What a head teacher should check every morning before assembly

By 7:45 a head teacher has already been asked six questions and answered none of them with certainty. The morning list below takes ninety seconds and means that when the bursar, a teacher and a parent arrive at the door together, you already know the answers.

1. Which registers are marked

Not which teachers are in; which registers are done. A class that has not been marked by 8:00 is a class where a missing child has not been noticed. Look, and remind the one or two teachers by name. Do not announce it at assembly; that punishes the thirty who did it.

In SchoolSpec this is the first thing on the home screen: every class with a bar, marked or not, and a Remind button beside the teacher's name.

2. Who is absent, and is anyone absent again

Two children absent is a morning. The same child absent for the third day is a phone call. The register wall shows the names; the child's page shows the pattern.

3. What came in yesterday, and what is still owed

Two numbers. Collected this term, and still owed. Look at the second one every day so that it never becomes a surprise at the end of term. Then the list of who is past due, oldest first, which is where the office's phone calls come from.

4. Which scores are still missing

In the weeks before report cards, this is the number that decides whether they go out on time. Sheets not yet entered, by class and subject, each with the teacher's name. One reminder now saves a week of chasing later.

5. What is waiting on you

A leave request. A parent's message. A bill to approve. Three things at most; if there are more, something upstream is being sent to you that should not be.

6. Today

Assembly, any visitor, any event on the calendar, and whether the school closes early. Say the one thing the staff need to know at assembly, and nothing else.

Then walk

The list tells you where to go. The corridor tells you why. A head who has done the ninety seconds walks to Basic 3 because its register is not marked, not because it is the nearest door.

The list above is the home screen of SchoolSpec for a head teacher, in that order. It was designed by writing this list first.