Friday, August 30, 2019

A Framework for Subject Leaders


When I was invited by a very persuasive headteacher to return to mainstream teaching in April 2013 at the age of 55, I was largely starting again from a blank sheet. Although my subject knowledge remained more or less intact, I had kept very few resources. The school’s science staff included several talented individuals, but was not functioning as a team in the way I would wish. The department had a deeply adversarial relationship with SLT and with my background I could not accept this. I wanted to try to apply to subject leadership what I had learned from twelve successful years as a head (in two very different comprehensive schools) and three as a county adviser. I had come full circle. Some would say I’d been recycled. The need for rapid improvement was clear and understood.

This opening blogpost is about how I got my head around the task.

Feel free to adapt this offering for your context in any way you like. I’ve shared it with a few colleagues and friends who said they found it useful, so I have decided to throw my hat into the wider-sharing ring. If people like it, maybe I’ll share some more of the detailed approaches in due course. I’m really not seeking to launch a consultancy career, but as a part-timer I do have some flexibility and previous experience if anyone would like to make contact. Links to the files at the end, but first, some commentary.



This framework originally arose from my pre-interview preparation, and remained largely intact for five years until I stepped aside into part-time status and partial retirement. I assembled it from a large number of fragments, building on something similar that I had used as a headteacher.

It was the basis for my interview presentation to the head and governors, and for my first team meeting. The 1-7 headings became the structure for team meeting agendas, department improvement plans, appraisal discussions and even the physical organisation and labelling of box files in the office, email and document folders on my hard drive, and document wallets in my briefcase. It really helped me over those five years to prioritise and focus on what mattered most at any given time.  I think in my head these were the plates that I needed to keep spinning, and I couldn’t take my eye off any one of them for too long.




The model is centred around the need to be unapologetically driven by Outcomes (6). Until someone changes the systems of accountability to something different and/or better, that’s the way it is. This is the mission I accepted, why I received the salary, and I set about the task of improving outcomes while remaining true to my underpinning values. It is ideologically honest and consistent but with a pragmatic approach, I suppose. If you are not happy with being in a results-driven business, then look away now, but please notice that the outcomes include enjoyment. I sometimes disagreed with the school’s approaches to the use of data, but I found my way through a mix of subversion and co-operation like any good subject leader. I do think that intelligent use of data is vital, and I am absolutely happy with ambitious numerical target-setting.


Outcomes (6) depend in the main on four distinct features of the subject leader’s work. I put the Curriculum (with a wide definition) as (1) because without this there is nothing, and the team Personnel as (2). For me, pedagogy sits alongside curriculum rather than in a nebula of its own. What’s the point of methodology without content? I found that my work on curriculum during the period 2013-15 was more about content and progression routes rather than any reviews of theories of learning or metacognition, and if I ever held the post again I'd try to tweak that balance.

Personnel matters always sit high on any list that I ever made in any post of responsibility. Subject leadership, like senior leadership, is more about people than systems. Teamwork and culture are everything. Leadership is sterile without followers. You can’t do it all on your own. I suspect that many heads of science are dealing with turbulence. Promotions and therefore departures can now come very soon for good new staff and even as I write I am tempted to add another bullet point in box 2 for the management of trainee teachers. Furthermore, in my view the teaching profession has been exceptionally bad at appraisal and performance management at all levels and I took the processes seriously.



Resources (3) and Smooth Running (4) are the more day-to-day aspects of subject leadership life. Smooth Running in particular remained a focus because I saw it as a major part of reducing stress and pressure for team members. The feelgood factor, so to speak, is an important part of school life. I put examination entry procedures here rather than as part of Outcomes. At the time, entry tier decisions were made differently and there were lots of “tactics” in play. At any given time I had to make sure that these two aspects did not soak up all of our time and effort.



The blue-shaded boxes represent the foundation or underpinning values and the intelligent Self-Evaluation (5). Some of them are intangible, cultural features. On headship courses these tend to come first of course, but at middle leader level some aspects might be non-negotiable. Making these clear and shared was important. Subject leaders will have more or less wiggle-room in these matters at any given time or place. I had relatively little choice over some aspects of the self-evaluation because of whole-school policies. Of course, as a science subject leaders I tried to influence the development of whole-school policy too, but I never asked the team to do something because “The SLT has told me to”. Maybe that was an easier position for me to take because of my background, but I recommend it to everyone. We’re all in this together at the end of the day.



It is also important to keep an eye on stakeholders Beyond the Department (7), and in particular to promote and celebrate the science-related destinations of the students who eventually move on at 16 or 18.




I suspect the phrase “Balancing Autocracy and Democracy” needs some further explanation (especially this week!). We never had enough time for team meetings on top of all the rest of the work. I tried hard to ensure that any consultation was real and genuine. I’d learned as a head that many DfE consultations actually felt like processions towards the prearranged outcomes, and how dispiriting this could be. Therefore I was clear about when I would be taking decisions without further consultation. If I delegated a decision, I did not interfere or overturn later. The underpinning values are so important here, because it meant that team members would rarely be surprised at the directions chosen. Before I left, the team had grown by common consent to be highly flexible and competent, with many people who could do my job as team leader just as well if not better. We occasionally disagreed about finer points of the journeys, we hardly ever disagreed about the destinations. Everyone, not just the paid postholders, had some developmental aspect to their role that could be a valid line on their own CV in due course.


I loved the job of subject leader for science. It was neither tougher nor easier than being a headteacher. The work still expanded to fill the time available, people around me were still happy or sad, motivated or de-motivated by much the same things. The budgets still had to balance, just with fewer noughts on the end of the numbers. The turbulence of the enforced exam spec changes arrived at the same time as a complete rebuild of the school. I took the job on at a time when my own teaching was no longer secure, and quickly discovered that past glories count for nothing much. It has been fun to re-learn the classroom skills and bring my subject knowledge up to date.

Reinventing the wheel has been much too large a proportion of my four decades in the profession, so I’m now rolling this particular spare tyre out for your consideration.

The following link is to a folder which contains the framework as either a MS Word file or as a pdf file:
Download the Framework from Here



Plate-Spinning Image: Henrikbothe [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]



A Framework for Subject Leaders

When I was invited by a very persuasive headteacher to return to mainstream teaching in April 2013 at the age of 55, I was largely startin...