Some new moves are afoot to solve the looming shortage of school leaders,
writes Martin Whittaker
Vivienne Rowcroft didn't want to be a head. For two decades she was happy to be
a deputy at Meanwood community nursery and primary school, in Rochdale.
She was loath to seek promotion for various reasons. She could see the rising
pressure her head was under, but it was mainly because she liked her deputy
role and wanted to keep teaching Year 6.
When the head retired and the school failed to find a successor, she
reluctantly stepped in. "I was acting head for 12 months, still having no
intention of applying for the permanent position," she says. "But the longer I
was in the role, the more I realised there were things within it that were as
fulfilling and satisfying as being a class teacher."
Ms Rowcroft, 52, has now been head for three years and loves it.
"I realised that, far from losing contact with children, in fact I now have
more contact with all the children in the school, as opposed to just the ones I
was teaching," she explains.
She is now one of Rochdale's secret weapons in the battle to overcome a
shortage of heads, giving talks about her experience to groups of deputies in
which she calls herself a "reluctant head".
The borough is one of 10 pilot local authorities testing a range of approaches
to solving the shortage. The National College for School Leadership is working
with schools, local authorities and dioceses to help them to replace heads who
are due to retire in the next three years.
Pilot areas include the Roman Catholic Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle, the
Black Country, Birmingham city council, Blackburn with Darwen, Devon,
Hampshire, Sheffield, Rochdale and the London boroughs of Hackney and
Islington.
As part of the drive, leadership consultants will be assigned to each area to
encourage teachers through to leadership positions. The NCSL says schemes will
include talent-spotting potential heads and allowing teachers to work with
other schools to develop leadership skills.
Rochdale metropolitan borough council is targeting the image of headship among
deputies, particularly long-serving ones. It is asking them what might be
putting them off and giving them experience of the head's role.
One scheme, 345 Secondment, sends deputies to work alongside heads in other
schools. "It's broadening their experience," says Terry Piggott, the council's
executive director. "Deputies' image of headship is often their own head, but
when they become a head they will do it in their own way.
They need to see some different ways of working."
As well as support and training for heads, the borough invests heavily in
teachers' professional development. Mr Piggott says they don't want to turn
deputies into heads only to run out of deputies. Despite this range of
measures, Rochdale schools are still having to re-advertise heads' posts.
"We have some good things in place, but I don't pretend we have cracked the
problem," says Mr Piggott. "The demographic just tells us it's going to get
worse."
Another weapon against the head shortage is data. Schools may feel they are
drowning in statistics, but the NCSL says the information for succession
planning has not been collected or presented in the right way before, so it is
producing a digest to help with the problem. For a given area it will include
data about a school's leadership, including numbers, average age and gender
breakdown, as well as re-advertising rates of heads' posts, school performance
and the proportion of faith schools and very small schools.
Jane Creasy, the NCSL's operational director for succession planning, said the
information is intended as a "tool for action" for local authority officers and
governors, and will be presented in a very accessible way. The data will be
sent in the near future. "We are then saying, 'OK, you get the people in the
room - you start the conversation and think about what the priorities are and
what actions might help us towards a strategic response to this issue.'"
The NCSL is also producing guidelines to help schools to spot potential
successors, and is using other existing initiatives to help teachers move more
quickly towards headship.
One such scheme is Future Leaders. At present, this is being trialled in London
secondary schools, where the programme is giving 20 teachers an intensive
course in school leadership. The crash course is designed to prepare teachers
for senior leadership within 12 months, and for headship within four
years.
Another scheme is the Fast Track programme, which began recruiting trainee
teachers five years ago but was criticised for putting raw trainees on the
leadership ladder. The scheme was changed last year into a leadership
development programme for qualified teachers.
For the NCSL, one of the main barriers remains the current image of the
overworked, over-stressed headteacher.
"If you talk to heads, the vast majority find it the most thrilling, rewarding,
stimulating, life-affirming job, despite those things," says Ms Creasy.
"That doesn't alter the fact that there might be things about it they want to
see changed.
"I think headteachers and present school leaders are the ones who are in the
most significant position to make a difference to this issue.
"They are the ones who influence the next generation of school leaders, but
they can't do it on their own."
Heads' unions are involved in the initiatives, too. Mick Brookes, general
secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, says: "As part of the
working group, we have made it clear that, alongside this excellent work, we
expect the Government to review the excessive demands on school leaders to
encourage retention as well as recruitment."
