In 2020, John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley published a book entitled ‘Putting Staff First’, in which they made the case that if educationalists in general, and schools in particular, are to achieve the best for their children and young people, they need to put their staff first. Their key point was that it is only by putting staff first in schools that we can achieve the best for the young people in our care. I found the book refreshing and compelling.
There is no doubt that for a long time, the view that we should put our students first has held sway in many schools. And beyond education it’s easy to find business slogans like ‘We put our customers first!’ and ‘At x it’s all about the customer!’. Everyone remembers the cliché, ‘The customer is always right!’ and that slogan probably comes from a similar place as the customers-first ones: you are only doing a great job by putting the needs of the students/customers/clients first. I am uncomfortable with that.
I’m uncomfortable because using the language of putting the students or customers or clients first suggests there is a hierarchy, in which some people are just more important than others. In schools, there are really only two groups of people: the students and the staff. What message are we giving the staff in our schools if we tell them that the students come ‘first’? Presumably, we are saying that they are less important than the students; that their needs, their views, and their wellbeing are secondary. The language of hierarchy makes that conclusion inevitable, and I think that is very unhelpful.
Surely, it’s not about hierarchy, it’s about treating everyone well. Staff perform at their best when they are valued and cared for, alongside having clear and challenging targets etc… In other words, when Care/Wellbeing and Accountability are in balance. Children and young people, too, will be at their best when standards and expectations are high but when there is also attention to their wellbeing and happiness. Finding the balance can be a challenge for us all and, probably, we will sometimes come up short; but it’s a challenge worth taking up, constantly.
I’m sure John Tomsett and Jonny Uttley were seeking to redress what they see as an imbalance, a skewed sense of hierarchy in education; their point was well made.
It’s not about putting students first or staff first; it’s about putting everyone equal-first, because everyone matters equally.
Mark Patterson
