Head working from home

[springontheway]

Small primary school, Head works from home 1-2 days a week. Is this 'normal'? Thoughts?

Is hybrid working available for all staff?

We are allowed to take our PPA at home (half a day). It's not a complaint, I'm just wondering how common this is for a head.

I’m not sure how it helps to know where the headteacher is working. If they are available to do onsite activities that are part of their role at the appropriate times, it seems reasonable for them to work at home, in another school, at a conference etc as needed.

Don't get me started on this! Our SLT now have 'working from home days' every single week!!

It's getting beyond a joke!

It's becoming far too common! If you're the head of a primary and the only person not class based, you cannot do your job from home.

You cannot help to calm the SEN pupil having a meltdown, you cannot cover for the teacher who needs 10 minutes out of the classroom, you cannot call the plumber because the boys toilets are flooded again, you cannot show a prospective parent around, you cannot retrieve the pupil who has run to the far end of the field.

You cannot do your job from home!!! Governors need to clamp down. A very odd day to get something big done but not on a weekly basis when there is nobody else out of class. It just doesn't work.

springontheway I wonder if I know you...

careerchange456 that's assuming the head does all that when they are actually on site🙄

What work is the HT doing off site? Are they supporting another school or just doing some admin etc?
If it is the former, then the deputy headteacher should have ‘increased’ responsibility over the day to day operation and in essence be the co-headteacher.
If it is the latter - why are they off site wfh?
Why can’t they work from their office? I’m a HT myself and there was a period of time when a neighbouring school had their HT go on LTS, I supported that school for two days a week. I had excellent deputies to enable me to do this.

I think it’s important for a HT to be on site as much as possible especially during school hours…

some tiny rural primaries in Scotland share a head teacher with other schools, so clearly its not essential for them to be on site every day.

Governors need to ask what work heads are doing offsite every week, proof of attendance on training courses, conferences or secondment to another school.

Exactly. Being an exec head of a couple of schools or supporting another school is one thing because you're actually in a school building.

Sitting on a laptop working from home is what people are taking objection to. That should be done in the school building when other people are having to pick up the slack.

I'm sure the OP is complaining about days working from home when the plan for that day is for the head to be on site. She's not talking about when the head is planned to be on another school site.

Our DHT x 2 and SENDCO have wfh every week....it's in the calendar. Then we get about a thousand emails from them.

Christ knows why they can't work from their individual offices...perhaps it's because they then don't have to help with the behaviour issues.

There will be no heads left if this is how even their own staff teams speak and think of them.
Evidence to governors of how they’re spending their working day?! They are not task-avoidant children!

Seems to be on the rise amongst all SLT. That way they don't have to be disturbed with behaviour support, parents and phone calls! Of course us lowly teachers don't have this option...

The problem is, especially in a smallish primary school, the paper work side of the job is not their entire job. A large part of their job cannot be done offsite and this simply wasn't a trend until covid.

Also what should teachers do when they can see that the head's role is not being done because they're not on site? Just sit back? Surely that is the point of the governors!

I'd love to be a head one day but there's absolutely no chance I'll be working from home on a regular basis. It's not the way I would want to treat my staff!!

There is the old leadership suggestion that the best Head Teachers are those who are able to successfully run their school whether they are present in the building or not. If they can be out of school and the school still run then this is a sign of a good Head Teacher.

Regarding the things listed by @careerchange456 - these arent the Head Teacher’s job and in my view would be a sign of a very poor Head Teacher if these things can’t be managed without them. The best Head Teacher’s i’ve worker for are those who are strategic and make an operational difference not those who are martyrs who think the school need’s to revolve around them.

Do you work in a smallish primary school?

Primary heads are very infrequently about 'leading strategically'.

And if the head isn't dealing with the things I've listed, who is?? We don't have anybody else out of class!!! Even our admin is only part time!

I've also never suggested that heads need to be there every day - of course they're going to be out of school to attend heads conferences, Ofsted updates, local head meetings and all the many other things they attend.

The gripe is then working from home on top of all those occasions.

Ive worked in small and large primaries as well as special and in every single school - going back 20 years the Head Teacher - whoever it was - has at some point worked off site or from home. At a school where i’m a Governor it was considered the expectation that they work at least a half day off site a week and this is set as a target by the SIP.

Being a Head Teacher is an incredibly demanding job with everyone judging you - as you are demonstrating. There are plenty of CEOs of large and small companies or strategic leaders who work from home or off site for part of their week. This is no different for a Head Teacher - they need to be able to stand back
from the day to day running at times and think strategically.

And as an aside you have 0 idea of the Head Teacher’s personal circumstances beyond what they make public. For example I know a Head Teacher friend of mine who is disabled and requires the wfh balance - staff dont know she is disabled as it is not an obvious disability.
I think you need to cut your Head Teacher some slack and stop judging. Head Teacher’s do an incredibly difficult and demanding job and it is an incredibly different role to someone who is working day to day operationally in the school.

Headteacher should be only working from home if they had prearranged an appropriate cover, ie a deputy who will step up on the day. Many unforeseen risks could happen: accidents, fire etc. hence the procedures must be in place. It is not a home-based role just as class-teacher is not.

I totally agree that being a Headteacher is a hugely demanding and onerous job, but many small primary schools now simply don't have another person who is not teaching full time to deal with the multitude of things that come up during the day, and need someone to deal with them. Angry and abusive parents, violent and disruptive behaviour, safe-guarding issues, school site issues - all these things happen most days in my small Primary school. Often classes don't have a TA, so the teacher is by themselves with the class in front of them when things arise.

Decreasing budgets and increasingly difficult behaviour from children and adults mean teachers alone simply can't, and wouldn't cope. Our Head will always step in. It is what keeps most of us in our job. If the Head does work from home, which he does occasionally (working on the SIP, or strategic stuff) then our Assistant Head will have cover, but budgets mean this doesn't happen as often as the Head needs the time. I would find it very difficult if I thought there wasn't additional support on hand most of the time, and I'm an experienced teacher.

Tell me you've never worked in a small school without telling me you've never worked in a small school...

As per pp, there often isn't anyone else. I sometimes have to answer the front door whilst teaching, leaving my class with no adult, because there literally isn't anyone else to do it. There might be three adults in the whole school, all with a class or 1:1 child. Heads of small schools absolutely chase the kid who has done a runner, serve lunch, phone parents of ill children, phone IT to find out why the Internet is down and on and on. There's a whole other thread running convincing a woman not to take a headship in a small school.

Totally agree - when I worked in a small school (less than 100 pupils) the head ran the football team and salted the playground when it snowed because the caretaker was part-time, only about 2 days a week! There were only 5 teachers and we did all the clubs, all the duties and led about 3 subjects each! I would expect the head to be in all day every day unless they were on a course.

Half a day a week I could accept but I wouldn't respect a head who regularly took more.

Schools work best when there is a very strong culture of 'we're all in this together'. You can't yell 'we're all in this together' as you drive out of the car park at 9:30 am.

A Headteacher is certainly not a role that can be performed remotely - I get that some days on rare occasions they may need to but definitely not a regular occurrence.
The role is to provide whole school leadership - they need to be pretty much present on site all of the school hours (unless elsewhere on duties)

My current HT is currently overseeing 2 schools - spends half their week in one school and the other half in second school. The schools are in driveable distance so can be accessed easily. As the DHT I wouldn’t dream of not being in school especially when I’m deputising for my HT.

it's incredibly poor leadership and actually really selfish of a HT to work from home as a matter of course. How do they expect to establish a presence around the school, or provide support to their staff? They need to be out there at gate duty, break duty etc. and supporting their team, not sitting at home.