By Mr Sam VIDAMBU.
1. Principal's assembly. Monday's assembly to be called Principal's assembly while Friday's assembly to be named Deputy's assembly. I have seen this working well in many schools. The assemblies are conducted by TODs but Principal in conjuction with Director of Studies will give speeches concerning the academic situation of the school. The Friday's assembly is conducted by TODs but the Deputy Principal and HOD G&C will give speeches concerning the overall discipline of the school. Another name for Principal's assembly is academic assembly and another name for Deputy's assembly is discipline assembly. The Principal will be present on Friday and deputy present on Monday.
2. Organize Principal's cup. As the Principal, identify a sport that you want students to compete in. The students will have inter-class competitions e.g in Form 2 Pool 1, Form 2 White versuses Form 2 Green. In Form 2 Pool 2, Form 2 Purple versus Form 2 Blue. The winner of Form 2 Pool 1 meets with the winner of Form 2 Pool 2. The same format of competition happens in form three and form four. The form two champion class will compete with the form three champion class. Whoever wins will compete with form four champion class in the finals. The Principal will then award a trophy. It is called the Principal's cup.
3. Serve them supper. Once/twice in a month the principal can go to the dining hall, wear the apron and help the cooks to serve students supper. This is called servant leadership. The Principal is killing three birds with the same stone. He is winning the hearts of the students, non-teaching staff(cooks) and parents. Cooks will consider him as a friendly person and parents will be told by the students that the principal serves them supper. You can imagine how the parents will feel.
4. Be strict, but likable.
5. Be on the ground.
6. If available, worship with students on Sunday and if possible, pray for them after the Principal's assembly.
7. Have a Father-son/Mother-daughter relationship more than Principal-student relationship.
8. Let them know your life story e.g how you grew up, the challenges you faced and how you made it in life.
9. Once in a term, dress in full students' uniform. This will bring you closer to the students as they will relate with you.
10. Smile when it's time to smile and get serious when it's time to be serious. Don't put a no-nonsense face from January to January because they will fear you. Remember, fear brings rebellion and rebellion can easily cause a strike.
50 years from today, students will forget everything you said but they will never forget how you made them feel. The closer you are to students, the more they love you. The more they love you, the more they respect and do what you say. The more they do what you say, the better the results of the school.
By Mr Sam VIDAMBU (0743480435).
Vidambu is a professional academic mentor with over 4,500 high schools in Kenya running his academic programs.
His Academic Mentorship Programs are about content mastery skills, content retention techniques, content delivery approaches, proper revision strategies, proven reading cultures, practical study habits, target setting, among other great topics.
He is a Trainer of Principals during KESSHA conferences and teachers.
He is the President of Global Student Mentorship Center, He is an author, and a Tutor.
To Have Vidambu launch the Candidates Academic Mentorship Programs in your school and be a Class Mentor kindly call/text/whatsapp 0743480435 (Sam Vidambu).
Kindly Forward This Article To Whatsapp Groups of the Teachers, Parents and All The Principals you know.
To Be Added To His Whatsapp Group Full of Principals and Teachers To Receive His Mentorship First Before Anyone Else Kindly Whatsapp His Number (0743480435).
You Are Blessed.
