My Blog

There was an article in the Mail this weekend about Headteachers being sacked. It would seem that there has been a significant increase of dismissals in relation to poor performance.

The actual text reads "About 150 heads were made to quit their jobs last year" which would suggest that more than their salary was performance related and despite the headline of the article, they were not sacked, they just failed to meet the performance criteria.

Further reading reveals that "many Heads lost their jobs after concerns raised during OfSTED inspections or by Local Authorities." And "others were fired when their schools became Academies or were placed in the controversial National Challenge initiative for struggling schools."

In my experience very few heads retain their position when their school is made into an academy but this is made clear from a very early stage and is usually a condition of the process as well as Deputy positions not being guaranteed. I do wonder why National Challenge would be a factor, as a head that has experienced this I have found it to be a very supportive process, not only from the Local Authority but also from my National Challenge SIP.

In times when there is a recognised national shortage of Headteachers we should be aware that improved results take time to achieve and that over zealous responses to immediate downturns in results are not to be encouraged. The article suggests a comparison to football managers, I sincerely hope that this is not the case but as it is the Daily Mail it must be true!