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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Head & Deputy Head leaving

13 replies

Twistedheartache · 23/05/2015 17:43

Just found out that head & Deputy Head are leaving the primary school my dd (pfb) is due to start in Sept.
Don't know why, but while head has been there school has improved both in results & ofsted rating (fwiw)

Any experience of this?
Is it a bad sign/something to worry about?
There is a very viable back-up option in terms of a new academy which I loved when I visited but discounted because of its lack of "history" l, need to recruit every year & only ever having 40-50 older children & potential difficulty in transfer to secondary but likely to have places.

Wwyd?

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suitefrancaise · 23/05/2015 18:35

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

AsBrightAsAJewel · 23/05/2015 19:40

If the head has chosen to move on it may be due to a range of reasons - family relocation, promotion to a larger school, moving to another school that needs improvement, retirement, ill-health, etc. None of them would be "sinister".

The deputy head may be moving to their first headship, a larger deputy-headship, disappointed they didn't get the headship (as previous poster suggested), family relocation, family needing more support and can't sustain the job and out-of-school commitments, retirement, ill-health or if they have worked closely for sometime with the outgoing head would prefer to move on than be in the sometimes difficult position of experienced deputy working alongside a newer, less-experienced head.

Without knowing the details it is impossible to comment on whether the change is a definite concern. You need to think about why you selected this school over the other one - did you do it because you liked the head or were there other reasons that remain the same?

TandemFlux · 23/05/2015 19:46

The head may be moving on now she's turned the school around. Her new school maybe another school that needs turning around and if she has a knack for it, she will probably only spend a few years there too.

It's also normal for deputy's to move into headships. More so if she's been integral to things improving.

TandemFlux · 23/05/2015 19:48

Visit both schools again. Explain to your allocated school that you are having a wobble about your choice and want to revisit.

PottyLotty · 23/05/2015 19:53

The head at our primary school only agreed to stay until standards had improved. She was brought in specifically to improve the school. Once it reached the agreed level she moved on. The deputy went at the same time for professional development reasons. She felt she had done as much as she could at our school and wanted to move on. Both were replaced with wonderful staff as the governors had set very high standards based on the departing staff.

Don't think that anything less than the current standards will be accepted by the governors when recruiting replacements.

Charis1 · 23/05/2015 23:24

It is very common, there is a huge national shortage.

Mopmay · 23/05/2015 23:35

If it was our school school it would not concern me. Been Good to outstanding. It's a fab big community school. It's not perfect but the kids are happy and 700 children live within 0.5 miles. Loads of teachers work there then are promoted. Our HT will leave one day ...

Millymollymama · 23/05/2015 23:57

Actually it is fairly unusual for both to leave. It can happen, but it is not good for a school to lose its senior leadership team in one fell swoop. Usually Heads who have improved a school signal to the Governors they are going some time in advance. It is often the case that the Deputy stays as Acting Head if a new Head cannot be recruited. Some stay to help the new Head settle in. Losing both is difficult to manage and it will be interesting to see if the school has managed to recruit successfully for September - or not.

Original poster

Twistedheartache · 24/05/2015 05:19

Thank you for your input
They have definitely recruited a new deputy but no news on a new head yet. Interviews were mid April.
I think I'll wait for starting school info to come through and see what that says about it, but might go and visit other option again just in case I'm remembering wrongly since Dd2 was 3 weeks old when I went!

OP posts:

Millymollymama · 24/05/2015 10:43

There may not be a place at the other school now? You might need to check if they have a vacancy before you visit. If the school have interviewed, then hopefully they have made an appointment but it seems odd they have not announced it.

Cedar03 · 26/05/2015 06:48

We lost both the other year. Our deputy had already found a new job when the head unexpectedly decided to resign for personal reasons. The deputy was able to stay on a bit longer but the school had to employ an interim head teacher as they were not able to recruit to the head position. There really does seem to be a shortage of candidates for senior positions in schools as were weren't the only school without a head teacher. It doesn't necessarily have to be a disaster. The interim head turned out to be good and was able to energise the teaching staff during the uncertainty.

freddiethegreat · 28/05/2015 09:59

My son's primary HT left due to family reasons a couple of years ago. The DHT had been due to retire but postponed, but went to p/t. She did two days a week as HT and an interim head was appointed for the other three (or vice versa, I forget). This lasted a term, then a new HT came in in January and the DHT retired the in the summer.

It was pretty disastrous for my son & because of that experience I'd be worried in your shoes. If they've appointed strong candidates whom you can meet soon from September, well, ok perhaps. If not I'd consider a move.

DeeWe · 28/05/2015 12:17

I think it's unlikely that there's anything major, if there hasn't been a disasterous ofsted or something. Best bet is to find a parent or few and see what the gossip says, which isn't necessarily correct, but if there's nothing sustantial the chances are it's just one of those things.

Our local school had 4 out of 7 teachers leave one term, having had not more than 2 leave in the previous 4 years. Rumours shot round of a staffroom rift...
Reality was:

Teacher's oh was in the army and they were moving on
Teacher was overdue retirement but had stayed on a couple of years to see the new head settled.
Teacher's dm lived a good distance away and was seriously ill, but expected to be like that for some time. Teacher was close to retiring, so decided to take early retirement to be able to look after dm better.
Teacher was commuting nearly 2 hours after moving further away with oh's work. They'd basically been waiting for a local school position to come up and this was when it happened.

It's possible with the shortage in primary heads that they're looking at appointing an umbrella head over more than one school. It can work, I believe, fairly well, but I don't have direct experience of it.

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