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School leadership roles, what?!

19 replies

SpaghettiHettie · 08/05/2025 21:35

When I went to school, we had a head teacher and a deputy head. Then head of year and head of Departments etc

Just looked at my childs school website (secondary about 800 kids, the same school I attended) the leadership team is listed-

Headteacher
Deputy Headteacher
Assistant Headteacher
Assistant Headteacher and Director of Sixth Form
Associate Assistant Headteacher x 4
Then heads of year

Is this the norm now? Crazy amount of leadership roles! What is the difference between a deputy and assistant head? What is an associate?
I am surprised the school can afford all these roles

OP posts:
Bluevelvetsofa · 08/05/2025 21:42

It does seem to be a lot for a school of that size. Perhaps the Associates are heads of faculty. There could be an AH for Teaching & Learning, or maybe the SENCo, who should be a member of SLT.

SpaghettiHettie · 08/05/2025 21:48

Bluevelvetsofa · 08/05/2025 21:42

It does seem to be a lot for a school of that size. Perhaps the Associates are heads of faculty. There could be an AH for Teaching & Learning, or maybe the SENCo, who should be a member of SLT.

Ah yeah maybe.Thanks for replying.I have never heard of Associate roles in a school before. There is a new head, so roles appear to have been updated.

OP posts:
Dreichweather · 08/05/2025 21:52

When I was teaching, associates were teachers they gave a tiny bit of training to, no extra time, no more money and a lot more work in exchnage for gaining experience which they would use to try and get promotion.

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noblegiraffe · 08/05/2025 21:52

That sounds reasonably normal for a large school. Mine has more Assistant Heads but doesn't have associate heads. We sometimes have a temporary associate head who is roped in from middle management as it's a good way to build their career.

HollyGolightly4 · 08/05/2025 21:55

Going from middle leadership to senior leadership is the most competitive part of teaching (in fact, assistant head teacher might be the only competitive role left, the way it's going!) . Schools often have associated AHTs who aren't paid, but form part of an extended leadership team. They'll do school wide initiatives, extra duties etc.

DorothyStorm · 08/05/2025 22:01

HollyGolightly4 · 08/05/2025 21:55

Going from middle leadership to senior leadership is the most competitive part of teaching (in fact, assistant head teacher might be the only competitive role left, the way it's going!) . Schools often have associated AHTs who aren't paid, but form part of an extended leadership team. They'll do school wide initiatives, extra duties etc.

This. Massive struggle to appoint a teacher of. Advertise an AHT role and there are lots of applicants.

Head of Year is middle leader, not SLT

Fearfulsaints · 08/05/2025 22:04

It's worth remembering that they aren't necessarily doing these roles full time. So they are teacher with extra duties rather than swanning about being a leader all the time.

SpaghettiHettie · 08/05/2025 22:14

Ah thanks for all your replies. I had no idea about the leadership within the school.

School has a very good reputation, so I imagine this would be an excellent way of building a career.

It's good to know they are still teaching. DS said the HT covered a few English classes last week which is good to see.

OP posts:
SquigglePigs · 08/05/2025 22:16

When I was in secondary school 25-30 years ago we had:

Principal
Deputy Principal
Vice-principals/senior leadership x3
Head of sixth form
Head of year x5
Head of department (one for each main one so 7-8)

So not much different really.

Associate heads seem to be a bit of a new thing and I get the impression it's a bit "senior management but we can't afford to pay you any more so here's a nice title and a bit of training".

slet · 08/05/2025 22:17

I am an AHT and work with 6 other AHTs, two deputies and a HT. But the school is twice the size of yours. We all teach too. We are all snowed under and we have very distinct areas of leadership.

ofsted increasing the different range of categories will no doubt result in some schools having corresponding roles…..

LostMySocks · 08/05/2025 22:26

I'm not a teacher but I'm assuming in the last 30 go 40 years regulations and reporting requirements and red tape have increased dramatically. Everything has to be risk assessed. There are more children with additional needs due to closure of special schools. This drives more support meets and paperwork. More things like open mornings for Y7 and 6th form as you do t just go to local grammar or comp.
Budgets ha E to managed.
A bigger team helps cover this and has been said up thread many don't get much in the way of extra salary

Theunamedcat · 08/05/2025 22:27

We have a business manager too

MidnightScroller · 08/05/2025 22:34

What kind of salaries are these roles on vs a senior experienced Head of Dept/year?

Octavia64 · 08/05/2025 22:38

at my school the associates are heads of department/year doing it for no extra money and simply for the experience.

all of these people teach as well although not a full timetable. There’s a lot of bitching about how much teaching you can manage to lose with which position.

VivienneDelacroix · 08/05/2025 22:47

Yeah it's the same at my children's school. 750 pupils:
Principal
2 x vice principals
4x assistant principals
1 x associate assistant principal

ThreenagerCentral · 08/05/2025 23:00

I can explain the Associate Assistant Head. It’s to do with the way teacher contracts work. Teachers are paid on a scale according to experience and performance reviews right up to U3 which is up to £49k. When a teacher becomes a middle leader (head of year or head of department) they get something called a TLR which is like a bonus chunk of money. This can range from £1.5k to 9k per year and is paid monthly like salary. But all teachers are protected by directed time, which means that although the majority of teachers do work outside of normal working hours, they can’t be required to do so. The senior leaders however do not have that protection. So where the school needs an experienced teacher to take on a big responsibility such as implementing a new national initiative, they offer the position of Associate Assistant Head. This pays around £54k and has no protection on time. So you get the person you want, for less money than you might have otherwise paid if it was a TLR and in return they get to be part of the senior leadership team. It’s a stepping stone to applying for Assistant Head jobs which is the next one up.

cabbageking · 08/05/2025 23:38

There are so many requirements now that you need more leaders.
Safeguarding support is needed for all holidays.
You have online security, prevent, GDPR, cybersecurity, extended careers support, and pastoral support, which were not needed when I was at school.
We have staff checking on missing children, doing home visits, hours of paperwork, CYPIC, and social worker involvement. Domestic violence, deaths, children in hospitals, filtering and monitoring, and more issues with Social media outside school than in, Drugs and vaping, child abuse and child-on-child
Agressive parents, drung parents, threats to staff and threats to school where we have to close. Dealing with issues outside school like county lines and drugs that impact on siblings. That is without parental complaints, theft, children without food, providing and washing uniforms, neglect under the SS thresholds and children of parents with issues, MH, drugs and alcohol. That is, without the occasional break-in at 2am or bike shed set on fire. Had someone on the roof in the middle of the night that SLT had to attend. Train as fire Marshalls, First aiders, give medicines, be asbestos trained (God knows why) and do anything else that comes your way.
Last Friday SS came to collect a child at 9.30pm and someone had to stay with them. Meetings usually start at 7.30 am, then throw in the unknowns, you may go the whole day without eating or a break, especially when you have parents crying in your office needing support. That is without staff sickness and budget restrictions. You still have to train, teach, mark, write reports, report CPoms or other system and most of the extra work is paid at a TLR 3 rate, which can often be just an additional £700 for the year to about £3300 for more responsibilities.

Schools are filling a massive SS hole in addition to their usual workload.

cabbageking · 09/05/2025 16:11

The size of any SLT pay is limited to the grade point every maintained school is given. You can't pay over a certain amount even if you are there 30 years. Once you reach the top level for that school there are no pay rises even if you are an exceptional leader. Approximately 75% of your school budget covers staff pay.

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