Haeadteachers - worth the money?

It's probably no secret that headteachers are paid a lot of money. It depends on the size of the school (the more pupils there are, the more responsibility, the higher the wage) and whether the school has control over it's own budget i.e. it's an academy. Some academy headteachers are paid more than the prime minister gets at over £100k per year.

But are they all worth it and what is their actual role in a school?

I've worked under a number of headteachers in my career, of varying effectiveness. But since my teaching career started I've never really been sure what a "normal" day as a headteacher entails, other than a whole load of meetings. What these meetings are about, I have no idea and many will probably have little or no bearing on my existence as a classroom practioners.

Almost all are qualified teachers, but I've only ever had one who actually taught any lessons, although I should say that they taught a lesson per week, compared to the 20 or so that a regular teacher would teach, but at least that head had some contact with students other than just to tell them off or congratulate them in assembly.

The lot of many headteachers now involves little or no contact with the students themselves due to the apparent mountains of paperwork and endless meetings. I find it a little odd that someone who went into teaching wants to minimise their contact with students. But maybe the pound signs are too great a pull for them to resist, and on their wages I can kind of understand that.

The trouble is that with so little contact with students, a headteacher's effectiveness as a disciplinarian becomes less and less. Another head I worked under came out of their office one day (a rare occurance I should add) to be met with a well-known troublemaker swinging on the bannisters of the stairs. I happened to be descending those same stairs at the time. The head chose to challenge the student, and this is how the conversation went:

Head: Where should you be? (The head couldn't remember the child's name)
Child: What's it to you?
Head: I'm your headteacher.
Chuld: I don't believe you; I've never seen you before.

At that point the head went back into the office they'd just vacated, not to be seen again. I managed to chivvy the student along to where they should have been because I knew his name and he recognised me as a teacher and a person in authority, of sorts. There's another story as far as this head goes, and it's not too dissimilar to the first, just quicker. The head upon leaving the office stumbled into a fight between two girls almost on the welcome mat to the aforesaid office. A 180 degree turn and the head assumed a position back behind their desk, office door closed.

It would be less funny if it wasn't true to be honest, and when you find out that this particular headteacher was paid around £100k per year, the taste of bile become difficult to ignore.

So what is their role? You know, I have very little idea if I'm honest and I have a feeling that the money could be better spent, but people expect them so I suppose we will just have to put up and shut up. Some can be very effective, and are headhunted for struggling academies, only to get sacked when results and behaviour don't improve. I suppose that they are the "face and voice" of a school, but unless the children know who they are, what real use are they?

All I really know is that I'll never be one, and that doesn't give me insomnia.