Social media has taken over the world, and no more so than in the world of education. Many of our top educators and education policymakers are spending time online, joining the live education debates, networking, sharing good practice and their own experiences with a huge network of like-minded people. It’s a place where an NQT can chat to Ofsted, where headteachers can share their ideas on reducing teaching workload, but also a place where you might find a Friday night virtual singalong or even your next career move.  

The SBL and SBM community has a growing and increasingly active online presence, and we’re really keen to grow that network, so that all school business leaders can benefit from the great support, CPD, interactions, humour and experience that is openly shared. Everyone is welcome and you can join in as much or as little as you like. It’s not all work though, and many people have developed long lasting friendships, and have been supported to find their professional voice through the confidence brought about by sharing ideas in a non-hierarchical virtual setting.

Over the last few weeks, a hardcore group of SBL tweeters have been chatting online about how to engage more of the SBL community in social media, to our mutual benefit, and also to expand the profession’s ability to collaborate and become a cohesive national network. So in true SBL style, we decided to take a collaborative approach and brainstorm how to make this happen. We came up with a How to Use Twitter PowerPoint, aimed specifically at SBLs, a #SBLTwitterMap showing our locations and spread of online SBLs across the UK, a Twitter challenge (ever the educators!) and a central list of all the SBL folk on Twitter to enable easy filtering and a way to find other SBLs to follow. 

#SBLtwittermap
I have moved the map and the form and amended them slightly, in order to make them more secure and GDPR-proof!
The form is now here: https://t.co/Kwik5TAC1c
The map is now here: https://t.co/ImlFw8inlV

- Hilary Goldsmith (@sbl365) April 16, 2018

‘Ensuring our professional voice is heard’

We’ve been referred to as the SBL Twitterati in the past, but that’s the opposite of what we’re trying to do; we’d love every SBL in the UK to be on Twitter and to be contributing to online debates, discussions and support networks, but also to join the wider educational debate and ensure that our professional voice is heard and valued throughout the education sector and beyond. We all know from personal experience that the role of the SBL can be extremely isolated at times, whatever our context, and we often hear tales of loneliness and lack of support at a local level. The hope is that by bringing together a collective of voices of all ages, experience, sectors and roles that the sense of isolation will diminish and our colleagues across the country will be able to feel supported, encouraged and to find that sense of camaraderie that is so often missing for non-teaching school leaders.

It’s a fascinating and turbulent time for school business professionals, but also a time when the educational agenda is focusing on areas that lie at the very heart of our profession; school funding, the crises in teacher recruitment and staff wellbeing, GDPR, trustee accountability, governance structures, change-management and system leadership. And as our profession is pulled in many different directions, so must we adapt and redefine ourselves into a myriad of new and emerging personas. There has been no more relevant time for school business leadership, but also none more challenging. 

Collaboration, support and a collective voice will be key factors in the transition of our profession and the development of ourselves as emerging new professionals. A social media platform is the ideal place to make that happen and I’m personally very excited about the momentum that seems to be building to encourage and support each other to be outward-facing, agile and engaged in the big debates.

So if any school business folk are thinking about joining Twitter but are unsure what to expect, please try out our resources, join up and give it a go - you’ll be guaranteed a very warm welcome at the very least, and after a while you may find yourself, like me, a little bit addicted!

Hilary Goldsmith is director of finance and operations at a large secondary school and tweets at @sbl365

For more information on SBL Twitter go to SBL365 and click here to add your account to the SBL Twittermap