Secondary SLT - what subjects?

[StayingHere]

If you are in secondary does your SLT have a bias towards a certain subject or faculty? I am thinking about applying for SLT roles in a couple of years time but I come from an Arts subject background. I was chatting to a friend and she said SLT are hardly ever Arts or English, they're always science, mathematics, PE! She wasnt trying to put me off but as I think about it, in my 11 years experience there are very few music/art/drama teachers on the SLTs I have worked for. Have had quite a few MFL teachers on my SLTs though. Are they more balanced where you are? Do you think there is preference for science/maths specialists?

Ours is a mix but English is dominant. Previous Head was Science but current head, plus 2 assistant heads are English. Other SLT are History, DT, music and ICT, so actually no science or maths at all at my school at the moment.

Across the schools I've worked at there's been a range of subjects, but PE seems to be a dominant one across them all.
Us English/Maths teachers used to joke that we were underrepresented due to us spending most of our time implementing stupid initiatives from non-core SLT members who have no idea how to raise performance in core subjects.

Ours is all social sciences and PE. Similar jokes to Lola re core!

DH’s SLT is 1 x science, 1 geog, 1 PE, 1 maths & 1 English. So a decent mix really. His previous 1 was 3 x science & 2 x PE

Previous school was (at various times):
Geography
English (x4)
Food Tech
Maths
Biology
Music (x2)
PE
French
RS

Current school is:
English (x3)
Music
Maths
Drama
RS

Interesting! Looks like a mix is quite common in many schools.

Previous school there was a lot of English/History teachers on the SLT. One scientist at one stage.

Current school is mostly science but with English/Business studies represented as well.

I don't think it was/is deliberate in either school- just the way it turned out.

I wouldn't let it put you off -they may welcome a different specialism.

History, 2MFL, maths, 2 science, music

Mainly English but also PE, MFL & technology.

The last school I worked in the Head and two deputies were all white, male and maths teachers .

Last school was maths, drama, ICT, media, business, history, music and physics

This school business, history, biology, geography and mfl

I've always had Heads who were core subjects so the opposite of pps experience. Maybe everyone feels ignored and sidelined but options subject teachers definitely feel like second class citizens at my school.

All science and maths at my place. And all male.

Mix: currently English, history and extended SLT is Science, English, Geography and maths.

Worked for predominantly PE SLT on past. Don't do it. Ever.

Majority Physical Education

To find out a bit more info, what sort of age do you find assistant heads taking their roles? I'm mid thirties, have a bit of re-climbing to do post kids and jollying round the world so if I ever have the chance to apply I think I will realistically be around 40.

Depends on school context but yes generally mid 30s. In my school lots of our deputies and AHs were older than that, some in their 50s.

Is it different in selective schools?
In ours, we have scientists, mathematicians, historian and classicist. No linguists. No-one from arts.

They also mainly seem to be Oxbridge or the odd Durham or similar, over the years.

Do you notice any patterns in how long people stay in role or if they move onto promotion or stick at same level?

I've noticed the men are more likely to move on and more likely to be promoted positions.

And I notice zero correlation between who seems to be doing a good job and who is able to get a promotion. Simply applying seems to be the key thing...I think it's often the case at all levels of promotion. If you believe in yourself and try, you often get the role somewhere. And I know 'doing a good job' is probably judged differently between classroom teachers and management!

@WombatChocolate

Is it different in selective schools? In ours, we have scientists, mathematicians, historian and classicist. No linguists. No-one from arts.

They also mainly seem to be Oxbridge or the odd Durham or similar, over the years.

Selective, academic school: mostly arts and humanities, not particularly heavy on Oxbridge, so I wouldn't say that's a rule.

Previous school the same: mostly arts and humanities, only one from Oxbridge on the team.

Currently 1x history 1x science 1x RE 1x MFL 1x IT 1x Maths

Extended SLT includes English and psychology too.

We had a DH who left for a headship who was an art teacher. There’s only one man in our SLT and only one in extended SLT. I remember one male member of SLT, who has since left, telling me when I was a relatively new classroom teacher “The problem with this school is there’s too many women on SLT.” Men like that tend not to stick around and that, in my view, can only be a good thing.