A headteacher is for life not just for Christmas.

I was sitting in a small office. The rectangular desk had been pushed into the corner against a wall and 5 chairs had been arranged in a makeshift circle. It was 1993 and the décor reflected the tastes of that and previous decades with curtains, flooring and wall coverings all routinely chosen from a brown/yellow ochre pallet. There was nothing sleek or professional about the room. It was functional but drab and dated.

The other 4 chairs in this impromptu waiting room were occupied by people who, like myself, were smartly dressed but clearly not relaxed. We were all chasing the ‘Headship Dream’ and had arrived much earlier that morning to take our turn being grilled by a ragtag group of governors, staff, parents and a lone Local Authority representative who had questionable credentials. Now the ordeal was over we waited patiently in an uneasy silence that was only occasionally punctuated by short bursts of conversation that broke the monotony and helped keep the nerves at bay.

The accustomed practice of the day was for the Chair of Governors to come into the room at the end of the process and tell us all who the successful candidate was. It was brutal but we all knew the score and were prepared to suffer this torture for the ultimate prize that we were seeking. We had been waiting in that cramped office approaching 2 hours when the door was eventually knocked and he walked in. At that moment five pairs of eyes turned in his direction and the world stood still.

For no apparent reason he started talking about his drive to school that morning and how in the traffic he had pulled to a halt behind a car. While stationary he focused upon a sticker in the rear window that pronounced ‘A dog was for life and not just for Christmas’. He went on to inform us that this random encounter had really bought home to him the seriousness of the day’s events. He apologised for keeping us waiting and said they were still deliberating, and he hoped that we understood why it was taking them so long to decide. As he left the room he paused and turned back towards us smiling as he said, ‘A headteacher is for life not just for Christmas.’

I didn’t get the job, when he eventually did return to tell the group who the lucky person was, but his waiting room message has stuck with me right until today.  The Chair of Governors was right on the money! The headteacher position is so important and anyone taking the role should respect it for what it is. An absolute privilege.

In recent times the movement of headteachers has become more prolific and sometimes borders on the ridiculous. Headteachers change at an alarming rate and although this is related to performance on occasion, such movement is not healthy for our pupils or staff. With change can come uncertainty, with change can come adjustments to the direction of travel, with change can come stalling and spluttering.

Schools deserve headteachers who will commit to a period of time and not ‘jump ship’ at the earliest opportunity or at the first encounter with stormy waters. They also deserve people who are going to give it their all and not treat it as a way of simply getting a good salary. That attraction only lasts so long and will not help you when you need to work hard and make difficult decisions.  When the going gets tough schools need headteachers who get going. Not who get gone!

When eventually a Chair of Governors did come into an assembled group of candidates to say that they were offering me the headship I was told that Governors had noted that I had said it was my intention to stay for at least 7 years. My argument was that at the end of this time every child in the school had started there with me as headteacher. If by this time it was not going well for them, then there was only me to blame.

I know more than most that the role is hard. It can be challenging and it can be lonely. The buck does literally stop with you, and you can’t hide from making tough calls or sometimes upsetting people. When all is said and done it is still a great, great job. Serving the community is rewarding and there is a great chance to create a positive legacy. What can be better than helping shape the future generation.

Conservationists repeatedly tell us that we are simply custodians of the planet, with responsibility to look after it for future generations. Well, it is the same for headteachers and schools. We look after it and we pass it on.

This is my last blog for FGT and I am extremely fortunate to have enjoyed a long career in education. If people ask me in the future what job I did I will always say I was a headteacher. It is something I loved and something I would do again in a heartbeat. I have used lyrics before in these blogs and to finish on I can’t think of any better song to steal other than Coldplay’s ‘The Scientist.’

Nobody said it was easy
It's such a shame for us to part
Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said it would be this hard
Oh, take me back to the start

Thank you.