Every teacher and educator is familiar with the concept of the ‘hidden curriculum’. First used by the US sociologist Philip Jackson in 1968, the term ‘hidden curriculum’ refers to the unintended, unwritten, and unofficial lessons, values, and social norms that students pick up in school alongside their formal academic studies. The idea is that students in schools learn much more than the stated aims shown in teachers’ lesson plans or syllabus documents as they absorb cultural values, social hierarchies and behavioural norms from every facet of the school environment and its community.
Less well known to all but Heads of Schools is the ‘hidden handbook’. Before we can understand the significance of the Hidden Handbook, we should first understand that most schools possess the highly visible “Handbook Troika”, comprising a Board Handbook, a Staff Handbook and a Student Handbook. These documents articulate the ethos, philosophy, expectations, policies and procedures required by each audience for whom the handbook was written. Collectively they direct the school in a manner that keeps the school running safely and smoothly.
The Student Handbook typically explains behavioural expectations, academic standards, and daily routines for students and families. It usually explains the code of conduct, anti-bullying policies, attendance rules, technology guidelines, and grading systems. It also provides students with clear information about their rights, responsibilities, and the support services available to them in the school.
The Staff Handbook would usually outline general terms of employment, professional duties, the organisational structure, and the workplace expectations for teachers and non-teaching staff. It would generally explain daily operational procedures, leave policies, and health and safety rules, thus protecting both the employee and the school by clarifying legal compliance and codes of professional conduct.
The Board Handbook is designed to guide school board members on their legal duties and governance roles. It sets out the school’s philosophy and mission (enduring purpose), strategic vision, constitutional requirements, policy development processes, and financial oversight rules for the school. The Board Handbook also helps orient new members as well providing ongoing understanding of important matters such as how to evaluate the Head of School, the conduct of board meetings, oversight of the school’s operations, and management of institutional and reputational risk.
And then there is the Hidden Handbook. Every school has one, and it is often so well hidden that it is invisible, especially to a newly appointed Head of School. The Hidden Handbook contains the unwritten, implicit expectations that the Board has for its Head of School. It also contains the folklore of the school, its myths and legends, the hierarchy of real and imagined relationships, the distinctive way that words are used and people are spoken about, and the commonly understood assumptions that explain how the school really thinks and operates.
I initially learned that Hidden Handbooks exist soon after I was appointed to my first headship. I subsequently learned about Hidden Handbooks again soon after I was appointed to my second, third, fourth and fifth (of five) headships. Sometimes I discovered the Hidden Handbook within a day or two of arriving to take up my new position, usually over coffee and afternoon tea when the Board Chair and I met privately to discuss “the board’s real priorities”. These were the priorities which had never once been mentioned in any of the preceding employment interviews and negotiations. In some of the other schools where I served as Head, the Hidden Handbook was never mentioned explicitly, but I was left to become aware of it progressively as though through a process of osmosis. This usually occurred after committing an apparently unforgivable blunder such as mispronouncing a large donor’s name in public, or being seen by an alumnus to have walked past a student whose shirt was not tucked in properly in the supermarket – you get the idea.
The Hidden Handbook is never written down. It doesn’t need to be because the information it contains is understood by everyone who has been in the school for a while – which of course never includes a new Head of School (unless internally appointed).
Being unwritten does not, of course, mean the rules of the Hidden Handbook can be ignored. The Hidden Handbook contains the general presuppositions of the school community regarding the people who are genuinely influential (irrespective of their formal position on the organisational chart), the acceptable pace of change, the extent of consultation people expect, the presumed visibility the Head of School will adopt, the balance between innovation and tradition that seems tolerable, and then in the “sealed centrefold”, the Board’s priorities that it expects the Head of School to achieve on its behalf.
It is probably inevitable that every new Head of School will encounter unexpected events and unanticipated surprises in the first months of a headship. However, many Boards and their search committees could, and should, do their best to build a ‘no surprises’ environment for an incoming Head by being as transparent as possible during the recruitment process. I believe Boards do a disservice to both their new Head of School and themselves by withholding information during the search process regarding any likely challenges that are anticipated to arise. If the challenges are so great that they might deter a prospective appointee, then it is unlikely that appointee would have been successful in the role anyway. After all, successful appointments of Heads usually follow when the appointee is genuinely excited by the nature of the challenges to be addressed.
Assuming the Board has been transparent and shared some of the content of the Hidden Handbook with a prospective Head of School before the employment contract is signed, there are several other ways that a Board can help a new Head sidestep any landmines that might be lurking in the Hidden Handbook:
- Dr Stephen Codrington
We offer support for school leaders and board members in many areas, including workshops on the Board-Head relationship, and providing critical friendships and mentoring for School Principals and Board Chairs.
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