Can't get AHT role : secondary schools

[ILikeBeansWithKetchup]

Is anyone else finding it impossible to break into SLT in secondary schools?

I have been applying for AHT roles for the best part of 10 years now and have been shortlisted three times. I think I have applied for 40+ jobs and it is destroying my self esteem, to be honest.

There is probably a bit of a backplot about my current school not being great at developing middle to lower senior leaders sufficiently - so we have no extended SLT or associates for example. All the stuff that could have measurable 'impact' which seems to be what applications want is done by SLT.

I was a head of year (huge school so that is in charge of 15 staff and 400 kids) for 14 years. I have led small departments (successfully); I am a much valued commodity as I teach a core subject. I now lead the work of our National Support School. I am making this sound more important than it is because that's what I do in applications, obviously! I haven't worked in more than one school (because I can't get a job!) but I am a governor at another school and do now work in school to school support. I just don't get it. I have part NPQH equivalent, safeguarding lead training and a 2:1 from a RG university. All this should help?

I now see whippersnappers coming up form below me with about 8-10 years teaching experience and think I am now too old..

It sounds arrogant but I always thought I would lead a school; they need school leaders, after all! It makes me desperately sad. And makes me wish I had never gone into teaching at all.

I keep being told 30 -40 people are applying for assistant head posts... I do ask for feedback. It's generally a bit nebulous but I get told I wasn't 'quite right for their role' or they had people already doing a similar job, or I get told I don't sell myself enough .

Any empathy or advice gratefully received!

I have cast my net wider in the last two years but I do have a DH who is not very domestic and two DSs at secondary school so a key age - not keen for them to experience upheaval so am not able or prepared to have a longer commute than about 40 minutes or to move house - so my options have become more limited. One of the few interviews I had was for a pastoral role in the Lake District (300 miles away) but, after some soul searching, I didn't go. Bad mistake.

I just did the national search fucker : interestingly, there were three in the entire country! I'll look them over.

Should have said the head is keen to make me an SLE if we ever get to be a Teaching School (bloody election is holding up any decisions). He can keep me quiet there but also keep me useful Unfortunately, he as some rather unappealing plans for his SLEs!

Maybe that's the problem? My first AHT role was progress, and I had a strong background in improving results as a HOD (core subject, but one of the big 3, which I assume you are not), so I had lots of data in my application to support it. I had also line managed other TLR holders. I do think you need to tailor your application to the role. I would never have got a pastoral role (and wouldn't have wanted one, even as a first step into senior leadership). I could have made a reasonable case I think for a professional development role, but my strongest area was progress by far. It also meant I could hit the ground running when I actually got the job.

I'm an English teacher - HOD of a department within the faculty.

You do sound more suited to a progress role I lots of ways. HoYs get an overview of lots of students' progress, of course but we don't influence it in the same way and are kept on the fringes in many schools. More progress roles exist, though, and I can't just up sticks and move 300 miles :(

Have you had more than one AHT role Madonna ?

I think I may be stuck in the old days when we wrote more about what we did/ what we loved doing and how we taught, rather than proving impact. I need to move with the times! Or give up.

See now I've found a job I want in the Cotswolds...

I am sure a 2 hour commute is fine,..

I've done a 90 minute commute for a bloody good job but 2 hours in good weather becomes 3 hours in poor weather.

Keep looking and I'm sure you will find something. Also consider 1 hour by train is actually a lot further away than 1 hour driving.

Yes, I would never go by train. The Cotswolds would actually be much nearer GPs (we always meet up at the Farm Park on days out ) but I can't see DCs wanting to move (especially DS1 who's a rather anxious type) and DH getting a new job just like that. I guess some people can just uproot their lives...sigh.

Anyway, I'm talking like I would get shortlisted for that job! I'm nothing if not relentlessly optimistic.

You wouldn't go by train? I'd love a train commute or a chauffeur I'd love to be able to use that time to mark/ plan rather than drive.

I'd have to get to the train station, pay to park, pay to sit on a crowded train, walk to the school from there (they're never near stations..) When I did my PGCE, I got three buses and a train and had to then walk half an hour. And I didn't learn to drive until I was 26 do used buses for the first five years of my career. I think I've paid my penance..

If I lived in a city , obviously I would!

I did two.

It is all about impact IME.

Well yes, to do a train commute I'd need to move, but I can dream

I need to work on impact. I thought I'd done a good job of that in my last application but it seems not good enough :(

I've looked for exemplars but can't really find any. I saw the applications people did for the headship In interviewed for and didn't think they were that different from mine (part forma coup[e of really boastful ones).

The applications for AH to my own school weren't that strong : there was a small field; so I need to find the equivalent of that. somewhere else, fingers crossed.

I can write a good letter but may need to improve my 'offer' somehow : or find the job for me that's not in The Cotswolds!

Are you applying to church schools, they always get a smaller field imo? They often only ask for 'in sympathy with our ethos.'

God my typing is so bad!!

Just as well I proofread my applications!

Funny you should ask. I am a Cof E governor , applied to a Cof E school and didn't get interviewed. I'll admit I was surprised.

One of my few interviews was at a Catholic school.

We don't have many faith schools round here to be honest.

Apologies if I've missed this upthread, but have you considered applying for a Professional Tutor role, as you have training experience?

