Managing Your Workload
- Published: 10 November 2017
Circular 0063/2017 lifts the moratorium on the filling of some management posts in schools. However, the vast majority of schools will see no immediate improvement. The demands on school leaders continues to increase and at times proves overwhelming. It is critically important that school leaders focus on leading and managing the quality of learning in their school. However, an overloaded principal runs the risk of losing that focus. The challenge is how to prioritise those important activities that make schools so busy.
If a principal is to really lead learning in their school and if they are to prevent personal burn-out, it is clear that there is a need to re-focus on priorities, either by means of delegation or by de-prioritisation. The IPPN publication, ‘Priorities for Principal Teachers – In Clear Focus’ examines how best to address the issue of work overload. It encourages us to consider which activities are not fully in line with the school plan and which could, for a time at least, be pushed down the priority list or removed from it altogether. The document aims to provide support to the very many principals who are struggling to manage their workload and are unsure what aspects of the role they can and should delegate or deprioritise. Principals will learn from this document that it is possible to say ‘no’ sometimes or postpone less urgent issues.
We will provide some practical tips, over the next few weeks, outlining how this publication may help you to manage your workload.
