A message from
Rich Jones, Head.
I have recently returned from a Heads conference where a friend of mine, another Head (who is female), had been told by a parent “just pace yourself young lady, always remember you’re a mother first”. She couldn’t quite believe it. He was an affable and supportive parent, by all accounts, but my pal was left seething and is holding a meeting with him this afternoon. I couldn’t imagine, not for a second, that a male Head would have ever received that advice…
I think a lot of us had our ups and downs during the COVID lockdown period. I almost look back on it in an otherworldly way – a sort of separate entity of time where things just got, frankly, really weird.
Sadly and to my eternal shame, I remember one day in lockdown all too well; it was between a history Teams lesson (on the bubonic plague, I kid you not!) and online registration. I walked past my daughter and affectionately ruffled her head and said “you okay princess?” She stopped immediately and responded, “Daaaaad, I am not a princess, I am a warrior, you have to get it right”.
Now, I was brought up by a staunch and principled mother where any sense, let alone utterance, of sexist language or action would be dealt with ferociously and swiftly. My friendship circles have always been heavily biased towards females and I have always thought of myself as a liberal and that I inhabited an equity-focused world, which I believed was reasonably impregnable…
Princess? I don’t think I have ever used that term before (and certainly haven’t since) and I wondered and worried for some time about where that came from. The term princess is a contentious one - for some it has connotations of fairytales and needing to be "saved" by a handsome prince. For others it is simply meant as an endearing term with no underlying message. Oh dear.
Mary Ann Sieghart wrote an excellent book called The Authority Gap about this very topic and about how the change has to come from men and culture rather than women. In one study, she found that women are 30% less likely to be called for an interview than a man with the exact same qualifications and experience. In another that if there are only women candidates for jobs, it is 59% more likely that the position will be re-advertised without interviewing the first cohort. Sieghart says the shift needs to happen culturally as much as anything else. She points to the media as a prime example and that we have all been spoon-fed this notion that men are more authoritative, more expert and frankly more important than women and that this only continues to help confirm long seated biases. In movies and on streaming platforms, men are twice as likely to be the main protagonist, and that on TV and in print media men at three times more likely to be quoted than women are.
I am acutely aware that 70% of the readership of this newsletter know this all too well and have many stories to tell.
Whilst we have a long way to go, I am encouraged that at St Chris we have a real and increasing focus on EDI (equity, diversity, and inclusion) surrounding all things that we do. I know it’s not perfect yet, but that the first step in solving a problem is the recognition that there is still one to solve.
I saw a brilliant quote recently from George Orwell, a writer who I have always admired. I was surprised to find out that he lived quite near Letchworth for a period. He said of the Garden City that it held a “magnetic force for every feminist, fruit-juice drinker, sandal-wearing Quaker, ‘Nature Cure’ quack and pacifist in England".
Now I am unconvinced that this was written as a compliment but I have to say I rather like it…
As Seighart says “Equality is not a zero-sum game. Men do not have to lose for women to win. When everyone wins, society flourishes”. I want St Chris to be a place where everyone flourishes and we work towards dispelling a culture of male importance.
Right, have a lovely half term break and I’m off to buy some sandals…"
Answer this week's Interesting Question
Staff Spotlight.
Kishon Mather,
Director of Finance
Kish describes himself as a "local boy", attending The Highfield School in Letchworth Garden City, and joined the team just eight short weeks ago. We reminisced about his childhood - where all good stories start - and the journey he took to becoming Director of Finance at St Chris.
Kish studied accountancy and law at the University of the West of England, Bristol. After university, he pursued accountancy and found himself working locally with a property management company as an accountant, predominantly working on service charge accountancy. It was then that Kish began studying to be become a Chartered Management Accountant.
After experience across the public sector at Welwyn Hatfield Council and the City of London Corporation, Kish took a dive into the education sector and went to work at the City Academy in Hackney. He remembers the job very fondly: "I think that was the best job I had in a lot of ways. What I'd learnt in my accountancy qualification, I put into practice". After working at the City Academy and having such positive interactions with the sector and the students themselves, Kish was sure that education was the right sector for him and that he thrived among the lively throes of a school's finance department.
Most recently Kish took on a role at The Difference, an educational training charity, and a middle ground between the public sector and education. The Difference was started by an ex-English teacher who came from a difficult background and was established to support students who were excluded from learning, both by physical exclusion from the school, and by being removed from classrooms.
Unfortunately, Kish was made redundant after just one year of employment with The Difference. As if by luck, the Director of Finance job at St Chris came up at the point of his redundancy: “It was a great opportunity, so I thought I'd grab it. As with everything, you go for an interview and hope for the best, so I was delighted that I got the job, especially when my presentation had gone over the time limit!".
Now he's here, Kish is getting stuck into numerous different projects and is relishing the culture at St Chris. "The culture is really collaborative, and people mix well. Unlike other schools, there's no division between teaching and professional services staff. I remember one of my first lunchtimes at the school I saw a cleaner eating lunch with some teachers. That was so refreshing".
