Whatever the job, there has to be organisation. Organisation not just of the task in hand, but also of the workload as a whole.
There needs to be a balance of input and output, a control of the level of interruptions, and a certainty that the level of work is manageable by the staff available.
Unfortunately, within school administrations these issues are not always considered, largely because some negative factors in relation to the work (interruptions are a perfect example) become thought of as an inevitable part of the job.
However, 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.
But if one believes that overload is inevitable, then it will be inevitable. Only if one believes that there are alternative ways of doing things does one look for these alternatives. And even then the habit of the past means that the alternatives are not always easy to find.
Yet the fact is 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 are many ways of administering a school and that some of these ways of organising school administration are much more effective and efficient than other approaches.
The report “Increasing Efficiency in School Administration” gives examples of efficiencies that can be made within school administration and how one can change long-established approaches to leadership, change management, time management, facilities management, budgeting and the 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.
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.
Additionally, all orders that quote the publisher’s reference below will also receive a free copy of two reports by the School of Educational Administration and Management: Reducing Overload in the School Office, and Eliminating Interruptions in the School Office.
There are sample pages from the photocopiable book at http://www.pdf.firstandbest.co.uk/bursar/T1744.pdf
Publisher’s reference: T1744EMX 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: T1744EMX
- By post to First and Best, Hamilton House, Earlstrees Ct., Earlstrees Way, Corby, NN17 4HH
- By fax to 01536 399 012
On line with a credit card at http://shop.firstandbest.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=26&products_id=568