It is important to acknowledge that implicit in our relationship with the school community must be both responsiveness and demandingness. To become a community, there has to be shared expectations of all parties and that includes parents as well as teachers.

Responsiveness - “We did let parents know that we were actually teaching reading, writing and mathematics, for example. But we also went beyond that to examine their concerns and issues more deeply to see if there was something more we needed to know or understand and, perhaps, change in what we were doing.”

In Part 3, Lesley Murrihy, describes how telling a coherent story through alignment of actions and words, modelling - showing and not just telling, getting in close and (selectively) disclosing yourself as a leader to build trust and connection were all important in the process of winning a new school community.

In Part 2 of this leadership series, Dr Lesley Murrihy shares her thoughts about the process of winning and continually winning a new school community using the metaphor of “wooing”.

Part 1: This is the introduction to a series of articles focused on what Dr Lesley Murrihy learned about leadership as the foundation principal of Amesbury School, Wellington which opened in 2012.