Deputy HoD’s

[good96]

Had a governor’s meeting this week and we reviewed staffing. Thinking of introducing a Deputy HoD in core subjects to support the HoD’s and also providing stepping stone and career progression for teachers.
The proposal is to have a Deputy HoD for Maths, English, Science. Humanities, Technology and IT / Business have a Head of Faculty currently and then subject leaders. Not worth changing the structure there but just to add pillars of support to the core subjects - does any school do this currently?

We have second and third of departments for maths and English, as did all of the schools I’ve worked in previously.

It generally worked so that HOD took lead on KS4, 2nd on KS3 and 3rd on KS5.

Most schools do this, surely, unless they can't afford TLRs for it. I think it definitely helps retain talented staff because the jump to hod is smaller and because it reduces the workload of the hod a bit.

Are your departments much smaller than an average secondary?

We don't have seconds but we have key stage coordinators in maths and English, and subject coordinators in science

At the moment, we don’t have any additional ‘formal’ structure - members of the department do take on ‘additional responsibilities’ - co-ordinator etc - but this isn’t an actual role.

There's a cost implication - I'm quite surprised any school is in the position to do that right now, so good on them if they can.

We vary it depending on how subjects work out. For, eg, Humanities we have a Head of Faculty and then a second in Faculty. Then Heads of Department, eg History, and a second in Department. For something like English it would be HOF, 2nd in Faculty and then KS co-ordinators together with Heads of KS5 subjects, eg Eng Lang. These all have a TLR. Large school.

Just out of curiosity, how many teachers in your science department?

In every school I've worked in there have been either subject leads for science or a 2nd in department getting a TLR.

The smallest school I was in did get rid of the 2nd in department, and then went through three HoDs in three years, due to burnout.

Would you promote someone directly from being a classroom teacher in science to being HoD?

It sounds like you're effectively getting people to take on some of the "2nd in" roles for free- what if they all refused to do this?

None of this is intended as having a dig, but just as points to think about.

In general, 2nd in departments only get a very small TLR and maybe one extra PPA per week- IMO, the expense is justified in terms of retaining talented staff and reducing burn out of staff/middle leaders.

Both my current and previous school had 2nd in department roles.

As a HoD myself, I would say a good 2nd is worth their weight in gold! The workload of a HoD, especially around exam time can be insane and in many cases, we don't get that much additional time to do it. We have a 50 period fortnight and I get 5 PPA per fortnight (which is what everyone gets) and 4 management periods.

I absolutely love being a HoD but no way would I want to do it without a 2nd!