Mantras for a principal

For principals, it is worth looking for novel ways to inspire their staff. You must have already learned how to strike a balance between exciting ideas as well as initiatives and necessary mandate as well as boring protocols.

Consider the following simple steps if you want to encourage your staff to perform better.

Meet your staff regularly

Try to be democratic and listen to your teaching and non-teaching staff. It is advisable to note down your new teacher’s and admin staff’s opinion about the school, its protocol and most importantly, its students and their performance. Do internal surveys if needed. Send out questionnaires for your staff to answer and see if there is any similar pattern to their responses.

Encourage creative teachers

Encourage those teachers who are creative. An English teacher, for example, may suggest performing a play based on a lesson so that students can understand all literary characters better. On the other hand, an EVS teacher may recommend an excursion so that students can commune with nature. Being a principal, you should encourage such teachers instead of forcing them to getting into rote.

Be kind to others

When you are working in an educational institution, especially as a principal or a teacher, you should always be willing to apologize as soon as you realize that you have gone wrong or have made a blunder. It is the responsibility of every teacher and principal to inculcate values into young minds. Therefore, when a principal is humble, it invariably percolates through all teaching and non-teaching staff.

Foster a healthy and positive classroom culture

Time and again, it has been proved that the classroom’s culture has a major impact on students’ academic performance. Being a principal, you should help your teaching staff build a healthy and positive culture in the classroom.

Don’t try to make everyone happy

Being a principal, you should take decisions that will be good for your students as well as school. It is true that not all of your decisions will make every teaching and non-teaching staff happy. Even, being a principal, you should not try to do so. For every principal, the betterment of his/her students and school takes precedence over everything. Therefore, all your decisions should focus on this factor.

Try to be approachable to your students

A good principle is always approachable to his/her students. Try to strike a bond with your students. During lunchtime, walk around your school complex and chat with as many students as possible. Further, you should put your best foot forward in modifying the stigma to ‘principal’s room’.

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