Headteachers

Avatar Image

Francis Gilbert: Can you be a headteacher without ever being a teacher?

I appeared on Radio 5 Live yesterday talking about this issue because Julie White-Zamler is about to qualify as a headteacher but has no classroom experience. She told BBC Radio 5 live: "It's not correct to say a non-teacher can't learn." I argued that the best headteachers were also experienced teachers who understood, from first-hand experience, what goes on in the classroom. ... read more and comment →

15 comments

Latest comment by Match1985: "Ok would someone with 5-6 experience as a teaching assistant, who has has completed a pgce and is qualified to teach but carried on doing a masters whilst still working as a TA. Could thy become a headteacher? It's a ......"

Comment + Debate
Avatar Image

James Heartfield: Lack of head teachers?

I was a governor at my daughters' school, Hargrave Park, in Islington. The school's children did not on the whole come from better off families, but it was a well run school under the headmistress - until she retired. After then, the school failed to fill the Head teacher's post being run by a succession of temporary and acting heads, and ... read more and comment →

5 comments

Latest comment by David Barry: "I have only just come across this posting, so I am rather late to the party. I too as a governor have had experience of appointing a Head and how difficult it is to get one. It was nine years ......"

Comment + Debate
Avatar Image

Arabella Weir: There was never anything ‘wrong’ with state schools until people starting thinking choice had to be taken at every turn.

Both my kids are now at Highgate Wood School in Crouch End. This is a proper community school representing the area's demographic well - it has neither been colonised by over anxious middle class parents wishing they could 'do better' nor large groups of kids from unsupported backgrounds. The head, Patrick Cozier, is a well liked, very committed teacher (who ... read more and comment →

One comment

Latest comment by Francis Gilbert: "Yes, I have a great deal of sympathy with Highgate Wood School; I think its ethos of openness and its community atmosphere are a vital part of what makes it a great school. These sorts of things, just as vital ......"

Comment + Debate