Also, have you looked into becoming an SLE, if your school will support your application? Again, it sounds as if you are doing something similar now.

Hi Caleb : I did mention upthread about us applying to be a teaching school, which will create SLEs. My head's plan is to use SLEs to teach 4 days in his school, and then be on the payroll of another school effectively for the other day, teaching there. It's not a prospect I relish, I must say and not how I see other SLEs operate. I would actually feel a bit of a fraud : my expertise isn't in English teaching. It's fairly typical of our head to come up with a scheme which will save his school money and solve / alleviate another school's recruitment crisis! The election has buggered his plans up though.

Professional tutor roles are very occasionally advertised round here. I think at this stage in my life and career that would be too hard to juggle but I am applying for a lecturer role.

It's not really the advisory stuff I like or have experience in. I get a genuine buzz out of standing in front of lots of people presenting (something most of our SLT are truly dreadful at!!). I always envy those people who deliver the big flashy courses in London : but I know they are generally holding down another job, too! (And are often people without family commitments). I'd like to deliver training on safeguarding or something - but these are jobs that go to people who know people round here and , since they are done by retirees, I assume they pay no more than pin money. What I'd really like to do, though, is a separate issue from the fact that I can't even make a shortlist for what I'd be pretty happy to do.

With the wide range of experience I have- and the fact that I teach a core subject - I sometimes find it hard to stomach that I didn't make the top 6 or so and that's what makes me despondent : and also makes me anxious that I couldn't do the interview if I got one, or the job , if I got that far. My career has been in one giant stall for the last 10 years and, I must admit, it can make me seem negative at work to some people because I am so frustrated.

It's good to know that some posters know people in the same situation- I feel a bit less alone.

If you are driving have you thought of casting your net further afield. A 40 minute commute is really quite short. Most people I know do at least 1 - 1 1/2 hour each way. Some do more.

OP I am exactly the same. I've worked in the one school but have had various roles:
Teacher of Technology
Lead learner
Head of Year
Head of Department
Associate member of SLT
This has all been achieved over an 8 year period BUT despite numerous job applications I have never even gained an interview.
My current head even helped me with the latest application which was even AHT line managing Tech.... She said it was a great application and couldn't see where the issues lie
She did say that it's near on impossible to go from pastoral to SLT and that being HOD is the way to go so I'm now looking for that role elsewhere, however, I genuinely feel that because I haven't taught anywhere else for the last 9 years that I will even get overlooked for that role.
So I understand your frustration completely x

Hi Olivers : I actually don't know any teachers that do that!

Well, two. The head lives about an hour away but he is always out and about, rarely in school, and has quite flexible hours. When he is in, he can rock up whenever he likes really And I have a friend who has just started a job with over an hour's commute but she is, for the meantime, balancing that against 9 week summer holidays. She leaves the house at 6am (she has no DCs).. Many of my colleagues live in the actual town my school is in (in order to get their own DCs in partly ) including most of the SLT. The furthest any of them lives is a 20 minute drive. I think the demands on teachers such as school trips, meetings and parents' evenings means most don't want to add on long commutes.

Most of us get in before 8am, some before. I have two DCS . I already leave the house at 7.30 . I can't push that start time back by much.

I think a commute can be relative to the area you work in. Round here, any lengthy commute would probably be tediously cross country - but not traffic free- or take in the M1/M25 and entail a huge amount of congestion and stress. The most congested junction of the M1 is about half an hour south and we also have the clogged up A1. I went for a look round a lovely school, theoretically 30 mins away. The journey back at 4.30, with no alternative routes, took 80 minutes! So, I am already factoring that in to my calculations _ I accept that if I say 45 minutes away , it may be longer than that. (By the way, I did still apply to it,and didn't get shortlisted)

At the moment, I have a luxury of a 13 minute commute which sued to be 25 before we moved. I'd happily go up to an hour for a really brilliant job but would prefer it to be less - for work life balance and because my DS2 has quite a lot of music and sport commitments which require ferrying and juggling.

Regardless, even when I apply further away (and the same shortage of jobs still applies), I still don't get shortlisted...except for when I applied to the Lake District!

Well, the Lake District is the best place to teach

Re training, the people I know who do that have set up on their own, not been given jobs by others.

I was talking about other people who work in different industries.

Eg dp leaves the house at 6.30am and is behind his desk by 7.30am. He never gets back before 8.30pm. I don't know any other people who do less than 1 hours commute.

I work and use taxi service to ferry children around or they use public transport

Olivia are you in London/big city?

We've moved out and it's incredibly rare for anyone to commute an hour here. A friend's husband is currently deliberating over a job as it would require that of him.

If it was just me (no kids etc) I'd move to the town a n hour away rather than commute there!

I'd missed the bit about the 40min commute.

I completely get why this would be ideal. But I think if you are restricting your search to this, it may not be helping.

I commute an hour each way on a good day. In bad traffic this is double (thankfully not too bad now thanks to Google maps!). I am a single mum to two dc 7 and 4. They come with me and are in a local primary to the school I teach at.

I'll be honest, I have just sold and bought a house 10 mins away from the school! But I've been doing that commute for 18 months. I love my job. I wouldn't have managed the same job in the same type of school where I currently live.

I had worked 11 years in previous school so I know the pitfalls there.

My application was all about impact. All about proving my impact with data. The buzz word for this decade