Losing out to external candidate for a position I have being doing temp for 18 months

[MintBee]

I am employed as permanent member of this staff but have been doing a temporary HOD role for the last year and half and told to apply for it permanently. I had rasied attainment and working toward further extra curricular activities. After all that my school decided to give the post to a external candidate permanently whose lesson observation went that bad there were no notes made by one of their observers because they were mainly being a TA. When waiting to be interviewed they asked me no questions, even another candidate who was asking me loads about the school turned to the successful candidate why weren't they asking questions which they replied they were chill. They then got annoyed that they were on their half term and the wait time for the interview was holding them up.

I am at a loss. I have worked so hard and gave up all my half terms and easter holiday to get students back who were behind on coursework or needed intervention. All the other temp HODs have got their posts made permanent other than me and everyone in the school (apart from SLT) were saying surely was guaranteed to get the job permanently.

I have since had a conversation with my line manager and who was on the interview panel. They said there was 1 point between me and the external candidate when they tallied up the scores. I asked did the last year and a half mean nothing when it came to your decision and they said it was down to the interview. I now feel even worse. I don't know what to do now. They have asked me to continue until the new HOD comes in May. I have been off for three days as my mental health is at a all time low. I just don't know what to do and feel so embaressed to go back into school.

Ahhh that’s such a crap situation to be in.

I’m not sure why they’ve offered other temp HoD’s the permanent role and not you - unless they felt you were not ready for the role.

You can take the positives out of this situation, you’ve got experience as a HoD now that you will put you in good stead for other positions in nearby schools that you can apply to.

It would be an awkward one for you as the chances are you will be working with the new HoD - my advice to you is to work with them and not against them. They may want you to take up a second in department role to support them and this also supports your career too.
I’d be having a conversation with your line manager to discuss the development opportunities.

Thanks for the reply. I have already had a chat with my line manager and they said it was because they scored 1 point more in the interview. They did not care about who had more experience. My department is business, IT and computer science. The new HOD they have employed has no experience of being HOD and is IT specialism. My department is now made up of 4 computer science/IT teachers (1 being the new HOD and 1 being the key stage co-ordinator for computing and IT) and 2 business teachers (1 being me and a member of SLT).

It does not make sense to me at all. Everyone in the school is in utter shock and disgust. There are a large number of HODs leaving and lead practitioners.

Some school leaders behave in a disgusting way: school politics. They should have been honest and told you they wanted to go in a different direction before the interview took place. I fail to believe they appoint purely on a points basis. I'm sure they would have had an idea that wanted someone else for the role before Interviews. How an earth can they go by an interview, when they would have seen you in action doing the role? It's rubbish, they should have been honest to you and told you they wanted someone else and what the reasons are.

A few thoughts come to mind - are you being paid more than the appointed person? Schools arn't honest, but they like to appoint someone cheaper. Have they just been using you?

If it was me, I would be handing in my resignation letter and sticking up two fingers.

Op I am sorry to say I've seen this before. School leadership have made their position clear- look for another job and tell yourself it is just a job, no more work in the holidays and after school, take the lunch break you are entitled too. Look for a new job, hold your head up high and do not show your cards to anyone at school or discuss how upset you are. Look after yourself

I am really sorry that you are in this position, OP. Reading between the lines, it sounds like they want to wind down business studies as a curriculum area (which I am afraid has been shrinking nationally since it was left out of the EBacc) and took the opportunity to recruit another computing specialist, who are really hard to recruit at the moment.

I know it is frustrating that the panel did not take into account their knowledge of your work for the last eighteen months but when an internal is up against and external they cannot do this. The only fair way is to consider the candidates in on performance on the day, otherwise the external would be at a massive disadvantage. It is the internal candidate's responsibility to draw on examples from their time in the acting role during the interview and tasks. That being said, it sounds like this process was not especially fair.

You have a golden window now until May to apply for jobs while you still have the acting HOD title. Make this your focus. Good luck .