Accidental CEO

If we were playing a word association game and you were presented with the word ‘accident’, it would most likely elicit a spontaneous response of ‘and emergency’. Likewise, if the derivative, ‘accidental’ was used, you wouldn’t be too surprised if someone replied ‘damage’. The point that I am trying to make is that when we mention the term accident our first conscious thought is about something going wrong. The connection we make is generally focused upon a negative, which at worst can be something catastrophic and at best is something humorous.

I mention this observation because recently I described myself at a meeting as an ’accidental’ CEO. On reflection I was alluding to the fact that aspiring to the role of CEO was never part of some grand master plan. It was something that had just happened and had evolved. I am confident in my assumption that I hadn’t simply slept walked into the position even though it may well have been accidental and hopefully it will not be considered as a disaster! I will, however, let others have an opinion about that.

Like many of my generation I started my teaching career at a time when the title Chief Executive Officer barely featured in the vocabulary. It certainly never appeared in educational circles. The top of the tree in the teaching profession was obviously being a headteacher. There was an alternative career path through Local Authorities that ultimately could lead to the position of Chief Education Officer, but these positions were extremely rare. That route was not for me. I associated it with people who had bailed out of teaching for reasons known only to themselves. The suspicion was often that they had lost their love for the day-to-day cut and thrust of working directly with children or perhaps it had become a little too hot in the kitchen. Whatever the reason, their credibility always took a hit in the same way that ex-school leaders who have deserted to become Ofsted inspectors suffer.

For someone ambitious, like me, the only option was to become a headteacher of a successful school. Serving a local community for a sustained period of time and offering strong leadership that positively impacted upon the lives and education of pupils under your charge was the goal. That was always my dream from the first day of training to be a teacher, let alone from my first day as a fully qualified teacher in school. So how on earth did this turn into becoming a CEO and why was it accidental?

The simple truth is that the landscape changed dramatically. After 20 years of leading St. John’s I was anxious to keep pushing the school forward. St. John’s needed to grow. It was a successful, popular school that was continually oversubscribed. We needed more investment and more control over admissions. In fairness, I believe the Local Authority also recognised these facts but unfortunately, were unable to offer the level of support we demanded under the constraints of which they had to work. The answer was straight forward. We needed to become an academy and take advantage of the additional freedoms and finances that would allow the school to move onto the next level.

The Governors of the school understood what was required and embarked on an exciting journey of exploration as we considered our options. We were energized by the prospect of a brighter future and together we looked at various Trusts as potential partners. And then the wheels came off! As we are a church school, we discovered our choices were severely limited. Either join the diocesan MAT or become a single academy trust. It wasn’t a hard decision!

So we didn’t join another trust but formed a trust of our own. Headteacher became CEO. Accidentally.

Further down the line when the opportunity arose to work with other academies it was simply a matter of finding like-minded partners. It wasn’t a difficult challenge. Fortunately, my beliefs about what good primary education looks like are not exclusively mine. They are shared by many other teachers and just in the same way that people with a nuanced interest or common passion in something are attracted to each other, so school leaders and staff who identify with what we stand for have been drawn into the fold.

In the words of Kate Bush, ‘Every Old Sock Meets an Old Shoe. What a great saying’.

We are a serious proposition for the child-centred teachers and leaders who want to work for FGT in increasing numbers as our favourable reputation grows.

FGT is in a good place. We are a group, a club, a team driven by people who care about children and want to create a good future for them. We are not about paperwork, assessments and overt control. We are about fun, friendliness, participation, and hard work. It is a movement and one that I am privileged to have been part of. As FGT becomes stronger and meets with more and more success the pupils who come through our academies will receive an ever-improving, top class primary education that will influence the rest of their lives. And that won’t be by accident.