Leadership Story: Anna Griggs

Headteacher, Buttington Trewern County Primary School

My first inspirational leader was very close to home

Born in Bury, Greater Manchester I was the eldest child of a teacher and a social worker. We moved back to Wales to be closer to family after my father secured a Deputy Headship in Mid Wales. Although, my mother was a Welsh speaker my father was not, so the decision was made to put me in the English stream when I began schooling – something that is a huge regret to me as a proud educator working in Wales.

I remember my father the leader always seemed to be ahead of the curve and very outward facing and an excellent networker of local schools, across Wales and also across Europe – something that I have always tried to do as a leader. He undertook the following:

• Secondment to Welsh Government to assess IT teacher training across Wales after installing one of the first IT suites in a primary school in 1994. Building his own PCs to make the budget go further!
• Year 5/6 trips to The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.
• Lecturing in Brussels about working with educational systems across Europe, after developing links with 7 European countries sponsored by Comenius (EEC) and the British Council. Many learners began formal education at 7 one year behind Welsh children’s standards and by 11 were an academic year ahead standards wise.

So, I found it fascinating to have the opportunity to listen to and talk to Lucy Crehan as part of the National Academy for Educational Leadership’s Associate meetings and to hear about her knowledge of Education systems across the world captured in her book ‘Cleverlands.’ In 2006 and 2007 I was privileged to visit Finland and went to a school where learners could choose to be educated in Finnish, Swedish or English. And to watch young learners dress up for real snow and undress afterwards totally independently or look at their timetable to work at what time they needed to bike to school that morning. A Local Authority visit to Austria in 2008 looking at More Able and Talented from 3 to 19 was also such an opportunity.

Fast forward to September 2022 and I introduced MFL and trans language to my own school. We’ve started to embrace other languages and suddenly my English as a Second Language learners have stopped hiding their light under a bushel and we are now having conversations between our Slovakian and our Polish learners about the similarities between their languages and their new willingness to teach some of their home language to the rest of the class is truly inspiring.

So, my first inspirational leader was my dad.

Aspiring Towards Leadership

My second inspirational leader was Chris, my headteacher as an Recently Qualified Teacher. She had very high expectations for staff and expected you to be a leader whether it was in your classroom or subject. She was excellent at providing me with a leadership scaffold and a mentor within the school. Later, she encouraged me to join the National College Fast Track programme (England). I got to network with aspiring leaders from across England and completed excellent CPD such as: Train the Trainer, NLP and Coach the Coach. These opportunities built my confidence as an authentic leader and this was important as I was the youngest member of staff when I was appointed as a Deputy Head in 2009.

Outward Facing Leadership and Taking People with Us

My third leader was John, who appointed me as his Deputy. He was excellent with Emotional Intelligence and encouraged me to be more aware of well-being for my learners, my staff and myself. Well-being has been something that has been at the core of my values ever since although I still don’t think I’ve quite perfected the last one!

John was another leader who was passionate about looking beyond our small market town or even our Local Authority. Each year in June we would do a nerdy educational road trip. One year we drove to Leeds and back in a day, writing the SDP enroute. Finally, we arrived to listen to Dylan Wiliam who spoke about embedding Assessment for Learning and most importantly about enabling the teaching staff to have autonomy to evolve their pedagogy.

Upon our return, we set up a Teacher Learning Community with schools in our cluster. No direct involvement by Headteachers. Instead, Deputies led the training and introduced professional partners with a commitment from schools to release staff to plan and observe each other with a focus on the learning.

Another year on word had spread and it had transformed into a cluster educational road trip. The senior leaders from three local schools visited Dame Alison Peacock’s school in Potters Bar where we learnt about ‘Learning without limits.’ Afterwards, we continued to collaborate with other cluster schools and University researchers. This experience really made me think carefully about effective differentiation and involving learners in dialogue about challenge. I still hear John’s voice when I speak to my staff about not using ‘ability’ but using ‘current attainment.’  It also inspired me to look at the teaching school model to increase school capacity and grow teachers and leaders of the future. Something that is part of my vision now that I am a headteacher.

Over the years, I have had a love and hate relationship with Maths. During primary school I loved Maths. I was a competitive, sporty girl who loved to be the first to finish. However, by Year 8 or 9 although I was in set 1 I quickly began to feel lost. The pace was too quick. It was chalk and talk but more just get on with it. I didn’t want to keep saying I didn’t understand so I kept quiet and was lucky to scrap through my GCSE Maths.

As a trainee teacher I had to embrace aspects of maths that I had struggled with, including long division. I needed to not only be able to do it but also to be able to explain it, to model it. Prior to Deputy headship I became the Maths leader. I truly believe my own struggles with Maths made me a better teacher and leader. To remember being stuck and to embrace that feeling – the start of my own Growth Mindset journey which I then used with my learners and my staff too.

I was involved in research about girls’ underachievement in Maths with the Local Authority Maths Hub. How girls who excel in Key Stage 1 can start to drop out of Maths in KS2 and KS3. How culturally many mums at parents evening said “Yes Dad does the Maths and I do the reading,” or “Yeah I can’t do Maths either.” It shocked me how culturally this was acceptable… you’d never openly admit to not being able to read?!

Later, as the Maths Leader for 20 primary schools, I got to lead or facilitate training for early years up to secondary school teachers. Often up to 60 teachers each term which supported consistency and high standards and promoted open professional dialogue. Finally, in 2016 I became a Key Stage 1 moderator for in Maths and English across the Local Authority. However, what filled me with the most pride was developing a Maths assessment system and sharing it with schools in several clusters and for one moderator to tell me about it in at a team meeting although I didn’t let on that it was mine!

A Leader Who Nurtures and Develops Leaders

Whilst a trainee teacher (Bachelor of Arts) I was invited into a local primary school to support a PGCE student who was struggling. To have such a positive impact on someone’s else development really stayed with me and later in my Deputy Headteacher role I was seconded to run an ITT course for Edge Hill University. I continue to lecture for Chester University on Geography, History, Educational Visits and Journeys. I also lecture on curriculum implementation after leading the development of 2014 English Curriculum in my cluster before moving to Wales in 2017 to begin the Curriculum for Wales journey.

Each year, I welcome trainee teachers to my school and we have developed a school based mentoring system. Personally, one of the highlights of my year is conducting mock interviews for trainee teachers and giving them guidance on the art of completing an application.

The Discovery of The National Academy for Educational Leadership

During COVID I accessed several Leadership Unlocked sessions which helped me still feel part of the wider system during the era of lockdowns and social distancing. Then in February 2023 I attended the Innovation workshops. The opportunity to work with colleagues from different authorities and age groups was fantastic. The leaders were inspirational and informative, and it gave me lots of ideas of how to be effective and efficient at a time when funding and capacity are limited.

So, to be invited to be an Associate of the National Academy for Educational Leadership for two years was a significant honour. In terms of my leadership development, I know that the Associate role has supported my practice of system leadership while also providing me with more of an opportunity to make a difference at local, regional and national level. It continues to allow me to be outward looking and so I will relish the opportunity to work with other leaders from different regions beyond Powys. To listen directly to Welsh Government representatives linked to Education and to be able to have a direct voice back and represent my peers is such a privilege.