Diary of A Deputy

Susan M. Tranter

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2002
• ISBN:
  9781134547852
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Susan M. Tranter has produced a practical account of what the role of a Deputy Head entails and suggests how it might be fulfilled successfully.

1 So you want to be a deputy?

Sunday, 15 September [some years ago]

September 15

Things to do today:

1. Go through the timetable for tomorrow.
2. Plan lessons for Years 7, 9, 10, 11, 13 for the week.
3. Think about how to produce work for the display on Open Day.
4. Write names of form group into the register.
5. PSE lesson – record BBC2 7pm programme on attitudes to authority.

Term is now just two weeks old and I’m getting back to work with gusto. My Year 10 class is one that will need a lot of work. The school gave them the NFER Cognitive Ability Tests when they were in Year 7 and so I have a good idea of their overall ability and their target grades. I will need to find out their key stage 3 results, though, to see how much progress they will need to make over the next two years.

In terms of my own progress, then, there are a number of things that I need to think about. I talked to the deputy head about his job today and he gave me some really exciting things to consider. I’m really interested in how to make my teaching better. I don’t think that you can lead a school unless you are very good teacher. He suggested that looking at the OfSTED criteria for lesson judgements would be a good way forward.

But if I’m going to be a headteacher in the future I shall have to plan out my career. I’m going to have to think about what skills and experiences I need to acquire. I know that timetable construction is something that deputy heads do – and Joe said that I could get involved this year.

I’m a bit bothered by the school’s behaviour policy too. I think that it’s not really working any more and that some of the rules that are listed aren’t followed. Some of the children don’t seem to realise that we have a behaviour policy! I think I’ll make an appointment to see the head and suggest that I do some work on this.

Acquiring skills and experiences

The motivation for a senior management role varies considerably from person to person. For some, it will be the exercise of power. Others will be motivated by the need for self-fulfilment. Yet others will find themselves in this position as a result of a sudden opportunity or serendipity. The complex subject of individual motivation will be explored later in this chapter, but attention is drawn to this issue at the outset because thought and careful planning are needed if you are to move to a senior management role. It will not just happen without consideration and an appreciation of what the role involves.

The first requirement, of course, is to be an excellent teacher. Most deputy headteachers will at some time, have the responsibility for ensuring the quality of their school’s teaching and learning. It is important therefore to be an excellent teacher yourself. Over recent years, there has been an acknowledgement that teaching is a skill to be acquired, practised and improved. The OfSTED criteria for the assessment of the quality of teaching and learning are sufficiently differentiated to enable you to discriminate between good, very good and excellent teaching. It is possible to identify what you need to do to improve the quality of your teaching. Indeed the target-setting agenda has brought this to the fore. By having targets for our classes, we can show to what extent we add value to those in our charge. It is necessary, however, to be able to prove that you are an excellent teacher; the Threshold Assessment process has illustrated the need for teachers to keep records of their students’ achievements; by recording targets and outcomes, you can prove your claim to excellence.

Much of the preparation for senior management, however, is rooted in the need to acquire skills and experience. Many of these can only be acquired over time and with significant and substantial commitment to the cause. For some people, the path to career success is easy and unencumbered. For most of us, there will be frustrations and some measure of disappointment along the way; having a vision, clarity of purpose, and developing a sense of self-belief are the keys to unlock the door to success.

Personal motivation

It is perhaps fortunate that no one has found out what motivates a person. If there were only one thing, then it would, no doubt, be a deficiency model, for all human beings differ. The strength of the human race lies as much in the fact that human motivation has layers of complexity as in its weakness. This means that the panacea for organisational reform collapses under the strain of disparate needs and motives.

The location of motivation as an organisational trait will be explored elsewhere. Here, I discuss what motivates us, as individuals, to strive and to succeed. Handy (1981) describes a hermit in his mountain cell confronted with a Sunday newspaper which makes him wonder why people are doing all the things they do. Certainly, when you look around any organisation or any cultural unit, you may wonder why and how people do what they do.

The question arises of to what extent this is a modern phenomenon. Can we assess the level at which the organisational pressures on schools are the independent variable which determines an individual’s motivation? Of course human motivation is far more complicated. However, to address this issue more fully, it is necessary to consider the elements that make up the body of people who call themselves ‘teachers’.

What motivates someone to become a teacher? Having surveyed a number of people in my immediate domain, the reasons why people enter the teaching profession are as varied as the subjects they teach. For some, it is a desire to ‘tell people what they know’. For others, it is because ‘my parents were both teachers’. For many, it was a job they settled for after graduation and never left. The idea of a lifelong career is very strong in teaching; there are those who leave the profession to pursue other opportunities; some go on to fame and great success. But for many, the career they enter in those early years is the one they stay with. Once in the profession, the cultural dimension of education takes a hold. A significant part of any person’s development and progression to adulthood is their own education. The influence this brings to bear on the way you teach cannot be overstated. Much of the talk that goes on in school staffrooms is peppered with anecdotes and reflections on individual experience. This is often where teachers let themselves down as a professional body. The anecdotal assertions are just that; they lack any analysis and their value lies in their ability to support a particular point rather than prove a case. As an aspirant teacher, you must learn to transcend personal experience and to root your opinion in that which is more reasoned and supported by research.

