Succession Planning For School Leadership

Thu, May 04, 2006

Source: Girl's School Association

How to encourage the next generation of head teachers.

  How to encourage the next generation of head teachers.

There is a growing acceptance that the UK faces an imminent shortage of head teachers. Recent statistics reflect state school headship posts unfilled, or readvertised in greater numbers than ever before. The shortage is not as drastic in the country's independent schools though evidence suggests a reduced number of applications per post. A large percentage of employees in education are over fifty, thus escalating the need for proactive succession planning.

The Girls' Schools Association (GSA) has conducted a survey of its own heads in order to identify what gives most - and least - satisfaction in the role, where they get support, how they became heads and how they inspire others.

Only 7% had identified headship as a possible career early in life. 24% said they first wished to be a head when they began teaching, and 23% admitted it was never really planned, that they somehow drifted into the post, often guided by others.

'This lack of a clear career path and the almost accidental arrival at the head's desk suggest the importance of encouraging those with potential to find out about the role, to access the training available and to talk to those in post in a range of schools,' said Dr Despontin, President of the GSA and Headmistress of Haberdashers' Monmouth School for Girls. 'There is an implicit responsibility embedded in the statistic that 40% of respondents said their first application was initiated by other people.'

91% of the 119 respondents said they worked 60+ hours each week, with 40% working for more than 70 hours.

The part of the job which provided the greatest satisfaction to 44% of respondents was 'seeing the girls/school/staff develop'. What gave least satisfaction were 'staff issues' (from mediation in petty disputes to tackling poor classroom performance) – 37%; 'rude, unreasonable or litigious parents' - 16%; and 'increasing bureaucracy' – 28%.

Asked to rate a list of competencies on a scale of 1 – 5 (with 5 as high) as essentials for headship, 93% rated 'emotional stamina' at 4 or 5; 92% 'a sense of humour'; 53% rated 'academic excellence'.

Headship is a key focus of Dr Brenda Despontin's Presidency of the Girls' Schools Association.

'Headship deserves to be treated as any other senior position in business would be, yet there is an apparently widespread lack of understanding regarding the personal and professional development needs of heads,' she says.

'We know headships can be demanding and isolating in a school and the GSA already has a system in place to support serving heads when a critical incident or difficult situation occurs. The next stage requires heads to encourage aspirations to leadership. Succession planning for school leaderships across our sector is vital.'

As part of its headship initiative, the GSA is also running a work-shadowing scheme in which teachers from GSA schools are offered the opportunity to spend two days shadowing the head of another GSA school in a different region. There are currently ten shadowing schemes planned for the summer term.

The heads who participated in the GSA survey seem to have been identified as potential leaders whilst at school themselves, with 73% of them having held school-based leadership positions. 80% of them went to a single-sex school and 50% to a state grammar school. 20% were sports captains, 25% held the role of head girl or boy, 14% were head of house and 34% were elected prefects.

Asked what heads were currently doing to encourage the next generation of head teachers, 52% said they supported applications, promoting staff development, with appraisals and appropriate funding for CPD. 28% said they involved staff in whole-school initiatives, giving opportunities to lead and learn, including meetings where governors were involved.

'The GSA will focus on areas identified in the survey to encourage potential school leaders, using the head-shadowing programme not being piloted, for example, and by providing more specific training, mentoring and networking opportunities at conferences and within regions,' says Dr Despontin. 'The QCA has announced major curriculum changes before 2012: schools will need strong, visionary heads to implement these.' 

Girl's School Association