What does a great Head of Year look like?

[DNAshelicase]

Hi all,

I’ve recently been promoted to HOY8 starting September. I’m an experienced teacher of 7 years so I’m confident in the classroom but I really want to start off on the right foot as HOY.

I’m interested in teacher and parent input here, what do you want from a HOY? If you know a great HOY what is great about them?

Thanks for any feedback, I really appreciate it!

Bump!

How many hours do you get to do the role?

What are the schools expectations?

If you're responsible for safeguarding across the year group make sure you know your legal stuff.

Consistency would be my biggest thing. Rules apply to all students. Also please back up teaching staff (I'm assuming coming from a teaching background you will do this anyway). We have pastoral staff members who try and befriend students and let them off rules etc and will stand outside the classroom saying "they said xxx let them back in".

As a parent I'd hope not to have to speak to you unless it's positive!

Communication- with your form tutors, parents, students and colleagues.

Of course consistency, fairness and the ability to delegate to form tutors, but an awareness of when you need to step in.

Make your expectations clear to everyone. Notice what’s going well and thank colleagues when it is. Equally, if someone isn’t doing their job, deal with it.

Praise as much as you can and it’ll be easier to criticise constructively if you need to.

I loved being HoY.

Please pass information on to staff. My DH has a very life limiting illness which will be terminal while DS is at secondary school and it made all the difference to know that all his teachers knew. Tutor was ok but didn’t have the clout hoy did regarding info and how seriously staff took the info shared.

Back up teaching staff. Consistently and kindly apply rules to all... you know the score! Good luck.

Look after your tutor team - for me that's the difference between a HOY I will support professionally as a colleague, and a HOY I would walk over hot coals for. Also not asking your tutors to do anything you haven't been willing to do yourself. And try to push back on any bullshit initiatives from SLT rather than just robotically passing them on to your tutors!!

I was a HOY for 16 years. Everything said above , plus have presence. Contact parents for good things, too, and make sure you spend time and energy on the good kids and the middling ones, too.

You will find yourself very stuck between tutors, the children and SLT sometimes. Fancy's post describes what I was like. I am no longer a HOY...

Look after yourself! It is a very full on role- always something to do. It can be great fun and very rewarding but it is exhausting and you can get all the flak, so have coping mechanisms.

Have lots of assemblies up your sleeve!

Win tutors over with form time activities which are simple and nice biscuits in meetings!

Good Luck!

Plan in 5 positive phone calls a week on a Friday - takes 30 seconds each and is so so worth it.

Being a HoY can be a bit negative sometimes.

30 seconds? Wow, you must talk fast!

Agree with everything above! (Teacher, Head of Key Stage, and parent so coming from all angles!)

For me the thing I think the students appreciate the most and respond well to is if you make time to actually get to know them. Obviously easier with the ones you teach. But being able to say hello in corridors and comment on something specific to a student is lovely. Knowing who is friends with who and having a ear to the ground in terms of social dynamics can be really helpful.

I also see myself as an advocate for students sometimes (or I might expect a tutor to fill that role if I am more 'bad cop', depends on situation and student relationships). I have older ones but they want to know you have their back. This doesn't mean undermining anyone else, of course, just that they should know you want what's best for them and will be straight with them but also with parents and teachers about what they need to make good progress/stay out of trouble/actually turn up to school!