In a small school you lead three or four subjects and cannot do any of them justice
In a small staff team, every teacher leads several subjects, and you are trying to lead three or four alongside your class.
In a small primary school there are more subjects than teachers, so most people lead several. You may have science, geography, music and PE, as well as your own class, and possibly a mixed-age one. Each subject has its own curriculum to plan, resources to order, books to look at and questions to answer from visitors. You care about all of them, but there is only time to keep each one ticking over, and you worry about being asked to talk about any of them in depth.
Presenting symptoms
- Each subject gets a little attention, and none moves forward.
- You know one or two of your subjects well and feel exposed in the others.
- You are not sure what is being taught in your subjects in other classes, especially where classes are mixed age.
Possible causes
- Every subject may be treated as equally urgent every term.
- There may be no agreed plan for which subject gets deeper attention when.
- Subject leadership may be done alone, when other staff or nearby schools face the same questions.
- The expectations of a subject leader may have been copied from larger schools with more staff.
Every subject seems to need attention at once, so each gets a little.
Your most useful next step: Agree with your headteacher which one subject gets your deeper attention this term and which ones are kept steady, and set out a rotation across the year so each gets its turn.
Lead behaviours
You do not know one or more of the subjects well enough to lead it confidently.
Your most useful next step: Find one subject leader in a nearby school or network who leads the same subject well, take one specific question to them, and use one session of your own learning on that subject this term.
Lead behaviours
You cannot see what is happening in your subjects across the school.
Your most useful next step: With colleagues, spend one staff meeting looking at children’s work in your deep-focus subject from every class, and talk to a few children about what they remember.
Lead behaviours
You feel you are failing all of them, and it is wearing you down.
Your most useful next step: Write down what steady looks like for each subject you are not focusing on this term, agree it with your headteacher, and stop holding yourself to more than that.
Lead behaviours
Core behaviours
Three or four subjects cannot all improve at once. Choosing one for real attention each term, and keeping the others steady, is how a small school moves every subject forward over time.
Subject leadership competes with your class, your phase and everything else. Book the work for your focus subject into the week first, or it will not happen.
In a small school, subject improvement is measured over years, not weeks. A rotation that gives each subject its turn, kept up year after year, builds more than bursts of activity.
You do not have to be the expert in every subject. Leaders in nearby schools, subject associations and networks have already answered many of the questions you face.
Secondary behaviours
Use this when you are unsure what children are learning. Looking at work and talking to children across classes gives an honest picture quickly.
Use this to share the load. In a small staff team, looking at subjects together is often better than everyone leading theirs alone.
Use this for the subject you feel least confident in. Focused learning on one real question helps more than a general course.
Use this when the guilt is wearing you down. Agreeing what steady looks like for the other subjects lets you put them down without worry.
A useful first action
Write your subjects in a row and, for each, note one sentence on how it is going. Then pick the one that would most benefit from your attention this term and agree it with your headteacher.
Suggested approach
- Agree with your headteacher a rotation that gives each of your subjects a term or a year of deeper attention.
- Write down what steady looks like for the subjects not in focus.
- Look at children’s work in your focus subject from every class, with colleagues, and talk to children about it.
- Find a subject leader or network beyond your school for your least confident subject.
- Review the rotation each year, and keep it going rather than starting again.