Sean Harris decided that he wanted to be a head before he had even qualified as a teacher.
“I wanted to have an impact that wasn’t limited to the four walls of my classroom,” says the assistant head of Norham High School in North Shields.
New teachers are asked to take on leadership responsibility at an increasingly young age. It is no longer unusual to meet headteachers in their twenties, or department heads who only qualified a year ago.
Many senior leaders question whether this is a good thing and argue that new teachers should first hone their pedagogy. Others think that new teachers with leadership ambitions should be given all the encouragement they need. Malcolm Trobe, interim general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, is among the first group: he insists that good leaders must first be good teachers.
‘Be a good teacher first’
“The first thing I’d say to anybody who’s a newly qualified teacher is, ‘Do everything possible to ensure that you’re a first-rate classroom practitioner’,” he says. “Your first priority is to ensure that you teach well.”
But Melanie Renowden, chief programme officer for Teaching Leaders, an organisation for middle leaders, argues that trainee teachers can - like Mr Harris - aim for the head’s office before they even qualify. “Is there a point at which it’s too early to start thinking about leadership?” she says. “I would say ‘no’.
“It’s always helpful to have a better understanding of leadership. Often, it’s only when people take up their first leadership roles that people start revealing the challenges and opportunities of the role.”
I do worry about people going into it without enough understanding of pedagogy
Jo Riley, headteacher of Randal Cremer Primary in East London, took on leadership responsibility very early in her career. In her first school - which was in special measures - she was rapidly appointed special-needs coordinator, “because there was nobody else to do it”, she says.
But Ms Riley has some regrets. “I didn’t go into teaching with the aim of becoming a headteacher,” she says. “I went into teaching with the aim of becoming a really good teacher. The fact that I was pulled out of the classroom quite early in my career - that irritates me. Being in the classroom is the best part of the job.
“I’ve had NQTs say to me, ‘I think I’m ready to be a head now.’ And I think, ‘You may think you’re ready…’ I do worry about people going into it without enough understanding of pedagogy. Then government initiatives land on their desks, and they don’t have the knowledge to work out what’s best for the children.”
Nonetheless, in order to retain early years teachers at her school, she often offers them small areas of responsibility early on. For example, she has appointed one young teacher to take the lead on PSHE. “It lets her have the responsibility of leadership, without the high-level accountability of maths or English,” she says.
Need for ‘strategic overview’
Joan Woodhouse, lecturer in education at the University of Leicester, recently presented her research into early-career teachers’ leadership ambitions at the British Education Research Association conference. She agrees that giving new teachers manageable levels of responsibility can help ease them into leadership roles. And this, she believes, could go some way towards ensuring that they do not drop out of the profession.
“But it’s not something you can write a prescription for - it takes skill to judge how much a new teacher can take on, without feeling under pressure,” she says. “There’s a need for a two-way dialogue, based on trust.”
Ms Renowden agrees that it is not a one-size-fits-all situation. There are, she adds, clear signs to help a headteacher determine whether or not new teachers are ready for leadership responsibility.
“For the vast majority of headteachers, it’s a moral purpose: the potential to have an impact on the wider community as well,” she says. “And, as a headteacher, it’s a continuous learning journey as well: there are continued opportunities to learn, develop and grow.”
This is how Mr Harris phrases his own ambitions: “I wanted to make a difference in children’s lives. I wanted to be a decent teacher, to have an impact. But I wanted to have an impact in a department or a whole school.”
But, says Ms Renowden, other teachers are less altruistic. “If your idea of headship is all about power, then that’s a bit of a warning sign,” she says. “It shouldn’t be about career progression, for career progression’s sake. Yes, some good things come with status. But if people are thinking of status as a sign of approval, that’s probably a warning sign.”