You may be motivated by the subject you teach. Teachers often want to tell people about their subject, sharing their enthusiasm for their curriculum area. This can be a strong motivator, but for a deputy headteacher, the influence of your subject is considerably weakened. You are unlikely to be appointed because of a particular subject expertise. It is, of course, one factor: it is vital in an all-graduate entry profession, that the people who lead the school should be intellectually and academically able. However, this point is made to remind you of the need to find ways of building up knowledge of all curriculum areas. Reading the National Curriculum requirements and programmes of study is a good place to start, but informed discussion with your peers is perhaps a better means to find out about each curriculum area.

There has been considerable debate over the status of teaching as a profession. The campaign ‘Everybody remembers a good teacher’, in which celebrities described their best teacher to the delight of television and cinema audiences, the teacher ‘Oscars’ and the like have all have been about improving the status of teaching as a profession. That the organisers of such campaigns have, perhaps, had a brief to improve recruitment into the profession does not compromise the aims of the campaign. In any case, the fact remains that there have been concerns about the status of the schoolteacher.

Too often, teachers have been regarded as those who actively prevent change rather than those who cultivate it in order to raise the standards of attainment in schools. The image of the ‘high-flier’ is difficult for many in teaching to appreciate. However, there are those who want to succeed and get there quickly. They are often the ‘movers and shakers’ who will want to enjoy rapid success and all that it brings. In a consumer-driven society, the lure of the pound is considerable. For those whose motives differ, there is no hiding place for anyone wanting a quiet life. The sheer quantity of educational change that has occurred over the past twenty years is testament to that. The means now exist to assess children’s cognitive ability and to set targets for children and their teachers. The country cannot afford to have an underclass of people who have failed at school, and school leaders have the task of ensuring that the teachers in their school deliver. The pressure on us all is to succeed, to acquire, and to be seen to be a success.

But personal motivation is more complicated than that. Aristotle (384–322 BC) wrote:

All men seek one goal; success or happiness. The only way to achieve true success is to express yourself completely in service to society. First, have a definite, clear, practical ideal – a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends – wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust your means to that end.

Thus, you need to think through what motivates you to succeed.

The traditional route to deputy headship is through the post of year head or curriculum leader – the so-called middle managers. However, being a good middle manager is not enough to take you to the next stage. The advertisements for deputy headteachers in the Times Educational Supplement are testament to the fact that more is required if you are to progress beyond leading a curricular or pastoral team. A typical advertisement is shown in the box overleaf. It should give you an idea of what kind of person a school looks for to be its deputy head, and of the skills and knowledge that you will have to be able to demonstrate.

Lakey Lane High School

DEPUTY HEADTEACHER GROUP 6

Salary Range L14–L16
Roll: 950 pupils, 230 in the Sixth Form

Required for September, an outstanding well-qualified teacher with vision, energy and proven leadership ability to join a highly motivated Senior Management Team.

We are looking to appoint an excellent classroom practitioner who will

• Have a clear understanding of current educational issues
• Inspire and lead a highly professional and committed staff
• Appreciate the value of community, business and multicultural links
• Have the determination to make an impact
• Have the ability to turn strategic vision into practical reality.

Further details and application forms are available from Laura Kerry on 01234 56789. Closing date for applications 1 April.

There are a number of experiences which you need to acquire. Not all of these are essential, but a blend of them will certainly prepare you for the tasks ahead. These skills and experiences can be classified as follows:

• further study and qualifications
• whole-school issues and strategic planning
• leading cross-curricular initiatives (work with a group of teachers from other curriculum areas on particular projects)
• curriculum innovation
• creating additional value

Further study and qualifications

After a long day delivering high-quality lessons the prospect of picking up a set of academic texts and producing an essay may seem unattractive. To see further qualifications and study purely in this context is to miss the important contribution that embarking on a course can bring.

It is important that as a profession we recognise the importance of further study and there has been considerable discussion in the recent past to support this assertion. The personal and professional growth of teachers is closely related to pupil growth. One of the most significant critical interventions you can make is to invest in your own learning and seek out ways to participate in innovation and research. Brighouse and Woods (1999) describe one secondary school’s research and innovation programme for one year:

• an examination of continuity and progression in English through a review of work done in Year 6
• researching attitudes to teaching and learning in Years 8 and 9 through interviews and pupil questionnaires, in partnership with a local university
• an investigation into the research skills of particular groups of pupils using the Internet and the school library
• teaching boys separately from girls in certain GCSE subjects, in order to ascertain the impact on raising achievement
• introducing and researching the effectiveness of a mentoring programme for Year 10 pupils

What is particularly noteworthy about these projects is that they all include elements of investigation and research. The information gathering is not confined to an audit; it is more than that, it is to seek out information, to reflect on practice and to measure the effectiveness of particular initiatives.

It is possible to appear self-serving when advocating the benefits of further study; however, by focusing attention on the work that teachers do and linking this work to further study, the benefit to the school of higher-level qualifications becomes clear.

A very wide range of courses is available to teachers, including diploma NVQ, MA and M.Ed courses. Supported self-directed study (as pioneered by the Open University) is one option. You may prefer the discipline of attending a local university, perhaps weekly, to hear lectures, prepare essays and the like. The advan...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Foreword
• Introduction
• 1: So you want to be a deputy?
• 2: Dear Headteacher, Thank you for inviting me for interview
• 3: Starting out
• 4: Assessing the motivated: issues over recruitment?
• 5: Is the honeymoon over?
• 6: If you are going to get better, you have to learn more
• 7: Too much to do?
• Epilogue: Reflections on a year in the life of . . .