Headteacher retiring from preferred school- should I be worried??

[Bennyhill1]

We are due to find out where our DD has been accepted for the Sept school intake later this week, and I have just seen on our preferred school's website that their headteacher will retire from July. I realize this sounds unreasonable, but I can't help feel like they should have told us when we were being shown around that this was on the cards so that we could have taken this into consideration during our decision making. Should I be worried that the school may change a lot without the current head in place? What would you do? Thanks!

I've been involved in the recruiting of a head teacher and it's a very robust and stringent process.
It is not standard procedure to advise prospective parents that the head will be retiring.

good to know, thanks RiftGibbon

It's incredibly unreasonable to think that a school is going to discuss staffing changes with a parent at the school, much less a prospective parent. At the time that you were looking around, the staff might not have known, current parents might not have known, even the head might not have made a decision!

I can understand why it would raise an interest as a prospective parent but it's a bit unreasonable to assume it should be something of concern. There's also nothing to say that the new head won't be better!

As a teacher and a parent with a reception aged child, I would say you're going to have to let an awful lot of these kinds of worries go when they start school.

Of course they wouldn’t have told prospective parents when showing them round!! The staff and current parents may not have even known at that point. Don’t over-think. A change of head can often be a good thing but it’s out of your control.

I don't think so, our much loved head retired last year when my son was in y1 but her replacement is fantastic. The outstanding school up the road went to requires improvement and the head left. Head teachers do come and go but no reason for it to put you off a school. Also if head teachers are a few year from retirement they're driven but not so energetic so a change can be positive. That said our head teacher was a black woman and a great role model so it is a shame that there doesn't seem to be the same BAME representation in the school that there was but it's no so easy to find diverse management anywhere.

I agree that it's a concern as the school might change a little and you don't know in what way. Like others have said though this isn't something that you can expect to be informed about prior to an official announcement. I'm sure you did your best on selecting the best school for your child and now you'll have to run with it!

Also, bear in mind that even had you known and chosen another school, the other head may have taken a new job, retired, gone on maternity leave etc. Staffing is never guaranteed.

I wouldn't expect to be told. However, schools can change massively when a new head takes over. Some for the better and some for the worse. We had a change and it went significantly downhill but luckily it was year 6 for our eldest so stuck it out for a year.

It's very unlikely that the staff knew when you looked round, never mind prospective parents!

Chill. Seriously. There will be staff changes throughout your child's school life. Their favourite teacher might get pregnant and leave partway through the year. The lovely motherly one will retire. The head could have left a year in to your child's time there. What would you do? Take your child out?

Relax. When your kid is 18 you'll look back at this and wonder what on earth you were thinking.

As others have said when you looked round staff won't probably have known. Think headteachers usually have a term's notice, so it has probably just been announced.

hmmm. yes I understand you OP. We are in a similar boat except it's a private school. We looked around and had a long chat with the headmistress, she did not mention anything about her plans to retire at the end of this academic year. We signed him up and paid the deposit, then heard on the grapevine that she was retiring, and it turned out to have been "common knowledge" throughout the school community that she would probably be going.
We still think it's the best school for ds, but a change of head can definitely change a school so we are a bit nervous.

You do have to have faith that the governors will have chosen wisely. The schools rarely change overnight.

Often private school grads give 1 year notice and in state schools it’s usually 2 terms. So looking round in the autumn was too early for a school to be certain of the heads intention. Sometimes chatting to other parents can get you into the loop though.

Or reading the TES vacancies section!