How well would a head of a large secondary school know the individual students?

[Diah]

DD is in year 10. The head teacher came into a class to observe the other day, and as part of it asked to look in a couple of students’ books, DD’s included. I suggested to her that he would have wanted to see a range of work, and would have known she was likely to have good work to look at. She doesn’t think he would know who she is. She is an excellent student and gets involved in extracurriculars at the school, and I think it is likely her name is ‘known’ generally, by this stage in her time at the school.

But I might be clueless - what actually happens?

My daughter took a campaign to the head to improve the canteen offering. He asked her to run a covert investigation with photo evidence and work up improvement proposals for the suppliers so then had a second meeting.

So he probably knows who she is 😄

I think it depends on the Head. Some can be very "business" headed (especially in the larger schools) and don't have a lot of interaction with students, but I think most Heads know a lot of them, especially as they get further up the school.

Our head does things like "head teacher's breakfast" as a reward for high achievers (not sure they see it as a reward 😆), but on the other end he does also do "head teacher's detention" which is on a Friday after school. He's known both my DC by name for both these reasons!

Growing up I was at a 1200 pupil secondary. The head definitely knew me and would chat when passing (and with others).

My children have been at a slightly bigger secondary, 1400. I don't think the head would have any idea who they were and I'm not sure they always knew who the head was!

I was a head. I would have looked at data before a class observation and selected pupils from the top middle and bottom to check for quality of marking and feedback at different levels

Same here. Knew absolutely all of us. He was a lovely man (sadly died this year).

We just get asked for books from random register numbers plus Pupil premium, eg numbers 13 and 24 from your register

Really depends on the Head and their approach and memory as well as the structure of the school.

my personal experience of big schools is that the head doesn’t always know all the staff let alone students. My first years teaching were in a big school like the one I attended. Heads were heavily guarded by PAs and SLT.

in medium schools of around 900, yes they know most and in smaller school yes to all.

Thanks all for some very interesting insights 💐