Head teacher without having been a teacher?

OP

Original post by bamtutor

A lot of the new academies have a Head / Principal with a Business / Finance background who have never taught.

But surely Heads should have teaching experience

Reply 3

StriderHort

21

Original post by EL2025

But surely Heads should have teaching experience

Probably helpful, but do they need it? They are administrators and have more to do with managing the teachers and facility than the pupils. Given how competitive money is now I can see a business background head being the better choice to ensure a schools viability.

Reply 4

OP

Original post by StriderHort

Probably helpful, but do they need it? They are administrators and have more to do with managing the teachers and facility than the pupils. Given how competitive money is now I can see a business background head being the better choice to ensure a schools viability.

That maybe true but it might not always work out.

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 5

Teapot_Tom

9

Original post by EL2025

I went to a school with a head teacher who'd never been a teacher. They changed their title to Principal after a couple of years.
Has anyone had the same or a similar experience?

A phycologist doesn't have to have had severe mental trauma to treat their service users.

Obviously, experience is helpful, however, it's not the be all and end all. The course they do aren’t for nothing.

Reply 6

StriderHort

21

Original post by EL2025

That maybe true but I went to a school ran by someone who hadn't been a teacher. When anything went wrong, she told us to keep things quiet because it didn't look good for her reputation. So maybe you're right but the school I went to, things were just dodgy.

Tbh you could apply that to almost any manager or even employee, teachers included, the nail that stands up gets hammered etc.

I don't work in education but I get the impression the funding and standards are a lot more cut throat than they used to be, so a school likely needs someone that can play that game so that the teachers can get on with teaching. Promoting a respected and popular teacher from within might go down well with kids and parents, but not so much when funding is needed or when politicians look for victims.

Reply 7

OP

Original post by Teapot_Tom

A phycologist doesn't have to have had severe mental trauma to treat their service users.

Obviously, experience is helpful, however, it's not the be all and end all. The course they do aren’t for nothing.

Yes I agree with what point you are making, but schools should have at least one teacher on the leadership team, even if it's not the head.

Original post by EL2025

Yes I agree with what point you are making, but schools should have at least one teacher on the leadership team, even if it's not the head.

The Heads of departments will be teachers and they are part of SLT.

Reply 9

hotpud

18

Original post by StriderHort

Probably helpful, but do they need it? They are administrators and have more to do with managing the teachers and facility than the pupils.

Yes - I think they should have experience. Teaching is an emotional experience and to have a pen pushing blotter jotter barking orders without understanding what it is they are actually getting people to do does not help matters. Being a good head is about getting the staff to buy into you and having no experience is the first step towards alienating yourself.

Besides, head teaching is way more than an admin job. Yes, you are responsible for a massive budget but also with implementing educational policy, changes across the school to improve attainment or behaviour as well as being responsible for safeguarding and other child safety matters.

Heads who don't teach are likely to be as effective as ministers are at ordering PPE or technology infrastructure for their departments.

Reply 10

Original post by EL2025

Yes I agree with what point you are making, but schools should have at least one teacher on the leadership team, even if it's not the head.

I wouldn't work at a school where the Head hadn't been a teacher at some point. How can they observe teaching if they've never done it.

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 11

Original post by bamtutor

A lot of the new academies have a Head / Principal with a Business / Finance background who have never taught.

Most have a Head and a separate business manager

Reply 12

the bear

Original post by Muttley79

How can they observe taching if they've never done it.

Reply 13

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by the bear

Reply 14

londonmyst

19

I've known a couple of those.
Most were deranged penny pinching tyrants or fanatical middle aged women who made their own daughters lives miserable with incessant doomsday cult rhetoric/bible bashing/glorifying terrorism types of rants.

Reply 15

mnot

Original post by EL2025

But surely Heads should have teaching experience

Being a manager is very different when your 3+ levels removed from the working level it’s not an issue as long as you surround yourself with the right people. Managers are essentially balancing resources and developing policy to pull the organization (or in this case school) into a direction.

The CEO of large companies often have a dizen major departments so leadership often only have formal expertise in one slice of the operation. Lots of the highest performing organizations like Goldman sachs, JP Morgan, Mckinsey, BCG are well known for hiring ex-military officers with zero working level experience (why? They are excellent at unemotional influenced decision making..).

of course their will be times teachers issues & voices need to be listened to, but a good leader understands their strengths & weaknesses and surrounds themselves with a great leadership team.

Reply 16

OP

Original post by londonmyst

I've known a couple of those.
Most were deranged penny pinching tyrants or fanatical middle aged women who made their own daughters lives miserable with incessant doomsday cult rhetoric/bible bashing/glorifying terrorism types of rants.

Are you talking about Head's who haven't been teachers? Doesn't surprise me. My school had a 'hush hush' culture where you were encouraged to keep things quiet because it didn't look good for the school's reputation.

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 17