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“All school administrations can implement efficiency measures”.

That is the bold assertion of the School of Education Administration and Management which was set up with government funding in conjunction with the University of Northampton seven years ago.

Behind this view is a simple idea: that just as there are a hundred ways of teaching a lesson in the classroom, so there are a hundred ways of organising a school office. However, the SEAM also offered a warning. Efficiencies were not always that easy to find, not that easy to implement. Indeed once implemented they needed careful nurturing to ensure that the old inefficient ways did not reassert themselves.

Traditionally most schools have focussed on what happens in the classroom, while the school office has been treated as something that is as it is.

However, observation suggests that different schools do organise their administrations in different ways and that some approaches can make a significant difference to the effectiveness and efficiency of the school’s work.

At the heart of this volume is the notion that there is a way of organising school administration that is much more effective than any other approach.

This report gives examples of school efficiencies and questions how one can change long-established approaches to leadership, change management, time management, facilities management, budgeting and organisations behaviour.

The approaches outlined here do not require higher budgets; they simply put in place processes that inevitably lead to a smoother throughput of information and activity, which means there are fewer disruptions, fewer errors, and ultimately more time for everything to be done. The report covers issues such as the structure of the administration of the school, work management within the administrative department, change management, facilities management, budgeting, organisational behaviour and legal issues within the school office.

One of the fundamental issues within the report is that changes only work to the benefit of the organisation when everyone understands what is going on and why the changes are being implemented. For this reason Increasing the Efficiency of School Administration is available as a photocopiable report, which allows you to give sections of the report to your colleagues. There is no restriction on the number of copies that can be made for use within your school. An edition of the book is also available on CD Rom for printing out via Word.

The report, Increasing the Efficiency of School Administration, has been prepared by Tony Attwood, the director of the School of Educational Administration and Management.

There are sample pages from the photocopiable book at http://www.pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/bursar/T1744.pdf

Publisher’s reference: T1744EMN ISBN: 978 1 86083 798 2

Prices

  • Photocopiable book: £29.95 plus £3.95 delivery
  • CD with school-wide rights: £29.95 plus £3.95 delivery
  • Both the book and the CD: £36.94 plus £3.95 delivery

Prices include VAT.

You can purchase the report… please quote the order ref: T1744EMN