A Guide to Leaving Well

The Transition Trilogy Part 1: An Encore Worthy Ending

Every runner knows that you have to save a final bit of energy for that last sprint. Every singer saves their biggest and most brilliant song and performance for the end of the show. Every musical ends with a classic feel good song that you’ll be singing all the way home. They leave their audience, feeling great and wanting more. It’s a euphoric experience for all involved!

In schools we do this for our students: planning end of term parties, trips, presentations, awards ceremonies and celebrations. Teachers ensure that they all leave on a high and take only positive memories with them. This is often, of course, at the expense of the teachers themselves who are utterly exhausted by the time they leave school on the last day!

Maintaining this energy is even more important when it comes at the end of a contract, when staff are moving on to somewhere new. The temptation, especially when leaving somewhere you haven't been particularly happy, can be to take your foot off the gas and coast to the end of term. The ripple effects of this, however, are huge. If we really care about the school, the remaining staff and the students in our care, then we need to manage our exit professionally, with grace and dignity. 

Here are a few tips to ensure to help you manage an encore worthy exit:

Find out about the off boarding timeline

Every school should have an off boarding policy and timeline. Speak with your line manager to make sure that you are clear about dates and expectations around intellectual property rules, exit interview arrangements and handover timelines. If you ARE the leader, then of course this needs to be given careful consideration and should be mapped and agreed with your replacement over the course of the last months.

Plan your handover

Who needs to know what you know? Information about students and their families needs to be passed on, information about planning and resources needs to be passed on and, if you are leading a subject or team, information about staff and strategy need to be passed on. Following Māori custom, the All Black Rugby Team practice Whakapapa, which is about being a good ancestor. It means planting trees you’ll never see and leaving the jersey in a better place. Find ways to make your successor’s job as easy as possible and leave the door open for further questions later. 

Plan what to take

While there will be policies around ownership of intellectual property, which need to be followed, there will also be ideas you have created and resources you have produced which you will want to replicate and take with you. During your final term, start to consider what you will want to use again and whether to make physical or electronic copies. Consider taking photographs, particularly of your own displays, projects and evidence; all of which may come in useful later. 

Inform the relevant people

Work with your Line Manager to agree who will be told, when and how. There is an order in which things need to take place in order to manage emotions. Once key people have been informed (Governors, staff, the school community) then go through your emails to inform any relevant people outside of the organisation, copying in your forwarding address, where relevant, in order to remain in contact.   

Write your thank yous

In the busyness of the final few weeks, it will be hard to find the right moments to speak with people individually and to say all that needs to be said. Find the time to write your thank yous, either by email or card, acknowledging the work they have done, the support they have given, difference they have made and lessons learnt. This is a wonderful opportunity to again practise leaving the jersey in a better place. 

Uphold your standards

Be aware of the ripple effects of your actions. As soon as you start to drop standards then those around you will too. Keep displays up as long as possible, routines going as long as possible and continue to follow school conduct until the very end of the term. Changing the way you behave, dress or work tin the last few weeks would undermine all of the rest of the work you have done and can be damaging to the morale of those remaining. 

Hold your tongue!

On my last day at one school, years ago, I took a phone call from a parent who wanted to tell me that she’d always hated me. I thanked her and put the phone down. Fortunately the hundreds of parents who came to my leaving celebration didn’t feel the same way! 

Don’t confuse your last day with the end of a teen movie! There may be a temptation to tell people exactly what you think and walk off into the sunset but it is a small world and reputations travel. Once something is said it cannot be unsaid and so better to hold your tongue and leave on a positive note. After all, hopefully these former colleagues will turn out to be future collaborators. 

Nothing is truly an ending but only the end of a chapter and you want it to be an uplifting one. In the words of Bugsy Malone: “You give a little love and it all comes back to you; you’re gonna be remembered for the things that you say and do.” Make sure that your finale is spectacular for all the right reasons!