Islington Play CEO
Dreamt about my dad last night. In it he wasn't dead but just turned up and behaved as he always did, silent, morose, stoned. I wake up feeling argumentative and unsettled. Lucky I have my train journey to get my head together.
Who knew that the commute could be actually fundamental to having a good day?
I am planning to talk to more staff about the impending move of sites (as mentioned in the last blog!) I am unsure how worried people are about it and need to get a feel for whether it seems like a good idea or just scary. I hope that people will see it as an opportunity to provide interest and change for the children and be a challenging and interesting experience for themselves too. I am aware that adult people are never that keen on change....
We have had the applications in for the training opportunity. Three people have applied so we agree to send all of them. This is the first part of a level 4 in playwork course run by Hackney Play Association, people won't be fully qualified but will be on their way to getting a handle on management level working. We will find ways for them to disseminate their learning through our weekly meetings and our publications. I am happy to read about their ambitions in their statements.
Next week we are planning two days of structure building at Crumbles Castle, while the service is shut for its post Summer break, the staff who are not on annual leave from the other IPA sites, including head office and some trustees, will be pulling down nearly rotten structures and building new ones with Grant and his trusty milk float. We had a discussion about steel toe boots and may have to buy some for those involved. I am worried that I won't even be able to lift my feet....
Running the IPA is a strange combination of thinking about children's experiences, my approach to which is influenced a lot by my own memories and concentrating on the adults that we are dependent on to make the services work for those children. I feel that it is vital for the adults to be able not only to behave professionally but also to feel love and affection for their team and the children. This is as important at head office as in the nursery. IPA runs a lot of away days, meetings, lunches and informal get-togethers through the year from attending the Eastbourne conference en masse to setting off to Highgate Woods for the day. The reason for these things is to get a feel for how staff are and what issues may be affecting their ability to feel love and affection for their team and the children.
Frontline with the children is demanding, exhausting, seemingly never ending - especially by the end of a six week summer programme! But also exhilarating, interesting and often amazing and the people we have here at IPA are wondrous in their patience, care and genuine connection with the children many of whom are living very challenging lives.
My own belief is that one day can make all the difference when you are a child. I remember many days as a child where one person said or did one thing and that had a profound effect on me, still does. I hope all of our staff remember that they could be that person.... do that thing. My job is to try to help them achieve that and I am always available to hear about what could make it happen.
We are recruiting a new administrator and yes I will be expecting them to be able to relate to children as well as adults but in the first instance they need to successfully complete an extremely demanding computer test devised with much glee in house. I apologise in advance to the prospective candidates but there is no point them coming to work here and finding out further down the line that they can't actually do the job. This is a painful and demoralising process for all, including us. If you come to be our administrator you need to be able to really work Excel. Sorry but there it is. And no, I cannot do it but as CEO it hasn't been demanded of me...yet.