The Habits You Build in Your First Term Are the Ones You Keep
You have completed your first month in your new leadership role at school.
You’re loving it. And it’s been hard.
It's been a month of firsts: new systems, new ways of doing things, new demands on your attention. You've pushed yourself out of your comfort zone, and there's something genuinely good about being challenged again.
Understandably, you’re also feeling the strain, and you're counting down to half term. But you're also feeling driven; you’re energised, enthused, and keen to make changes for the better.
One school leader I supervised, who was new to their role, told me about a driving passion to achieve everything, right away. They could see so much that needed doing. It was only in the reflective space of supervision that they could acknowledge how unrealistic that was. Starting everything at once wasn't a plan, it was a way of burning out faster. They had to start prioritising and putting things on the backburner.
In a new role, you're often also the "go-to person." Suddenly there are more people at your door, more calls, more emails. Saying yes to everyone feels like the way to show you're capable, that you want to help. However, your plate fills up fast.
There's also very little grace period. Even with the most patient colleagues, school doesn't slow down while you learn the ropes. That sense of overwhelm, in a new role, is very real. It's certainly how I felt stepping into my first leadership role.
And somewhere in the back of your mind, there's often a quieter voice too: what if they work out I don't actually know what I'm doing? I've worked with new headteachers who often wonder if they're good enough for the job. They feel a strong desire to prove themselves to their school community, to demonstrate the impact they can have.
What’s the impact?
Some would say this is all just part of the job. And maybe it is.
But what does it actually cost you? What does it cost your family?
It's easy to think: I just need to put in the hard work now, get up and running, and then things will settle.
So you leave a little later. You get the laptop out on the sofa, half-watching TV with your partner while you're actually deep in emails. You're less and less present at home, your mind already back at school, turning over tomorrow's problem or the difficult conversation you still need to have with a parent.
Not switching off becomes a rolling snowball. The more you work to keep up, the less you rest. The less you rest - and the worse the quality of that rest becomes - the more you underperform. Which means working even more, just to stand still.
The pressure to go further keeps pushing you on. And somewhere in there, you might start to wonder if something's wrong with you. Perhaps your resilience isn't what it used to be.
It isn't a question of resilience. It's a question of sustainable leadership.
These are traps that plenty of new school leaders fall into. I know, because I've supervised many of them.
What usually happens is this: you become established in the role, and the hours and effort that got you through the beginning quietly become your normal. This is no longer a temporary push. It’s just how things are now.
Except it isn't sustainable. And it stops being enjoyable. The passion that got you here starts to fizzle out.
For some, burnout is what finally forces the change. It's what happened to me.
What if you didn't have to wait for that?
What if you could establish yourself in a new role, make a genuine difference, and hold healthy boundaries from the very start?
That would mean sustained effort at school, without it costing you everything else at home.
Building that early gives you the habits to succeed and stay standing — not habits you have to dismantle and rebuild later, after burnout's already forced the issue.
Here’s one place to start, and it requires only one clear boundary, one evening a week:
Go home early. Leave the laptop at school.
If you'd like space to work out what sustainable leadership actually looks like for you specifically, I'm running a brand new webinar Sustainable Boundaries for New School Leaders on Thursday 15th October 2026 at 6:30pm. Everyone who books gets a recording afterwards too, so it's no problem if the evening doesn't work for you.
Book your place on the webinar here: Sustainable Boundaries for New School Leaders — Gemma Drinkall - HeadSphere
This session is also included as part of the Sustainable Leaders Membership alongside ongoing, supervision-informed support that carries you well past your first term.