Aspirant guide
Getting ready for middle leadership
Teacher to middle leader (subject, department, phase or key stage)
Who it’s for
This guide is for teachers who want to lead a subject, a department, a key stage or a phase. In secondary schools that usually means becoming a head of department or subject leader. In primary schools it often means leading a subject across the school, or leading a phase, while still teaching a class.
What changes when you become a middle leader
Most people who step into middle leadership are good teachers. The step asks something different of them. Five things change.
- You lead colleagues, not just pupils
- You hold others to a standard
- You are in the middle
- Your time is no longer your own
- You answer for results you don't directly control
The three focus behaviours
A good teacher makes their own classroom work. A middle leader makes the same expectations hold in every classroom in the team, so pupils get the same experience whichever teacher they have.
Team meetings are one of the few times everyone is together. Using that time for planning, practice and improvement, rather than notices, is one of the clearest signs of an effective middle leader.
Sooner or later, a colleague will not do what was agreed. Holding a clear, fair, private conversation about it, and following up, is what separates leading a team from coordinating one.
The one that got you here, but won’t be enough
Many teachers are promoted because their own classroom is excellent and others want to copy it. That still matters. But example alone doesn't change what happens in a colleague's room when you're not there. The behaviour shifts from showing what good looks like to helping others do it, and checking that they are.
The full guide, with practice ideas, experiences, worked examples and interview questions, comes with membership.