Heads to come from business backgrounds

[Gnomoospan]

Did you see this piece yesterday, the good old gov think it might be good
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to employ people with good business backgrounds as heads (no need for NPQH) and have the deputies as teaching and learning leaders for schools. My OH is really pissed because he tried to get on nPQH this year and was refused through lack of school leadership experience, and these people won't need it at all. Also means we teachers can go as far as deputy and no higher.

[nutcracker]

Hmmm. You'll probably all shoot me down in flames for saying this, but I can see the reasoning behind it, in a way.

After all, you train for years to be a teacher, climb the ladder, but then when you become a head teacher, you don't (often) get to actually teach children any more, which is what we all went into it for. I think a school leader needs some school experience, otherwise they won't understand what they are managing.

They are desparately short of HTs and I know I for one wouldn't want to be one, purely because I like teaching. (And I couldn't hack the stress!!)

There you go, all shout at me now.
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[jfelth]

Nutcracker - i agree with you! I would hate to be a head i couldnt hack the stress and i wouldnt like the low amount of contact that heads seem to get with the children. I'd also hate to have all the responsibility.

It would be a shame though for people like g'spans oh to not get a heads job - some people want the job and others dont! If you can do the job properly then it doesnt matter who you are or from which direction you are coming..

At my last school the head was in charge of nearly 700 pupils - it was more like a secondary school. It was much more like running a business than running a 'leafy lane' type school.

[NuttySupplier]

I think it was about 8 years ago now that this was talked about before. It was suggested at a school I was in that we had two heads... the business manager and the people person! It was a very large school, like jfelth's, so when you're loo
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at 40+ staff, £££ budgets, grounds maintenance including tennis courts and pools etc., you wouldn't expect a Ltd company to not have a manager with a good business head on his shoulders. But you have to take into consideration what the role of the head is. It would have been great for my old school to have two heads, a manager and a head teacher, but I can't really see any school surviving with the manager without the head. Heads have to deal with parents' concerns over their children's edu
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ion/friendship groups and headlice problems on a daily basis, and the strategies you need to employ when tal
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to parents about their babies are very different to skills you use to be a successful checkout line manager in Tesco! And that's just the parents. The best Head I worked with took a PE lesson every day but Friday. It was 3-form entry with the 4 KS2 year groups, and for example, all three Y6 classes had PE at the same time on a Thursday afternoon, together... the children were mixed up and did 20 minutes of each activity, with him leading 1 activity, and 2 of the 3 Y6 teachers leading the other two activities. The 3rd (on a rota system) got the lesson 'off' as PPA time (which back then was a t
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le in everyone's eyes). The children loved him, and looked forward to the lessons. As did the teachers! What person with 'a good business background' could do this effectively? My first head had only taught for 3 years before he became a head for another 30, and he was sooooo unaware of children it was untrue... he
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e a good business manager though! Would have resulted in a poor school had it not been for the excellent staff!
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[nutcracker]

I think they need to consider going down the road of two heads, because, as you say, the two roles are totally different - one as a business manager and one as a people/child manager, and someone who is a whizz at one will not necessarily be good at the other.

Maybe a head teacher (with the emphasis on the teacher) and a bursar to run the business side - both having to work together because both need the others experience in order to do their own job effectively and realistically. I wonder if several smaller schools could share one bursar?

[NuttySupplier]

I've seen two sharing a bursar before... I think I'd quite like that job... hmmm... got me thin
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now!

[nutcracker]

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[Gnomoospan]

Why can't County employ business people to be contracted out to the schools in the area, say one or two for West Norfolk so when you have new builds or big budget stuff to think about they come in, advise and help make the final decision, and okay it with county? Thus saving money and allowing teachers remain in control?

[nutcracker]

Isn't that what used to happen, back in the days of the local edu
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ion authorities? Now the latest thing is devolving responsibility to the schools. There's an article pinned up on my noticeboard at school which I haven't had the time to read apart from the headline, which is along the lines of how the labour government have given head teachers 97 (!!!!!) additional responsibilities since coming to power, and it's not surprising that no-one wants to be one any more.

[NuttySupplier]

Ah, I remember when they did that - gave schools full responsibility for their own budgets, cutting out the advisors... I don't see that it benefitted schools, like nutcracker says, just adds more pressure/tasks!