How can SLT show their appreciation?

[ThisIsNotARealAvo]

I am new to SLT in a primary school in an inner city area. We have just sent out a well-being survey and lots of comments came back about how people don't feel appreciated by SLT. How can we show people that we do appreciate them? We already do the following:
Extra hour of PPA per week
Staff breakfasts once a term
Money behind bar at staff drinks
Meetings are scheduled during the day so people don't have to stay after school unnecessarily
Subject leaders get extra time to write plans for people so workload is reduced
I try to say thank you for things people do and I think I'm friendly and approachable - certainly people do approach me
I really do appreciate the fact that people choose to work at our school and how hard they work, but it's obviously not coming across - what else can we do?

That stuff is nice, but for me (and admittedly I'm secondary) it's about being trusted, and if I'm being observed and dropped in on every 2 seconds then I don't feel trusted. I've just moved schools and compared to my last school there are far fewer observations. Morale is much, much higher.

Wow! Maybe ask your staff? You certainly seem to do loads to make them feel appreciated - are they very needy?!

We observe once a term or less.

I will be asking people what will make them feel appreciated, but I feel like it will be different for everyone.

If you pop into their classroom and notice something great, tell them! I worked for an amazing head who regularly popped it - she would always mention something positive laster in the day 'x was working so well', 'your display is fantastic' ' I like your classroom layout'. She also did formal observations where she might bring up points for improvement but she always noticed the little things.

My current head sends out 'inspirational' emails telling us all how great we are but it really doesn't ring true and she isn't well liked..

Ask your staff the same question and really listen to their suggestions - obviously you can't relieve everyone of break duty but you can let them have parcels delivered to work etc.

You sound great for the fact that you are even asking the question.

Observations suck. When I started teaching, you were just left alone-it was lovely. Then it was once a year which was fine. We get done twice a year when I am now.

I would say the most important thing is to communicate stuff with your staff-tell then what’s going on and don’t change things at the last minute.

Try to have a bit of flexibility with leaving early/maybe seeing kids’ plays etc.

Reduce data drops-we have gone back to doing it termly rather than half termly.

Look at your marking policy-is it manageable.

But also point out all of those things in a list that you are already doing - they may have taken it for granted.

I'm currently in an independent school and there was such a massive moan recently that some classes are 16 now when they used to be 12/13.... 'those extra books make a huge difference you know'!! I laughed!

Holiday - its funny, I don't mind observations and was so used to it in my previous school that now I'm in a leave you to it type school I find it weird.

Marking policy is a very good point though - our policy is horrendous (PPP anyone??) - at least there are only 15 books hey?

We do allow people time off for their kids plays and things. We also allow people to have parcels delivered to work, I hadn't even thought of these but they are excellent points. I think the marking load is quite heavy as we are an RI school (which I know is hard but shouldn't affect the appreciation people feel). But a lot of planning is done so that should help.

Have time to talk to me, and to talk to my pupils about what is going well in class and what we are excited about. Not because you have a form to fill in, but because you are interested in what is going on in school, and enjoy seeing kids succeed.

When introducing a change, or new ideas it's great if the new idea can be run by us, rather than imposed on us (though beware of consulting, everyone lest you end up with a Brexit situation -48/52% and lots of unhappy people.) Perhaps have a couple of volunteers to sound out on a proposed change.

If you can, regularly ask staff what might be changed in school to make life easier and to increase success. Empowering staff IME rarely hurts and sometimes small changes can save everyone time and stress.

HTH

Be sincere about things. I hate that my head stands on the door and says good morning after briefing. He clearly gives no shits. Thank people when they do a good job. Thank people when the inlaws go over and above. Give people positive feedback if you have heard something good about them.

For me it's less the tangible appreciation and more the actual human interaction appreciation that counts. A breakfast is good, but genuinely appreciating someone doing their job is better.

When they not the inlaws!

Old head of mine used to do planning trawls and instead of just the list of "shit you've done wrong" you'd find comments written in response to your scrawled evaluations (my planning was always a fucking mess by the end of a week) that "they really enjoyed this and got the concept" of "fantastic - have you seen X resource in the staffroom for this next year" and the like. Was just the reinforcing of the positive things rather than what can tend to happen in education of the constant picking away to find targets and faults to improve upon.

Mind you she was also a rare head who rang up supply agencies when they'd got a good one in to pass on her positive feedback to the supply in question too. Fantastic woman.

I'd suggest no observations and no marking but I suspect you're not really that committed to showing appreciation.
What are your performance management targets like? Do most staff get pay progression?

Most staff get pay progression every year and we offer tlrs. No marking will never happen as we are under scrutiny from the LA, same with no observations. Monitoring has to be done.

Leave them alone. Say well done when they have done well. Forget breakfasts, money behind bar. You’re not a wedding.

My feeling is that it's not about 'the big things' but the little ones. Popping out to the playground with a cup of hot coffee in a lidded cup and releasing them from playground duty for a couple of minutes to go to the toilet. Wandering by at the end of a day and chatting with no specific agenda, mentioning something good - nice display; class seems really settled; lovely to see how X is getting on. Taking an interest - a genuine interest - in what's going on - the play being rehearsed, the outdoor Maths lesson, the story being read in class. Celebrate the learning rather than what the books look like...

Coffee near children? That would be nice....

We're allowed it in lidded cups - luxury!

I don't know but please can you tell our SLT all the things you do because ours don't do anything like that!

I will say this for our head though, she sees the best in everyone. I also think she is very fair and treats everyone equally, even staff who are disliked and moaned about by most others.

We were allowed hot drinks in lidded cups but not anymore. A lot of tea ends up down the sink.

I would echo what people say above.
Being backed by SLT, feeling that they know what's going on and are bothered are much more important in the day to day grind.
Although we also appreciate the free tea, coffee and biscuits. :)

I'd love it if you were on my slt! I had 2 observations today plus was on duty.
We get the whole ' you are amazing' emails but they never sound sincere.