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Deputy Head (Academic)

Quick question,

If you were to interview for a Deputy Head (Academic) who is required to teach a subject (reduced timetable) alongside leading on all things academic (in an Independant school - 1300 students) would teaching a lesson in their subject be part of the selection process?

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  • Hi

    The selection process is for someone effectively to manage the teachers of lessons and the entire operation of the school, so isn't seeking to assess their competence this way at this very peripheral activity to all that main one going to be a bit of a waste of (limited) selection time and possibly even a bit insulting to the candidate(s)?

  • We always have teaching a lesson as an activity in our Headteacher recruitment - our SLT also teach, and we like to see how they engage with children in a classroom setting. Also, there's an increasing number of leaders who manage from behind a desk and are not fully up to date with teaching methods/classroom behaviour management etc, that they would lose respect and credibility very quickly in our schools if they then tried to manage others on those topics.
  • Absolutely - we have very recently gone through this process and (amongst a whole host of other tasks) they certainly had to teach a lesson. If we want this person to have credibility to lead the academic provision through the school, to be a role model to other teachers, and to be able to give high quality feedback to new teachers, they really need to be exceptional.

    Nina