IT Managers on SLT?

[KWestos]

Are any of you guys on your school SLT (or equivalent) and if so, what's your title? Edited September 25, 2008 by KWestos

[kmount]

Grumbledook is/was Director of IT at his school sitting on SLT.

[CyberNerd]

My boss is an assistant head, his title is 'network manager'.

There is a lot of fixation about titles on this forum, but they don't mean anything.

Pay is determined by the level of responsibility, not the title. In reality my boss doesn't manage the network he manages the people and the budget.

[GrumbleDook]

Yep ... Director of IT. Presently I am away from the school on a 12 months secondment to the LA and my job has been spread out over 6 people, including the Business Manager and Network Manager (BM has taken over the SLT lead for IT Support, and between the pair of them they do budget and infrastructure strategy), the Head of ICT is the acting Director of ICT and now has full control of curriculum (including the links into all the other departments), pretty much all data is done by the timetabler / data analyst / reports guru (also an ICT teacher from a Comp Studies and stats background) and the 2nd in ICT is head of Online Engagement and links into the website, eLearning, etc ... but things are still flexible as people fit into the roles left and swap things aruond.

 

The Network Manager who is level D on the Becta Technical Competencies framework ... so yes, I was budgets, strategy, policy and leadership, whilst only doing minimal hands-on and he put into place my decisions.

 

Do you mean they are a teacher who has the title of IT Manager (or former teacher) or that they have come up purely through the technical or managerial route? For information, I am from the technical route.

[localzuk]

My boss is an assistant head, his title is 'network manager'.

There is a lot of fixation about titles on this forum, but they don't mean anything.

Pay is determined by the level of responsibility, not the title. In reality my boss doesn't manage the network he manages the people and the budget.

 

That's not really true. Many LEAs link a title with a pay scale. Sure, you can change pay scales if your responsibility increases, but initially a 'Network Manager' is linked to a particular scale, a 'Network Technician' likewise.

 

There's a fixation on titles due to the fact many schools use them in order to keep the pay for those staff members low. There are many examples on this site of people who are doing a Network Manager's job but are only 'Senior Technician' or even 'Technician'.

 

As to the OP's question - I'm not on the SLT here (I'm the NM) but my manager (Assistant Head (Resources)) is.

[Butuz]

Seems to be very hard for NM's to get to SLT without any teaching qualifications or experience.

 

Grumbledook is the exception rather than the rule I recon.

[srochford]

I suspect it depends on how they try to portray themselves and the "vision" they can give the rest of management.

 

If someone only ever talks about layer 3 switches and the advantages of admx over adm files then they're unlikely to have a place at SLT level. If they talk about how ICT can be used to help learners, improve learning and to support teachers and teaching then that's more likely to make an impact.

[CyberNerd]

That's not really true. Many LEAs link a title with a pay scale.

 

It is incorrect for a LA to do this. Mismatched jobs is one of the reasons employers have to do job evaluations (equal pay audits) as it protects them from equal pay claims. Titles are not considered at all in equal pay claims, only the level of work and the responsibility (or accountability) that it entails.

What the LA should do is link the pay spine with the JE, and if they wish link a title to that.

[GrumbleDook]

Seems to be very hard for NM's to get to SLT without any teaching qualifications or experience.

 

Grumbledook is the exception rather than the rule I recon.

 

Yep. From conversations with SSAT etc, we reckon there are about 20 - 30 of us around England, most of which have entered into some teaching as part of it.

 

It is more common for the Business Manager / Bursar to be on the SLT. In fact there are a few members who are doing the Business Managers' course so they can move into SLT as Business Manager (if not there already) but having come from a technical background.

 

It this level you really are a Manager, with little hands on (unfortunately) and your day tends to be filled with awkward pauses between meetings ... some of which are long enough to get some paperwork done!

[CyberNerd]

Yep. From conversations with SSAT etc, we reckon there are about 20 - 30 of us around England, most of which have entered into some teaching as part of it.

 

If someone only ever talks about layer 3 switches and the advantages of admx over adm files then they're unlikely to have a place at SLT level. If they talk about how ICT can be used to help learners, improve learning and to support teachers and teaching then that's more likely to make an impact.

 

Interestingly the Becta report on managed services had a telling insight into this, it said something along the lines that managed service providers speak more in terms of learning outcomes. In house NM's focus too much on the technical side and don't 'sell' their services to SLT.No wonder there are so few NM's who get promoted, SLT need to see the benefits in terms that they understand.

