How I Became a Head of Year in 15 Months

Nobody could accuse heads of year of sitting around and twiddling their thumbs. As the point of ‘triage’ for parents, teachers, children and external agencies, Josie’s list of daily duties is as lengthy as it is varied.

 An average day will start at 07:30 with lesson planning and marking before the school gates open. In between timetabled lessons, she will liaise with parents on children’s behavioural issues, mediate between pupils if they’ve fallen out, run lunch duties and, after the school day has finished, conduct detentions.

Naturally, such a gamut of competing obligations requires some canny, strategic time management. Josie has some practical advice for those daunted by this prospect. ‘Prioritise the lessons, because that’s 80% of your job in terms of pay, and it’s what really makes you feel good at the end of the day. It’s difficult, but it has to be front and centre’.

A new middle leader needs to find a ratio that allows them to focus the lion’s share of their attention on teaching without falling behind on administrative duties. As Josie readily admits, this isn’t something any teacher will ever get right all of the time - ‘inevitably, there are days when I feel like I’ve been a bad head of year, and there are days when I’ve felt like I’ve been a bit of a bad English teacher’.

Her personal rule of thumb is to ensure that the 30-40 minutes before the pupils start arriving in the morning are devoted to planning lessons.

While all these pressures might lead a new head of year to start working through their evenings and weekends, Josie warns against allowing the job to eat away at your free time.

‘When I started my career, I worked at the weekend; I don’t now. Your brain is a resource, and if you are burning yourself out by working all weekends, then your lessons won’t be as good for the kids because you’re going to be flat, and that’s unsustainable’.