Aspirant guide
Getting ready for headship
Senior leader to headteacher
Who it’s for
This guide is for deputy heads, heads of school and senior leaders who want to become a headteacher in the next few years. It also suits assistant heads in smaller primary schools, where the step to headship can come sooner.
What changes when you become the head
Most deputies know what a head does. Fewer are ready for how different it feels. The job is not a bigger version of deputy headship. Five things change.
- The final decision is yours
- You set the direction, not just deliver it
- You answer to a board
- You run an organisation
- It can be lonely
The three focus behaviours
As head, you set the direction and have to bring people with you. Staff will follow a decision they disagree with if they understand the reason for it. They will resist one they don't understand, however good it is.
A deputy often leads a priority. A head has to make the whole school's priorities clear, few and shared, so that every leader is pulling the same way without the head in the room.
Every decision a head makes ripples across pupils, staff, parents and the budget. Thinking through who else a change affects, before it's announced, is one of the clearest differences between a confident head and an anxious one.
The one that got you here, but won’t be enough
Many deputies are promoted because nothing gets past them. They catch every problem and fix it themselves. As head, that becomes a trap: if you are holding every ball, no one else learns to, and you have no time to think about the school's direction. The behaviour still matters, but it shifts from catching things yourself to building the systems and people that catch them for you.
The full guide, with practice ideas, experiences, worked examples and interview questions, comes with membership.