Once you have been teaching for four or five years, you may feel that you have refined your trade sufficiently to take on more responsibility. If you feel a passion for your subject or year group, and you think you can get the best out of others, it may be time for you to step up into a leadership role.
The teaching profession boasts a strong ethos of career progression and, although budgets may be restricted, there are a great range of courses and development routes open to education professionals.
How to start
If you have not done so already, start taking more responsibility in school by shadowing a senior staff member, asking to attend leadership meetings for your own development and voluntarily giving your time to support department heads.
It’s worth drawing up your own career development plan as a starting document. Once you have a skeleton plan, work with your Head or faculty leader to flesh it out with the exact qualifications or experience they think would be most useful for you to work towards over the next two years.
Stepping up from teaching to a leadership post
1. Draw up your own career development plan
2. Maintain a professional CPD portfolio
3. Stay abreast of academic developments via journals – reflect on these and your own learning
4. Join your subject association and attend the meetings
5. Join a union or association that offers CPD opportunities such as the ATL
6. Present all or part of an INSET
7. Widen your responsibilities e.g. exam marking or moderating
8. Become a staff governor for your school
9. Contact your local Authority for a list of leadership courses such as SSAT as part of your CPD
10. Keep your eTeach profile up to date so we can let you know when matching vacancies are added
Qualifications to consider
– Relevant qualifications from the DfE course list
– Masters modules in coaching and mentoring, leadership or teaching and learning
– Masters in your specialism
– Institute qualifications for specific subjects – summer schools and evening/weekends
– SSAT Senior Subject Lead Practitioner
If you feel your current school does not offer the opportunities you need to grow, why not search for a new challenge?
About the author
Katie Newell
Katie Newell BA(Hons) PGCE is an ex-primary school teacher, Head of Maths, Head of Year five and languages specialist. Katie qualified in Psychology at Liverpool then specialised in Primary Languages for her PGCE at Reading. Before teaching, Katie was a financial commentator and is now the Content Manager for eteach.com and fejobs.com. Katie feels passionately that teachers are the unsung heroes of society; that opening minds to creative timetabling could revolutionise keeping women in teaching, and that a total change to pupil feedback is the key to solving the work life balance issue for the best job in the world.
