Thinking of Leaving Headship? 5 Questions To Consider

On 16 December 2016 I left Headship. I packed up my leaving presents, locked the school up (yes, I was the last one there) and shed a few tears on the way home. And that, as they say, was that.

I had high hopes for the future, a big dream and a bit of a plan. Truth be told though, I didn’t have a clue how things would go.

As I always say, if you’re a happy Head then that’s fantastic and this probably isn’t the blog for you. However, if you’re one of the many school leaders who has had enough and is wondering what to do next, hopefully these five questions will help:

1. Have you started to think about your options?

I remember my chat with Phil, my secondary school’s career adviser, as though it was yesterday. At 16, I didn’t know what I wanted to do – all I knew was that I didn’t like blood or guts, and a career in the medical profession wasn’t for me. Phil listened intently and then suggested I check out becoming a dental nurse. Really Phil?

To be fair to him, I don’t think there was a wide range of options back then. But there are now.

The vast majority of people that I know who have left Headship, or are thinking about leaving, see working for the LA or Diocese as their best and only option. And yes, it’s an option – but definitely not the only one. There will be exciting opportunities that are related to your interests and strengths that you haven’t thought about … yet:

My fabulous ex-Deputy is now a very successful copywriter and book coach, as well as being a published author. Her 8th book will be coming out soon.

Another friend, who had to leave Headship due to long COVID, now supports families whose children have barriers to school attendance. He’s been a revelation on social media and he’s also a published author.

As well as setting up my own Educational Consultancy company, I’m a Laughologist. A made-up title, which I love, along with the role that comes with it. As a Head, I had become far removed from the original reason I went into teaching. When I graduated, my purpose was to spend time with people, thinking creatively of ways that would help them to learn and, truth be told, to have fun showing off a bit at the front! Now, I get to do all of these things as a Lead Facilitator and Consultant with Laughology. I also get to use my leadership knowledge and skills as our internal Lead for People, Learning and Development.

Ask yourself:

What are your early ideas? Are you limiting yourself by not thinking more broadly? How can you push your thinking outside of your comfort zone?
What do you enjoy doing? What are you good at? What do you want to contribute to the local or wider community? What lies at the intersection of these 3 things?

2. Does the job still excite and stimulate you, in the right way?

Way back in time, as an NQT, I had a child in my class who was going through a horrible safeguarding situation. The leaders at the school said that I would get hardened to these things but, in my head, I vowed that I wouldn’t. Sadly though, when you’ve been in the profession for over 25 years, not many things surprise you any more. Although they don’t surprise you, you do have to deal with them.

I always said that I loved being a Head because no two days are the same. That’s true. When you’re responsible for the education, safety and wellbeing of hundreds of children – as well as working alongside their families, your team, the Governors and other stakeholders, something unexpected always crops up. Assuming each child had one significant adult whose words or actions would affect them, I needed approximately 1000 people to be making great choices – all day, every day. That’s a big ask.

Often, I found I was being reactive rather than proactive; knee-jerk rather than considered; constantly putting out fires rather than igniting small sparks of hope and possibilities. Yes, the frenetic pace and level of responsibility did feel exciting and stimulating. And we know that a certain amount of adrenaline gives us a rush; it helps us to manage in tricky situations. But excessively high levels can cause physical harm.

To be a successful Head you need to have the time and space to move beyond operational tasks, to think strategically, to properly look into research, to weigh up decisions about what’s best for your school. If you’re not looking to leave, perhaps reviewing your structure and making sure you have the team around you to do this would help – budget permitting!

Ask Yourself:

Do you still believe that teaching is the best job in the world? Or, like me, do you now prefix that statement with ‘should be…’
When did you last knock off at the end of the day and feel excited about a new plan or decision?
When did you last leave work and just feel grateful that you got through it? If so, what impact do you think that’s having on your physical health?

3. How many more years do you want/ need to work?

As a teenager, I knew that I wanted to leave school at the first opportunity, so I applied to all of the high street businesses: estate agents, travel agents, building societies. You’ll notice that I didn’t apply to dentists, or any other medical profession for that matter! Eventually, I got a job at Barclays Bank.

It took me 5 years and A levels at night school to realise that I wanted to be a teacher. I resigned and went to uni at 21. On my last day at Barclays, the lead cashier, Maggie, said she wished she could do something different, but that she was too old. At the time, she was probably 40-45 and I found out a few years later that she’d struggled with her mental health and had to leave work altogether.

I was 47 when I left Headship. It would probably have been easier to stay in post and count down the next 13 or so years to retirement, than it was to make the decision to leave. However, Maggie’s cautionary tale has always stuck with me.

Ask yourself:

Do you believe that you have at least one more career change in you? If not, why not?
Are you counting down the days, believing that you’re too old to leave? If so, what impact do you think that’s having on your own mental health and others around you?

4. How are you doing, financially?

Although I worked in a bank for my formative adult years, I’m not the best or most organised with money. My theory is that I’ve always worked hard and, as a result, I should enjoy spending what I’ve got – usually the minute that I get it! The fact that I can do that puts me in a privileged position, I know.

Rainy days and planning for a broken boiler have never been on my ‘to worry about’ list. Neither was my pension.

As well as that just not being me, I think that I was also of the mindset that I had other, better, more immediate things to do than go through my pension information, checking for any incorrect breaks in service. I thought that booking a phone call with a pensions’ advisor could wait.

This year, with my 55th birthday approaching, I had a word with myself and also Becky, from Wesleyan Financial Services. We went through all of my options and the pros and cons of each, which led me to make an informed decision.

Now, I do realise that there will be people reading this who are thinking, ‘Doh! Isn’t that obvious?’ But, who knows, there may be others out there who could be doing more to increase their financial security or, at the very least, have a clue about what they’re entitled to get and when.

Ask yourself:

If you’ve been putting off pension-related stuff, why?
If you think you're all over it, double check. At the end of my chat with Becky I said, ‘Which question haven’t I asked that I should have done?’ The answer was a game-changer.

5. What do you want your family life and work life to be?

Whether you want it to be fun, successful and/or like a box of chocolates, life is what you make it.

Headship can be all consuming.

I have an amazing husband, who was fully supportive when I became something of a workaholic between an Ofsted inspection 4 weeks into my reign, which downgraded us, to their return 2 years later. The deal was that I would work evenings and weekends and from my lounger on holiday but, once we got our ‘good’ grade back, it had to stop. And it did, to an extent, but it was a hard habit to break and, before I could blink, we were coming up to ‘the window’ again. That was the time when I needed to reflect and rethink.

I know people who are currently giving their all to Headship thinking that, when they retire, they will be happier; able to enjoy spending time with their family or socialising with friends or travelling. For me, life’s too short and unpredictable for that.

Ask yourself:

What are your top five priorities in life? In relation to these, which one thing can you do to bring about a positive change?
If, after considering all of the above, you think that Headship is still for you, then it might be about tweaking the way or the hours that you work?
If you’re still pondering or have decided that you do want to leave, what will you do first? It might be talking to family or friends or, if you think it would help to chat to someone who’s done it, you know where I am :-)