During my 20 years in secondary schools in England I have noticed that there are often missing leaders at a variety of different levels. I have gained from stepping up and filling roles, always taking the view that it is all good experience.
At the start of my teaching career I was in the great position of working with an advanced skills teacher. The missing leadership piece came when they weren't in school and went out to help other schools. In these cases there are options: reply to the parents who want to speak to the head of department, filling the void or sticking to your own role. By being pro-active I was able to learn on the job which made the step up to running my own department easier.
Finding yourself with missing leadership seems to follow me as I move jobs or I seem to find myself noticing that there are missing leaders. My second school was a learning experience of being on a high maternity rate setting. The head of faculty followed by two heads of subject all missing in action over just 2 academic years. Being able to fill the missing leader puzzle can be quite a challenge for Headteachers and if you are willing to step up to the mark be ready to negotiate. When I taught 3 people's timetables with a team of cover teachers on no free lessons it was the only option at the time. Even though everyone involved in the missing leader puzzle knew it was not sustainable there was still room to negotiate admin support, planning time on a weekly basis and time built in for leadership tasks.
Of course providing the solution to the missing leader crisis is not a long term solution. Once the leaders are back on the scene they take back the reins in their own indominatable style. The person who had held the whole puzzle together will inevitably feel relieved, however they have shown that they can be a leader. So do they then end up leaving that organisation? School leadership have now got the opportunity to build a stronger team. The best leaders will ask what the new found skills could be used for and what the person, who has gone above and beyond to keep everything together, would like to do for their next steps. Sometimes that will be moving on, however we do need to be thinking of retention of talent in our schools, which may mean creative horizontal positions, could involve use of time or showing interest in alternative leadership ladders.
When I started my NPQH the first task was to look at the types of headships available, a raft of differences from stand alone academies to large regional hubs within chains and the small number of maintained schools all with elements of potential pockets of missing leadership for senior leaders to navigate. I only started as a deputy Headteacher last year with the traditional model of a headteacher in the building. This traditional model of a full time Headteacher assigned to one school is becoming increasingly rare and colleagues need to consider what the senior leadership is in any school they are applying to. I found having a full time headteacher focussed on my school setting was critical in the early days of starting a brand new school and meant occasional days with no headteacher in the building was organised in advance and catered for. As a new deputy it helped build experience and leadership capacity for our year 2 model.
So another academic year has begun and we had a saying last year that year 2 in a brand new school would be easier! I find myself with another perceived layer of missing leadership as the model changes to a school with an Executive Headteacher. How have we gone from every school having a headteacher to this executive headship model? What does working in a sibling school sharing an executive Headteacher mean for the leaders left in either school building? Well my positive outlook is it's a great opportunity for all Deputy Headteachers to become trainee Headteachers on a daily basis. I am pleased to have a trainee Headteacher buddy on this journey as a glance across the dining hall is all it takes for us both to understand what needs to be done.
As my year 7 Geographers know weather is the day to day changes in the atmosphere. Trainee Headteachers will know that when the executive Headteacher is not in the building we are operationally responsible for the day to day educational weather in the school building. When the executive Headteacher monitors the daily conditions it is up to us to have responses ready and/ or implemented. In terms of the climate - y7s will tell you that is a 30 year pattern but in a school it is when trainee Headteachers and their executive Headteacher start to have their strategic planning meetings. This is my term one impression as I seek to understand this new piece of perceived missing leadership. I know in reality the leadership is always there, however my learning journey has been to move from leadership in the building at all levels to leadership which might be via email or a telephone call.
As I start to consider the impact of this stage of my career on my leadership learning I am starting to look at the layers of additional drop-in leadership from central teams in large academy chains. It remains to be seen how leadership will change in the next 20 years as I head towards mid-career as a teacher. Leadership in education has changed lots since I trained and I remain open to dealing with any missing leadership pieces I come across in the future.
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