Is headship a poisoned chalice?

With changing definitions, expectations and governments, wearing the crown of headship is starting to look as perilous as an episode of Game of Thrones

Remember when the Department for Education and Ofsted apparently acquired a new version of the dictionary in which the definition of ‘satisfactory’ suddenly came to mean the exact opposite? Well, it seems that with a new Conservative government in place, definitions are once again up for grabs. At the moment, a school which receives a ‘requires improvement’ grade for leadership and management does so because leaders “are demonstrating the capacity to secure improvement in the school”. In cases where the leadership does not demonstrate such capacity, then into a category they must go.

But if the government gets its way, then no longer will capacity to improve be sufficient. Indeed, it seems that those leaders with the capacity to improve schools are exactly the sort that the government deems in need of replacing. Its manifesto promises that any school graded as requiring improvement stands to be taken over “by the best headteachers”.

Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t the best headteachers likely to be those who can take a challenging school and have “the capacity to secure improvement”? In other words, the very definition of the leaders they intend to replace.

More to the point: from where are all these heads going to come? It may have escaped the DfE’s attention, but according to the latest Ofsted data, over 3,000 schools currently “require improvement”. That’s a lot of headteachers to find. And perhaps the department hadn’t realised, but headteachers are not exactly in a state of endless supply, much less good ones.

It’s not uncommon now to find a school with an interim headteacher following the retirement of a long-standing post-holder because a suitable replacement cannot be found. And the threat of instant replacement won’t exactly help to increase the numbers and quality of those looking to take on headship in challenging schools. Or any schools for that matter.

Perhaps we’ll see a tipping of the balance in headteacher recruitment? We’re just about at the stage now where schools still get to set their expectations for prospective candidates. But perhaps in the years to come heads will set out their stall and invite schools to bid for their services. After all, the notion of caveat emptor might be all very well when buying a second-hand car, but we dig a little deeper when buying a house.

Is there a new gap in the market for chartered schools surveyors? When considering taking on a new school, it’s no good taking the last Ofsted report at face value. Things will have changed since then – not least the inspection framework itself. Perhaps there’s an opportunity here for all those newly-redundant Additional Inspectors from Tribal, Serco and CfBT to offer their services as a pre-appointment safety net. Governors can offer prospective heads the post with a handsome salary, and candidates can accept ‘subject to survey’. If the survey turns up some skeletons in the cupboard, then it’s much safer to walk away before you begin than risk being replaced two years down the line because you didn’t realise what you were getting into.

But then who will lead the schools that need the strongest leaders? Will there be an upsurge of good headteachers in good schools wanting to take on an extra challenge? Are there plenty of headteachers out there just desperate to get their hands on a challenging school and show their mettle? But what if they don’t work their magic quite as quickly as they hoped? Do they get replaced at one school and sheepishly go back to the other; or are they out on their ear? It doesn’t sound too tempting a prospect.

When I was a student, I worked in a small call centre at weekends for a few months, and very quickly found myself as a ‘supervisor’. This was not because of any skill I had, but because I had been there longer than most, and knew how to switch the phone lines on and off. Perhaps we’ll see new rapid leadership pathways emerging. No longer the need for NPQH and all that guff. Get the NQT year out of the way, you can be deputy in your second year and head by…well, probably Christmas at this rate!

Thank goodness we’ve got an endless supply of good new teachers joining the profession. Oh, what’s that you say? A recruitment crisis in teacher training too? What’s plan B?

About the author

Michael Tidd is deputy headteacher at Edgewood Primary School in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire.