HoD with 3 years of teaching under their belt…

[PastTheGin]

I know recruitment is difficult, but I just had a little nose around and 2 former trainees are leaving a previous school to become heads of department. They have both done their training year and ECT1+2. All I am thinking is “oh dear”!

I suppose it depends on the size of the department and the quality of the teacher. In a subject like music, where you might only have 1 or 2 teachers in the school, it's not that unusual.

I am with you OP, how can they possibly have the knowledge to effectively run a dept 😥

It’s MFL. I knew both of them as trainees, they were great. I just don’t think that they are ready to lead a department yet.
Like I said, I am aware of the dire recruitment situation, but burning young and enthusiastic new teachers as HoDs will only contribute to the retention crisis.

I've seen this in my school and it just leads to burnout, stress and poor management of the department

I personally think it's too soon for someone to become a HoD.

I covered a HoD role last year and just finished my first year as a permanent HoD. In September, I start my 13th year in teaching! I was a 2nd for 2 years before becoming HoD and a KS3 leader for 2 years before that, so I did 7 years before I took any additional responsibility. I am in a core subject.

I can honestly say there's no way I could have done the HoD role after 3 years. I love it now but it's a tough job at times.

I know everyone is different but so many seem to want to rush into leadership now and then often experience burn out.

I became a HOD at exactly the same stage. Through circumstance rather than anything else. The old HOD was promoted to AHT and in a small department without anyone else really to do the job I was called into the HT’s office and offered it on a 1 year basis. I had no idea that my HOD had been promoted when I walked into the room so was totally taken by surprise and not at all confident about doing it but it was fine. I ended up as HOD for 7 years and loved it. I think I did a good job too.

When I was promoted to SLT the person who took over from me was at exactly the same stage. He was brilliant and did the job really well for several years. When he moved on he was replaced by someone with one extra year’s experience who has also been really good so far too. I’ve seen people with all sorts of levels of experience become HODs and I’ve seen both hugely experienced and really inexperienced people do it brilliantly. One of our new HODs last year had been teaching well over 20 years before becoming HOD in a similar situation to how I did. She was really nervous and despite being way more experienced than I was, was similarly not at all confident about doing it but she is bloody brilliant.

I think it is a bit different in core subjects but in non-core subjects I don’t think it’s unusual for departments to be small and the pool of potential replacements to be fairly inexperienced. If they are good and the school is otherwise supportive then I think it will work out.

I'm sure these people are thoroughly capable, are great teachers and have potential. But it's such a shame that we can't have properly experienced leaders at the top. I'm so lucky that my Headteacher is in his 60's, my Deputy Headteacher is in her 60's, and they really lead well. They genuinely have seen it, done it, been there. They know the in's and out's and have experienced life and people. I agree, I don't think anybody with just 3 years experience and in their twenties or even early thirties should be leading departments. But that's where we are, increasingly nowadays. They're cheaper I suppose and perhaps many of the experienced ones have got out.

Couldn’t agree more! Unfortunately, I’ve seen lots of inexperienced people become heads of department after 2-3 years, some are great but in my experience, they are in the minority. It’s far more common to see younger heads of department come in without maturity and experience of managing staff who then treat more experienced staff appallingly. I’ve just left a school (along with half of the department) due to poor management by new young HOD. The majority of us leaving are experienced teachers and our replacements are all ECTs! It doesn’t take a genius to work out how that’s going to go… 🙄

It really depends upon the person. Some will be more than capable, and some will be completely the wrong choice. The mentality that you can only progress in teaching if you have had a decade plus of experience is so outdated. I was made HOD of a core subject after old NQT+1 and have now been HOD for around 6 years with no problems at all. Don't dismiss teachers just because they have less years.

I became a HoD of a core department after 3 years of teaching experience. But I trained to be a teacher after having spent 5 years working in another industry, so I had experience of management elsewhere and a level of emotional maturity that meant I could manage others meaningfully.

I think it really depends on the person. I have obviously made mistakes along the way as a HoD, but I have always been mature enough to own them, apologise for them and learn from them. I hugely value the expertise of more experienced colleagues and always sought their views and advice before making decisions I knew needed the input of someone who had been doing the job longer than me. I always saw the HoD position as being largely organisational - I trusted my dept to get on with the job and focused on making it a well run and resourced place to work rather than setting myself up as the fount of all teaching wisdom. I ran it as a collective, in a way - we set the parameters of and the vision for our curriculum together and then I trusted them to get on with the job.

I’ve worked under a couple of terrible HoDs who were both middle aged women with 20+ years of experience. They were good teachers but had no people management skills. Dealing with difficult conversations and supporting colleagues who were struggling with teaching practice was not their skill set at all. I think both of them would have preferred to stay in the classroom but finances and circumstances had led them to leadership rather than skill. There are no hard and fast rules to this and I would be more inclined to look at someone’s innate skill set rather than years of classroom
experience and age as my guide for whether they would be a good HoD or not.

It all depends on the individual to be fair. You learn and develop in a job so you really are not going to be the ‘finished product’ when you step into the role and that is ok - as long as they have capabilities and passion and potential - you can develop them.
When I stepped into a HT position about 26 years ago now, I had only been a Deputy Headteacher for 2 years at the point - so really not that much experienced but the CoG at the time recognised my vision & passion and thus was appointed. Rest is history.
I have also promoted people who haven’t had a high level of experience but they’ve shined and gone on to greater prospects.