Last week Camden Learning hosted two Teach Meet sessions for curriculum leaders in Pancras Square, and the Camden Deputy and Assistant Headteachers Conference at Friends House on Euston Road. The presentations at both were inspiring, and there was a real sense of joint enterprise. It is always heartening to see so many Camden school leaders in one room sharing expertise, many of whom we hope will be our potential Camden headteachers of tomorrow.

We all have a responsibility for the next generation of school leaders. I certainly never saw myself as a headteacher prior to taking on the role, it was others who identified my potential and gave me opportunities to develop as a school leader. More so we have a responsibility to ensure that we have greater diversity in school leadership, proactively seeking potential in underrepresented groups. In Camden this continues to be a ‘work in progress’ with much more to do. A report, by the Future Leaders Trust, Teaching Leaders and TeachFirst published in 2016 concluded that England could be facing a shortage of up to 19,000 senior teachers by 2022 if action was not taken to plug the gap. It found that one in four schools across the country could be affected by a lack of headteachers, deputy heads and assistant heads. This is a statistic that will come as no surprise to anyone currently recruiting in schools in 2023.

It can seem a big step to move from being a middle leader or Deputy Headteacher to Headteacher and not one that everyone sees in themselves. CAPE research undertaken during the pandemic found that nearly half of the assistant and deputy heads interviewed said they would rather stay where they were rather than apply to be a Headteacher. In Camden we will have eight new Headteachers and Heads of School starting in September, and these mostly represent promoted members of staff who are already in our schools. This is a reassuring indicator of leaders being nurtured and developed to take the plunge. The Head of School role provides immediate mentoring and support for someone being exposed the critical decisions that come to Headteachers for the first time and is one of the benefits of schools forming partnerships. To support this thinking, work is underway to bring the activity of the school options steering group to provide practical support to schools considering partnership. We look forward to sharing this with you in the Autumn term.

Following a week of NEU strikes and forthcoming train strikes, convincing others to become senior leaders may seem like a hard sell. It is just as well the end of term is only two weeks away! I hope that you are managing to retain a sense of sanity amidst everything.

Thank you as always for everything you continue to do.

Stephen Hall

Chief Executive Officer, Camden Learning