HOD- starting to get high levels of anxiety because of exam results

[Supermummy88]

Good evening all,

I just took on a new position as HOD of a humanities subject in September 2023. The school I work at are very results driven compared to other schools I’ve working at. The vice principal is my line manager and is putting a lot of pressure on me to get results…I’ve got very high targets to reach. This is a fairly new school and this year will be their second set of GCSE results. When I started the schemes of work were very poor and there were hardly any GCSE resources. The staff turnover has been very high and some teachers prior to when I started had deleted their resources before they left. I have worked exceptionally hard since I’ve started and have given this job my all. However, the mock results are still not what STL expect. I am now under a lot of stress and pressure to get results this summer…the VP has already told me that if the 9-5 percentage is not high enough then I’m doing something terribly wrong. I have now developed a lot of anxiety and I don’t know how many more evenings and weekends I can give up. I’ve got a husband and two young children.

Honestly?

Your VP sounds awful.
I've been a HOD for three years now - I'm Maths and we have got really strong results (both for progress and for attainment) for the last few years. However, I don't especially think the quality of teaching in my department is significantly higher than in previous schools I've worked in.

My only question is:

• are your mock results significantly out of line with those achieved in other subjects? If yes, it is probably worth liaising with other HODs in your school to see if there is anything obvious they are doing which you are not. If not, it is a much bigger issue than just you!

I'd be really frank with your LM about the stress you feel under - I would reiterate all the actions you have taken to date and the barriers you have had to overcome, and ask what else they would like you to be implementing. If they can't give you anything concrete then this is a huge red flag, and comes across as someone just trying to cover their own back.

Ultimately - teaching and being a HOD is just a job! It can be such a great job but it is absolutely not worth you burning out as a result of it.

Thank you for your response. Maths, English and science are performing much better than my subject. I teach geography and history and R:E are doing about 12% better when it comes 9-7 and 14% better 9-5. However, I have only been here just over a year. I am planning the whole KS3 curriculum and the GCSE! The other geography teacher in the department is not qualified and is from abroad and therefore doesn’t know much about the curriculum. He’s having major behaviour issues and is on a support plan, so that takes up a lot of my time in the week aswel. I know I can get good results because I have done so in the past, however, there is SO much work to be done here that there are not enough hours in the day for me to it, especially because I am the only one doing it all.

This sounds very stressful, OP. Unfortunately I think in the absence of published progress data some poorly-run schools are fixating on their headline outcomes like it's 2009 this year. I think you need to take this to your line manager and ask what support they are going to put in place to enable you to meet the targets that have been set. If necessary, go to the headteacher.

You might also like to ask MNHQ to move this to the 'staffroom' section where there are a lot of experienced teachers. This board tends to be primarily used by parents.