I read with interest a recent article in TES Magazine offering advice for those facing interview for a headship. If you’re a subscriber, you can access it here.
This article started me thinking about my own experience – as someone who had four headship interviews (and secured the post on the fourth attempt) and also as someone who has worked with more than 20 governing bodies to support them through the process as they select the next headteacher for their school. In addition, I have spent considerable time since I stepped back from my own headship working with aspiring and beginning headteachers as they navigate the selection process and, if successful, manage the transition into the post.
What advice would I offer?
At every interview leading up to this point, you have been trying to convince a school leader that you are ready to embrace the next professional challenge. In a headship interview, of course, you are addressing a group of governors or trustees, some of whom may well be educators, but most may not be. I encourage the aspiring heads I meet to think about the language educators routinely use, and to be mindful that many of the acronyms whose meaning is obvious to us may not be so easily understood by those who haven’t the same professional background. You want to impress the panel, to win their confidence and to help them to see that you are ready to embrace the responsibility of school leadership, but try not to mystify them or patronise them.
Tuning in to the context of the school you are applying to is crucial. You will have done careful research from the outset in order to make the decision about whether this is a post you are interested in applying for. It’s important to use what you have learnt about the school to show in your application, and at interview, that there is an alignment between what the school requires at this point in its history, and what you have to offer. Inevitably when you apply for a job you are considering what you might gain and how you might benefit if you are appointed, but remember that the selection panel is far more interested in what you will bring and the value you would add. So focus on what you can contribute, and how you would hope to build on the achievements of your predecessors and leave the school even stronger than you found it.
I would be wary, however, of being too specific about what you think you might do, once in post (and you may sometimes be pressured to articulate this). If this is an external appointment you are not yet part of the school, and it seems to me rather presumptuous, even arrogant, to think you have sufficient information to identify the detail of exactly what you might introduce or change. You need to be part of the landscape in order to do that, and you also need to have learnt enough about the reality of the school (going far beyond any initial research you have been able to do) to understand how you can best win the hearts and minds of the school community and take them with you. You have to work with and through others in order to make a significant impact.
You do want to show you have clear vision and strong values, a sense of your core purpose (and to confirm that this aligns with the ethos you are inheriting, and will build on). If at any stage you begin to feel uncomfortable that you and the governors or trustees are not on the same page in terms of your values – what you think education is all about – then I would suggest that this might not be the right school for you, and you should respectfully withdraw from the process. (The phrase I always recommend is something like ‘Thank you for considering me for the role, but I realise, on reflection, that I am perhaps not what you are looking for…’) I often say that not getting a job is not the worst thing that could happen to you, but talking your way into the wrong job – because you focus on saying what you think the panel want to hear, rather than what you honestly think and feel – could be.
You may be nervous at interview – especially if you really want the job – and that is understandable. But you just need to ensure that nervousness doesn’t stop you from showing who you are and what you’re capable of. You need to show warmth, enthusiasm and commitment. If you don’t believe you have the capacity to make a success of the role, it is very difficult to convince anyone else that you are. But having confidence should not mean that you present as arrogant. In headship you will inevitably meet challenges you haven’t met before and cannot anticipate and prepare for, so you need a degree of humility, alongside your conviction that you have the learning capacity and the determination to continue to develop and grow as a leader.
Finally, if an interview does not lead to the outcome you hope for, you need to be sufficiently resilient to pick yourself up, ask for feedback which can help you to learn from the experience, and continue your search for the school which will enable you to become the headteacher you dream of being. Not getting a job doesn’t mean you’re not capable of doing the job – and it doesn’t mean you couldn’t do the job well. It means that someone else was deemed to be a better fit for the post at that point – and perhaps they were. Or perhaps the panel weren’t astute enough to recognise your potential – in which case, that isn’t the trust or governing body you want to work closely with. The school that appoints you is the school that deserves you. If you want to be a head, you don’t give up – and headship is still, in my view, the best job in a school.
Good luck!
jillberry102 