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A clearly-defined career pathway is one of the many perks of a career in teaching. After completing Initial Teacher Training and passing an ECT induction period, a classroom teacher can look forward to moving up to middle leadership, with the prospect of eventually ascending to a role in a senior leadership team.

This ladder of success is well-trodden, yet it’s not uncommon for teachers to feel like they’ve got stuck between the rungs. In 2020, over 50% of education professionals reported feeling stymied in their ambitions in their current posts, without the scope to move forward at their schools.

While this feeling of stasis has, regrettably, become increasingly prevalent, teaching remains flush with opportunities for speedy career progression. Meteoric rises can and do happen in this profession, even without having to jump schools.

To gather some insights into how teachers can maintain momentum in their careers, we sat down with a young teacher who blazed a particularly swift trail to a middle leadership position.

Josie, 27, teaches English at a large, mixed academy in South London. Having joined the school after completing her PGCE in 2018, she had already been made Head of Year 9 by December 2019.

A span of 15 months from joining an organisation at the ground floor to reaching a middle management position would constitute a rather impressive timescale in any profession. For Josie, it’s testament to the strengths of the working environment she’s served within since first becoming a teacher.

‘My school is very good at taking chances on people earlier in their careers. I think of that cohort of newly qualified teachers that I joined here with – almost everybody is a manager of some description at my school now’.

1. School size makes a difference

Josie partly ascribes her school’s willingness to invest in new people to the advantages conferred by its scale.

‘While, for example, the secondary school I went to as a teenager, there was one [head] per year group, with the big [academy] schools that are fairly commonplace in London, each year group has a team of three, so there are more opportunities for career progression.'

The last few years have seen the average school size gradually grow, while the number of pupils educated at academies like Josie’s climbed by 2.9% in 2019-2020 alone. If these trends persist, more and more teachers may find themselves working in schools where the number of pupils necessitates a more open and fluid management structure.

2. Putting in the extra effort

While these conditions were favourable, Josie’s remarkably quick ascent would not have been possible without preparation and effort to go over and above the core requirements of her position.

‘For the whole of that autumn term before getting the job in December, I gave up quite a lot of free time just to sit in the head of year office and observe the heads at work’.

This time spent shadowing more senior staff provided an invaluable glimpse into the versatile behaviours that successful heads of year will exhibit.

‘Watching the heads switching gear was really valuable – taking a very firm approach with some kids who really needed it, but then changing to a new register completely if you’ve got a kid who’s come in sobbing, for instance’.

For Josie, the most important parts of preparing herself for the next stage in her career had little to do with anything administrative. Instead, ‘learning how to navigate [her] general demeanour with the kids’ to adapt to the many situations that life as an educator can throw at you was particularly formative.

This grounding led her to a crucial realisation: that managing a year group’s academic outcomes all comes down to versatile communication skills and an informed understanding of your pupils’ lives.

‘I think the idea that pastoral and curriculum are separate is foolish, really’, she remarks. ‘In my work as a classroom English teacher, even before getting this current management job, I’ve always had to put a lot of effort into communicating with home, getting to know the kids and their home contexts’.

3. Avoiding common missteps

Everyone makes mistakes, even teachers. Just as there are winning tactics on the path to a promotion, there are also common pitfalls to watch out for.

Josie is categorical about one error that young and ambitious teaches can make: losing sight of the reason they do what they do. ‘There is a much bigger game at play than one’s individual career’, she explains.

‘Of course if you work in education, you’re aware of a bigger quest, but certainly for me in the early days, I would be lying if I said there wasn’t an element of wanting to be the teacher that gets the kids’.

Trying to be a 24/7 people-pleaser isn’t always the wisest approach. ‘Playing a role in steering the school is partly about being willing to be the bad guy as well as the good guy’, Josie observes. Failing to set a consistent behaviour policy is one of the easiest traps to fall into.

‘Don’t make exceptions for kids because you like them, or because you have a good relationship with home’, she warns, ‘because at the end of the day you’re actually doing yourself as a teacher, the other kids who are toeing the line, and the child and their family a disservice by bending the rules’.

4. Preparing for adjustments

Taking the step up from classroom teaching to middle leadership is no picnic, with a whole new in-tray of administrative and pastoral duties on top of your pedagogical responsibilities. Yet in Josie’s telling, this transition is ‘infinitely more rewarding than it is challenging’. It just takes a bit of patience and the willingness to wait for your efforts to bear fruit.

To navigate this change successfully takes a shift of mindset. While a classroom teacher might have their mind focused on their relationship with their class, a manager needs to think about how they can, as Josie puts, it ‘hold the party line’ and set the school’s institutional norms.

A middle leader should also consider the greater significance of their role, and how they wish to make their own mark on it. Josie advises newly-appointed heads of particular departments to ‘think about your vision for what your subject means in a wider context’. That same big-picture principle applies to the pastoral duties of head of years like Josie herself – ‘you’re doing it for these kids, so it’s worth thinking about the kind of people you want them to be when they leave the school at 16 or 18’.

5. Managing working time

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’.

6. Tips for moving on up

One core function of a great head of year is to cultivate the layer of teachers below them and prime them for their own promotions. In this light, we were eager to hear her top tips for classroom teachers thinking of making their own attempts to move up.

She wastes no time with her answer. ‘Do it! If you feel confident, and you’re looking around your school and thinking ‘wow I want to be that person’, absolutely go for it. If you are committed to learning the ropes of the job, and you feel like there are people around you that you find inspiring, go for it. And even if you don’t have a particular role model, then still go for it, because actually the kids in your school need you’.

That raw enthusiasm is half the race, but Josie also advises that aspiring middle leaders give some thought to ‘the theory behind pedagogy’ and how it informs their own philosophies as individual teachers.

‘As a teacher in the system, no matter what changes there are on a governmental level, as well as initiatives in your school that you might not necessarily agree with, a philosophy about what you think this is about and why we are doing it enables you to weather those obstacles much more easily’, she explains.

Take the next step in your career with Teaching Personnel

As the UK’s leading educational recruitment agency, Teaching Personnel works with thousands of teachers each year. Our consultants are sector experts who are brimming with guidance on how to climb to the next level in your career, whether that’s through upskilling your way to a promotion at your current school or moving to a new position elsewhere.

If you think you’re ready to take that next step, browse our latest middle leadership positions now.

Otherwise, get in touch for any advice and guidance on the professional development opportunities waiting for you.

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How I Became a Head of Year in 15 Months

Table of Contents

Meet your new head of year

1. School size makes a difference

2. Putting in the extra effort

3. Avoiding common missteps

4. Preparing for adjustments

5. Managing working time

6. Tips for moving on up

Take the next step in your career with Teaching Personnel

Register with us
for a choice of classroom roles

How I Became a Head of Year in 15 Months

Table of Contents

Meet your new head of year

1. School size makes a difference

2. Putting in the extra effort

3. Avoiding common missteps

4. Preparing for adjustments

5. Managing working time

6. Tips for moving on up

Take the next step in your career with Teaching Personnel

Register with usfor a choice of classroom roles

Register with us
for a choice of classroom roles