[CheeseDog]

That's not really true. Many LEAs link a title with a pay scale. Sure, you can change pay scales if your responsibility increases, but initially a 'Network Manager' is linked to a particular scale, a 'Network Technician' likewise.

 

There's a fixation on titles due to the fact many schools use them in order to keep the pay for those staff members low. There are many examples on this site of people who are doing a Network Manager's job but are only 'Senior Technician' or even 'Technician'.

 

As to the OP's question - I'm not on the SLT here (I'm the NM) but my manager (Assistant Head (Resources)) is.

 

Indeed currently in the process of getting my title changed for this very reason.

 

Not after more money just getting a bit anxious over getting screwed on single status.

 

In the situation where I need to send the LEA a job spec etc.

 

As for SLT I'm on a Leadership Group which meets every 3 weeks and consists of SLT and some TAs. (Not sure how useful this group actually is, early days yet)

Edited September 26, 2008 by CheeseDog

[forcryingoutloud]

Nope, but they sure do like telling me how to do IT stuff

[muppet]

I'm not on the top level SLT, but here we have a sub group called SLICT and Infrastructure Development which has the top level SLT, myself, the Bursar and the Site Development Officer. Staff are aware of our position in the hierarchal structure, although one or two do have a problem with this!

[pavlovs_dog]

I am on the SMT with the title ICT Development Manager.

[GrumbleDook]

Now officially left the school (well, official date is 1st December but still at the LA) and my post has been dropped, but rolled out between multiple people. The biggest change is the Head is taking on more of the developments with technology, the Business Manager has become a vice-principal (deputy head) and the Network Manager has taken on more of my work with strategy and design.

 

It works well for them, and my time in the role moved them on a fair chunk of the way but the technology is there ... use of it now needs more systemic change in the school driven by a new development plan.

 

You could say I did myself out of a job but made the NM job a better one in return.

[bossman]

SMT here with title of SLICT (Strategic leader of ICT)

In short manage the network and any other communications systems plus the strategic development of the whole school ICT infrastructure and external groups with the task of bringing it all together within a budget framework which I have to cost and manage.

 

I also have a number of brooms attached to my person which when I walk through the school covers a variety of duties.

 

I have a great wingman though in my accomplice "webman" and between us we pretty much have it sorted.

[maniac]

Not on SLT, but may as well be - some of the meetings I've been to this week, jeeeez, it like talking another language.

[GrumbleDook]

Not on SLT, but may as well be - some of the meetings I've been to this week, jeeeez, it like talking another language.

 

Oh yes ... and people thought I was joking when talked about manglement speak at the EG conference many moons ago !!! It gets worse the further up you go. Never sit in on a meeting between heads, LA folk and DCSF.

[maniac]

Oh yes ... and people thought I was joking when talked about manglement speak at the EG conference many moons ago !!! It gets worse the further up you go. Never sit in on a meeting between heads, LA folk and DCSF.

 

This was a meeting concerning our new build, so we had myself, business manager, one of our sponsors, the head of ICT from our sponsors company, Representitves from an IT consutants we're employing, our building contractors and arechtects and a Rep from KCC.

 

I've not yet worked out what we achieved in the 2 hours I was there.

 

Mike.

[GrumbleDook]

A trick to use is to ask if people mind if you use a digital dictaphone (I use voxie on my iPhone) to record things as you don't want to misconstrue any of the building or managerial terms used.

 

It tends to result in people speaking plain english for the first few meetings and only using manglement speak for specific things (where it is quicker to use it as terminology) and you get used to translating on the fly.

 

by the 3rd or 4th meeting you are used to it and can switch between one or the other ... the hard job is to then translate it to teachers!

[robins]

Yep I'm SMT/SLT as ICT/MIS mgr. Lots of long hours, long words and short acronyms. Can't now imagine not being able to voice the IT perspective or lead school development initiatives from a technology perspective. In my mind, really understanding the IT is essential to management - the corporal world has been on this for years with management consultant, change manager and IT architect really being roled into one.

In many schools I have seen, managers have come up via IT either systems or academic paths because IT people tend to have to take a whole school perspective on everything and therefore make better leadership candidates as they see the big picture.

[john]

 

I also have a number of brooms attached to my person which when I walk through the school covers a variety of duties.

Sounds like one of them is Caretaker then if you have many brooms attached to your person I have large bunch of keys attached to my person thus Site Manager is one of mine

 

I'm not one, but my manager is, but I do have an excellent relationship with all of the SLT so if they needed anything quickly they just ask me and have it direct which works well.