Wednesday 21 May 2014

Thank You, Twitter (New Appointment to HoY)

Image courtesy of EXSS Impact

I didn't want to make it a big thing, so last Friday night, I sent one short tweet asking if anyone was a Head of Year (<here>). I was fortunate to have a number of responses. 

By the end of the evening, I had an offer to proof-read my application letter plus various questions, tips and other exemplar letters being emailed to me. I was genuinely overwhelmed by the kindness of strangers. The variety of people who offered their help was also wide ranging, a pastoral deputy head, a head of KS4 who line manages HoYs, existing HoYs, aspiring HoYs (who had struggled first time round and shared their mistakes). What more could I ask for?

It is important to discuss things with people in your own school, but sometimes for a variety of reasons you can't do that. Perhaps they are involved with the interview process... maybe they are also applying for the job... maybe they have some other interest... sometimes we don't want to be asking around everyone publicly as it becomes 'staff room chat'. Sometimes you just want to hide behind an avatar and a handle to ask for help.

Thankfully, I did also have a few people in school who greatly helped out, but this combination was great as it enabled me to put together a whole variety of information, prepare myself fully and feel confident there was nothing more I could do.

As a result, on Wednesday, I was able to celebrate my new promotion to Head of Year (Y10).

Thank you all SO much if you helped with advice, emails and tweets. Twitter really is the best possible staffroom.

I'm sure I will be blogging soon about the help I will need moving forward... 

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