We are grateful to Continuum Books for allowing Your Career to publish a second extract from "How to be a Successful Deputy Head" - a definitive guide to school management for deputy heads.

Author Geoff Brookes is Deputy Head of Cefn Hengoed School, Swansea. He is is the author of Dyspraxia and regularly writes in the TES.

How to be a Successful Deputy Head, by Geoff Brookes
Continuum
£16.99

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Part One: Chapter Six - Your teaching

Teach your children well

From the moment you are appointed as deputy head teaching is no longer the simple and uncomplicated activity you may have thought it was. You will suddenly become aware of the host of expectations that other people will have of you. Obviously you don’t become a bad teacher overnight. You don’t suddenly become a teacher who can only deal with the disaffected. Yet you may suddenly find yourself amongst others who believe that this has become your destiny. Let’s be frank, in many cases, what staffroom colleagues want is nothing more than someone who can scare the pants off Year 9 with merely a glance.

In fact, you reached this point in your career because you were recognized as a person with qualities. We can all show talents and abilities in different ways. Always keep hold of that idea. You don’t have to fit into everyone’s ideas of what a deputy head should be. You don’t have to be the enforcer with the loud voice. You may not have been appointed because of your fearful presence, but rather on the basis of your intellect and imagination. Dealing with difficult students may not be your strength. Why should it be so? It doesn’t have to be.

Yet life is never that simple. People might expect you to show these skills because that is what they want, which can be very different from what the school needs. A head of department has a difficult class to unload and suddenly you are expected to teach them. Many teachers haven’t got much of a perspective beyond themselves and find it hard to imagine that your job might in some way be fundamentally different to theirs. They think it should be exactly the same, but with additional grief. As a result, it might appear sometimes that you should be punished for being promoted. If you don’t handle a dodgy class successfully, it could have serious consequences for your school. You are suddenly responsible for a little pocket of chaos and in your position poor performance is unacceptable.

It is not just teachers who have expectations of you. Make no mistake about it. You could be targeted specifically by the more thinking villains. They will see you as a means of revenge, as a way of striking back against the machine that enslaves them. You could be in for a rough ride.

Why shouldn’t you have discipline problems? Just because you are deputy head doesn’t change the fact that, at times, managing young people can be exceedingly difficult. They respect neither position nor reputation. So why should you take all the difficult classes? Why should teachers automatically assume that you can?

If you do and it goes pear-shaped, then suddenly the smell of disorder will spread through the student body. This will have serious consequences for the school. A senior member of staff run ragged by a class? Where does that leave everyone else? What do you do? Call for assistance from a teacher who is likely to be paid less than you are? Or try and ignore it? Except you can’t. The jungle drums will beat out an unmistakable message. This deputy head is fair game. If you are then called to deal with an issue in someone else’s classroom, both you and the poor teacher will be undermined if you can’t deal with it convincingly. Suddenly that little pocket of chaos is expanding. You don’t need this. The school doesn’t need this. If going nose-to-nose with the disaffected is not your specialism then it is better you stay out of the firing line. It might not go down well with your colleagues but it may be better for the school. In fact, the whole issue is fraught with dilemmas. It is, like so many other things in school, defined by complex politics. You are leading teachers and some of them may not be happy at all about being led, and you will be leading students, some of whom will want to test you out as well.

In the end, you need to be true to yourself, just as much in the classroom as in the staffroom. You mustn’t go into your new job believing you are obliged to frighten witless every child you meet because that is what deputies are expected to do. You will need to build a relationship with any class you teach, in the same way that you did before. Remember the qualities that you believe in and are committed to developing in yourself and others. They are not suddenly negotiable just because you are a deputy. Being a good teacher is based upon commitment, accessibility and relationships. This will always be so. You must continue to show these qualities.

To get a dodgy class to work, you need to establish a relationship with them, whether you are deputy head or a supply teacher. But in your position, once you have done this that relationship could be invaluable because the class will tell you all sorts of things that some teachers might not want you to know. You won’t have to go fishing for this information. It will be offered to you freely and openly as part of normal classroom dialogue. It can be a real insight into life in the swamp.

Of course it works both ways. If your teaching is, for whatever reason, not up to scratch then word will spread and your position in the staffroom could be undermined. So make sure that your marking is up-to-date, your mark book an example to all and your reports coherent, incisive and delivered on time.

Perhaps in the early days teach, if you can, the things you are comfortable with and in the way that has always worked for you. It gives you a bit of breathing space and helps you establish yourself. Yes, it’s demanding but it is essential. Your job is to lead teachers and that includes setting a good example as a classroom teacher. A headteacher may be forced ultimately to withdraw from the classroom. You will never do this. You must be a role model for young teachers and for the students. A tough call, but if you can’t accept it then you need to do
something else.

You might find yourself in a school in financial difficulties which requires an increased teaching load. Or it may be that in your subject area there is no one with sufficient knowledge or experience who can fulfil particular obligations to the students. But think carefully before making this decision. You have a wider obligation now and the decision may not necessarily be the right one for the school. You are not there to win brownie points from your colleagues through the sort of sacrifice of your interests that can drive you into the ground. The fact remains that if you try to fulfil all expectations then you are likely to fail. As I said earlier, if you are not the fierce unyielding disciplinarian then this is hardly a role you can act. If you try to adopt this role it might not work at all. You will be more convincing if you are natural. You were appointed because of who you are and what you have done, so it is important that you remain that person. Your reputation will have travelled before you. The bush telegraph is especially efficient. Of course your classroom style may need to be moderated, but if the mainstay of your teaching style is to be relaxed and approachable, then don’t sacrifice this. Before your appointment it made you a success. Never deny it.

Some subject leaders may feel particularly threatened by your presence, especially if you come from elsewhere. A struggling middle manager may not see you as an asset. And when you see the work of that subject leader, it can be hard to watch them do those things badly that perhaps only weeks before you were doing so well. You will want to offer support and guidance and you will not want to undermine, but you do have that fundamental responsibility to the students in the school. You cannot condone failure merely because you don’t want to upset a teacher. If you see things going badly wrong, then you can always suggest flexible timetable arrangements whereby you teach particular modules or sections to classes. It is a good staff-development opportunity that shouldn’t be ignored. Invite them to observe your lessons; do a bit of team-teaching. Show that you have something positive to offer.

On the other hand, you might suddenly find yourself in a highly successful department which may be ready to test you out. Either way, remember the skills that brought you to your new post. You didn’t get the job because you were average. You were good. You are good. And if you are not happy with the role that is being allocated to you because it isn’t exploiting your strengths, then do not accept it. It may not be popular. It may not be your style. But sometimes for the good of the school, as you see it, you might have to pull rank.