I was invited to contribute this blog post after a parent kindly commented on our SLT’s collective commitment to being present with young people at the beginning and end of each day, regardless of the vagaries of the Scottish weather. I am very conscious that many colleagues do this across the length and breadth of the country but wonder if we give enough weight to its importance. The Oxford English Dictionary has various definitions for ‘present’, including: -adj.1 being in the place in question; 2a now existing, occurring, or being such; and v.1 offer or give as a gift. It could be argued that now is a very good time to reflect on the importance of presence to effective leadership and culture in schools. We are coming out of a period where a multitude of barriers to being present with others has had a significant impact on the personalised interactions and human relationships we so value in our communities. I wonder if we now have greater agency to confidently commit the proper time to physical presence and interaction in our schools. To do so requires us to resist the seemingly endless pressures that draw us to, variously: the computer screen; piles of paperwork; and post-it to-do lists…all the time accompanied by the oppressive soundtrack of a pinging email inbox.

This dichotomy is, of course, overly simplistic. All leaders have key systemic and administrative responsibilities that are important, necessary and have impact. I was fortunate enough, however, to be formed in an environment with peers and leadership role models who were passionately committed to the importance of being present with young people and colleagues. In finding the right balance, however, do we succumb to the notion of ‘clearing the desk’ too often? Is this at the expense of personal time with staff and students that fosters core values, culture and positive relationships? I make it an absolute priority to commit, as fully as possible, to presence at the front of school at the beginning and end of each day; presence in the lunch hall and local community at break and lunch times; presence in corridors; presence at the classroom door; and presence in and around learning environments. All the time dedicated to this builds relationships, trust, and allows us to gain many seemingly informal, casual, but crucially valuable, insights to support pupils and colleagues. Tackling bureaucracy, simplifying systems and having the ability to find a balance between using digital technologies to support positive outcomes, whilst not being immersed in screen-time, are key post-pandemic priorities.

Thomas Sergiovanni (Building Community in Schools: Jossey-Bass Inc., 1994), writing about the importance of relationships in schools, notes that ‘it is through the quality and character of relationships that values, beliefs and norms are felt’ (page 18). In talking to staff, parents and pupils across our community, and with colleagues beyond this, there is a stronger sense than ever of the importance of clearing the space and time to allow us to enjoy the part of our job that is most motivating, and hugely impactful - building the relationships with pupils, colleagues and partners that foster positive school culture and nurture success. We are confident in setting improvement priorities that focus on ‘hard’, systemic outcomes. Perhaps we should also more readily allow ourselves to set firm targets that value the seemingly ‘softer’ interactions that we all know are so important to school life, that are mutually enriching, but that we may fail to formalise. Perhaps we deem these too ‘obvious’, ‘natural’, or ‘traditional’ to plan for. How much time are we protecting, daily, for presence? Why do we often feel guilt at enjoying interactions and conversations because there is a task with a more immediate, or ‘firmer’, directly measurable, outcome waiting on our desktops? As we positively rebuild our communities after the challenges of Covid, maybe we should be much more confident in clearing space and time to give ourselves the gift of those essential human interactions. For all their efforts in the past couple of years, I think school staff have very much earned this particular present.