Headteachers To Leave The Profession

The Association of School and College Leaders, the union of many haedteachers in the UK, claims that over half of headteachers want to leave the profession having surveyed a number of its members. The union cites the fact that morale is at an "all time low" due to the constant criticism from government and ever-increasing responsibility as parents choose to palm off parenting on schools.

A headteacher's job has become more complex, it is claimed, with the skills required being "moral leaders, risk takers, media experts, creative accountants, prophets and networkers". And I'd agree with most of those, whether those traits are good for the school or the individual headteacher is more of a moot point.

A headteacher's job has certainly changed immensely in recent years, as they become further removed from day-to-day school life, becoming pen-pushers, rarely seeing children whilst holed up in offices, meetings and "training courses". Ultimately the buck stops with the headteacher when it comes to school performance, but with so much of the groundwork delegated, headteachers can seemingly do as much or as little as they want as the only people they answer to are the governors. Governors are volunteers, headteachers are paid enormous sums of money - I've never been sure why that has worked, or perhaps it hasn't depending on the nature of those governors.

The fact that so many headteachers are thinking of leaving - the news report says that one third are making preparations to actually leave - is actually quite worrying. Not that I believe that the profession would miss some headteachers, but because the case will be similar, if not worse with teaching staff. Schools can live without heads for a while (a couple of schools local to where I am actually thrived without a head), but schools cannot survive without teaching staff.

The difference is that headteachers can make preparations for leaving the profession - I imagine that it's easier to put some money aside on a monthly income of £5000 than it is with a classroom teacher's monthly income of around £2000. Teachers' morale is also at an all-time low, a fact that will come to light as the union conference season continues, but "ordinary" teachers don't have the disposible income to put some aside and leave, so what the young of the UK are currently getting is a demoralised workforce, which can't be healthy for anyone.

Ofsted, Gove, Wilshaw, Twigg and any other politicians who have anything to do with education policy or diatribe have a lot to answer for. Ignore the rosette as they are all as bad as each other. We are living in a time where education is seen as a major vote winner so successive politicians given power over education in Britain try desperately to make a mark and in the process end up criticising and confusing teachers through slating previous government policy and constantly changing school policy to shout about (or not, depending on its success) at the next general election. And these policies are based on what knowledge of the profession? None.

Is it any surprise that teachers are demoralised? Bossed by ambitious toffs with no idea.

I saw that a non-teaching friend of mine on a well-known social networking site had "liked" the "Get Into Teaching" page. I thought I'd click on it (not the "Like" button, I hasten to add) and see what people are saying about getting into teaching - the naivity was amazing and worrying. I so nearly posted to the young people being conned into teaching by promises of fulfilment not the bother, but thought better of it. They may well have to learn by their own mistakes.