my practice particularly when it came to data management, and teaching and management responsibilities.

The five main takeaways from this course have been – increased self-awareness, improved practical skills, enhanced confidence, improved empathy and interpersonal skills and it has expanded my vision both of the role and what I could potentially achieve in the future.

Middle leadership is arguably one of the most pressured roles in a school as you are balancing the learning and teaching on a class level with the strategic needs of a department. I will admit that I felt quite overwhelmed with the number of hats that I had to wear when I went into middle management. This course certainly helped me learn how to work smarter not harder.

I am aiming to do the Middle Leaders Leading Change course in 2023-24. I feel that moving from a subject teacher to a PT role in a multi-subject department has been a big step and that this would benefit both me personally and the department as a whole. Creating a new three-year Departmental Improvement Strategy and increasing the visibility of languages is a priority, and I think that this is the logical next step in my professional learning journey.