The Head is the lead
professional in the school.
Heads are accountable for
the educational, social, and financial outcomes of the school. They are
effectively the chief executives of a large and complex organisation and will
have overall responsibility for the leadership and vision, staffing and
managing the school, and for budgets and financial security. Heads work for the
governing body, and will have been appointed for their expertise in the
educational field, and an aptitude for seeing a whole organisation which needs
to be guided and steered to success in a host of ways. A good Head will
understand the cogs that need to turn in order to create a successful learning
environment for all pupils, and will know that the daily expertise for
financial management and smooth running of the school needs to be delegated
into the safe hands of competent, confident trusted senior colleagues whom they
will oversee and meet with regularly. The school is an educational
establishment, but it is in fact a business which has successful education at
its core. Decision making, critical thinking, wise judgement and leadership are
the backbone of a good Headship – not presence at every event or rapid
agreement to the latest idea or things that work in other schools, nor trying
to please themselves or other individual stakeholders.
Heads are expected to manage
all staff indirectly or directly, including developing teaching and other responsibilities,
maintaining effective systems and planning into the future. They need to ensure
that there is adequate challenge and experience for the succession of new
leaders in the school in every department. Many schools will employ hundreds of
people even though the teaching staff may be relatively small, and the Head is
effectively the face of the employer.
Children are of course central
to the Head's mission, and it is likely that many hours will be spent reviewing
pupil progress, teaching plans and child welfare with the director of studies
and the teachers, and visiting classes, doing weekly learning walks and talking
to children. This also extends to seeing children who have excelled in any way so
they can be praised and congratulated personally (and also those who need a
sterner word).
The educational direction
of the school, underpinned by research and experience, as well as deep
knowledge of the learning in each classroom, is firmly under the direction of
the Head. They will be supported by a leadership team for educational aspects -
often someone in charge of academics, someone with pastoral responsibilities
and perhaps someone with responsibility for particular age groups such as
nursery or sixth form. These people will meet regularly, often formally, and
more than once a week, to share issues and to make decisions. Outcomes will
also be discussed and at each meeting the key questions, “What is best for the
children?” and, “What might enhance the learning?” are asked and considered. Parental
concerns or individual pupils may well be discussed, but the team has a responsibility
to all children in the school, and will seek to understand the widest possible
picture.
As the lead teacher of the
school Heads will usually take assemblies and give a strong lead in behaviour
management. In a faith school, alongside the chaplain, the Head will be a faith
leader, and will give witness to those beliefs valued by the school. Often they
will be central to any services and groups in this role.
Heads also manage staff,
including performance management, quality assurance and disciplinary or
capability issues. The Head will have a team led by the Bursar (or financial
controller or similar title) who run financial, administrative and estates
management, and a team of support staff and maintenance workers as well as
contract staff for catering and cleaning. The Head will also oversee and
evaluate the work of these non-teaching groups through regular briefings and
updates. Any building work, planning, facilities and contract changes are
likely also to fall under this purview and it is vital that the Head be fully
up to date with anything that spends the budget provided by parents’ fees, to
ensure that everything is of reasonable educational merit and will work for the
best advantage of all pupils. Independent Schools are charitable foundations
and so the achievement of the schools’ charitable aims and its public benefit
also fall under the remit of the Head.
Thus the Head's day is
likely to be filled with regular meetings regarding the various aspects of
running a school as well as dealing with queries from stakeholders within the
school. It is important that a Head is able to build relationships of trust
with all they work with, and to be able to delegate tasks, ensure that
everything is properly completed in line with school policy, and ensure that
nothing slips between the cracks. Often there are offsite meetings with Professional Bodies (GSA, CISC, IAPS, ISI) which they are expected to attend in order
to remain within those organisations. In addition there are regular formal internal
meetings with a series of Governors’ committees in each area that enable a
constant and accurate report to the entire Governing body. Sadly, the days of
knocking on the Head’s door and finding them free to see someone on an ad-hoc basis
are gone.
On occasion an issue that
is raised to a member of the leadership team (or the Head’s PA) by a parent,
staff member or child is sufficiently concerning to be brought immediately to
the Head, who will investigate and act as appropriate, and within very clear
regulatory guidelines. In cases of difficulty the Governors' advice may be
sought, but also professional bodies that schools belong to such as GSA, IAPS and
many others. Child protection is key and at any one time the Head will be
dealing with a number of painful and complex cases with the child protection
officer of the school and external agencies. All of these are likely to fill
the gaps in a very busy schedule.
Heads will also contend
with hundreds of emails each day, which require precise attention and response or
redirection if the school is to remain at the cutting edge of educational
success. If you send an email to the Head it is probably best to send it via
the Head’s PA so that it can either be forwarded to the Head or passed to
someone who is available at shorter notice or more suitable to answer you. Do
not be too surprised if the reply to a concern or query therefore comes from
another respondent: the Head and PA will always make sure that the person best
suited to answer is the person who does so. This is not to push items away but
to ensure that the organisation has leadership in depth and that everything is
not channelled via the Head, which would impede reasonable decision making,
proper accountability and certainly delay prompt action. Similarly, most Heads
will welcome feedback, but are unlikely to make sweeping changes to systems
that already suit the schools’ way of working and match the aims of what is best
and expected for the children, despite the fact that it inconveniences or disappoints
one or two parents who have an opinion about how something ought to run to suit
them or their children (or mirrors something seen as appropriate in another
school). The PA will also be trained to know when it is the best time to
consider particular requests, as questions about lunch or uniform are unlikely to
be useful topics raised in the midst of long booked strategic planning for pupil
safeguarding or building developments, all of which may be fully timetabled into
the Head’s diary. Typically a Head will have a week’s calendar ahead fully
booked, so only the most urgent issues will be able to be fitted in sooner.
Critical issues such as teacher conduct, child protection or safety should be
brought immediately to the Head’s attention via the PA, and urgent Academic or
Pastoral concerns should be taken immediately to the pastoral/academic deputies
or assistant heads or director of studies/head of department as appropriate,
who will deal with these, involving the Head as necessary.
Heads are also expected to
read, review and analyse educational research and literature to allow progress
and improvement. This is used to shape the academic vision through short and
long term plans and changes in the school, and will form part of the agenda for
weekly meeting with teaching staff which allow educational ideas to come to
fruition, and then to be properly evaluated and adapted.
Heads' professional, legal
and ethical responsibilities are laid down in professional standards
regulations and Heads are accountable for all that happens in the school. Therefore
monitoring, evaluating and critical thinking are part of each Head’s week too,
as ensuring success, consistency and rigour in the school is a key
professional expectation. The Head usually joins in with parent committee
meetings when possible and will be involved in marketing, writing articles and
attending courses in addition to local educational initiatives with maintained
schools and feeder schools. Many Heads like to meet and/or tour prospective
parents and to visit any establishments that sends children to the school. If
the Head is widely known and respected they will be expected to serve on other
governing bodies as educationalists, and offer consultancy and assorted wisdom
and support to other Heads and professionals including recruitment and wider
training and quality assurance.
Beyond this Heads always enjoy
seeing their own pupils on the sports field and in the theatre and concert
arena wherever and whenever possible. If you are lucky you may catch a glimpse
of this rare creature as they escape from their office early or late in the
day to greet pupils and parents, partly because they remember how much they liked
teaching in the first place. It may be reassuring to see the Head and to have a
chance to catch them and chat, but it is worth remembering that when they are not seen it is likely
they are working on behalf of you and your children to their fullest ability.
In their ‘free time’ Heads
eat lunch (usually while preparing for the next meeting…).