New Primary School Assistant and Deputy Headteacher:
Frequently Asked Questions
Being new to the world of primary school senior leadership may leave your head spinning with questions. This document may help
to answer some of these questions and allow you to better understand how you can be the most effective leader possible.
The roles and responsibilities
What are the key responsibilities of a primary senior leader?
As a member of a school senior leadership team, your key
role will be supporting the headteacher in defining, promoting
and driving the vision for the school. You will be responsible
for planning, instigating and overseeing whole school
improvement and engaging, supporting and motivating all staff
to work towards this vision collectively. You will also be key in
providing a channel of communication for all staff between the
senior leadership team.
Whether you are joining senior leadership as an assistant or
deputy headteacher, the roles and responsibilities will vary
between schools and their individual contexts. However, you
could expect the following responsibilities as part of your senior
leader position. As a senior leader, you will be expected to
contribute to the school improvement plan, through identifying
areas for improvement, planning how improvement will be
achieved, monitoring progress towards areas for improvement
and also in ensuring that points for action are carried out within
specified time frames. You will not be expected to do all of this
alone but will work as part of a team alongside the other senior
leaders and middle leaders within your school.
What is the difference between leading and managing?
School leaders create and drive a vision for the school. They
lead others within the school towards this shared vision,
enthusing and inspiring them along the way. School managers
deal with the day-to-day details necessary to achieve the
vision. If you imagine leaders creating a path for all to follow,
then the managers would be maintaining and weeding the
path, facilitating the journey.
In your senior leadership role, you will be both leader, as the
title suggests, and also manager, managing the tasks needed
to achieve the vision. At times, you will be required to inspire
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Other responsibilities could include:
• leading a core subject;
• leading a whole school area such as curriculum, assessment
or behaviour;
• mentoring and coaching new or existing staff;
• performance managing and appraising staff;
• creating and providing Continuing Professional
Development (CPD);
• liaising with outside agencies;
• being a Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL);
• reviewing and writing school policies;
• monitoring and evaluating practices within the school;
• working closely with and providing feedback to the
governing body.
The responsibilities specific to your school and role will be
outlined in your individual job description.
and enthuse school staff to work towards the vision you are
sharing. At other times, you will be monitoring, evaluating
and providing feedback on performance. Switching between
the two roles is necessary but not always straightforward.
Occasionally, you will find it difficult to lead with enthusiasm
and may struggle to work through managerial tasks and keep
them all up to date or ticking over. Consider ways you would
need to switch between the roles during the school day. Think
about when you would be required to lead and when you
would be required to manage, how could you ensure you fulfil
both roles effectively?
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What are the safeguarding responsibilities of a primary senior leader?
As a senior leader, you should make sure you have a thorough
knowledge of the government document ‘Keeping Children
Safe in Education’ as well as all the policies relevant to
safeguarding in your school, including:
• the child protection policy;
• the behaviour policy;
• the staff code of conduct (or equivalent);
• the role of the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL).
You should also know who the DSL and deputy DSLs are.
As a member of the school senior leadership team, you may
be the DSL or a deputy DSL and if you are either of these it will
be outlined in your job description. You will receive training in
this role, which is updated every two years so that you will be
able to offer relevant safeguarding advice and support to other
members of staff.
Building Relationships
As a member of the senior leadership team, you will need
to build and maintain positive relationships with teachers,
support staff and office staff. You will also need to work very
closely with the other members of the senior leadership team
and the headteacher in particular.
As an assistant or deputy headteacher, you may find yourself as
a go-between for the staff of the school and the headteacher.
Sometimes this can be a difficult place to be, you may be
asked by the headteacher to have a challenging conversation
with a member of teaching staff, or staff may share negative
opinions that you have to relay to the headteacher.
It is important that staff feel able to approach you, value your
opinion and trust you. You should always act professionally
and with integrity. Filtering and delivering difficult messages
sensitively and with compassion is key in maintaining positive
working relationships. Being available to teachers and taking
time to listen is also important, sometimes the opportunity
How will I manage other teachers?
As part of your role, you will almost certainly be required to
line manage teaching staff. This will require you to carry out
their performance management review, evaluating progress
towards targets and setting new targets annually. You may
also be asked to make a recommendation for whether a
teacher should receive a pay progression or not. This may
be something new to you and it is important you follow your
school’s policy on pay and progression.
Who can I turn to for support?
Your headteacher and the other members of your senior
leadership team are there to support you in your role and you
should turn to them for support when you need it. There may
also be advisors in the local authority or trustees in a multi-
academy trust who are able to support you in becoming an
effective leader and offer advice when required.
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The responsibilities of the DSL are outlined in ‘Keeping Children
Safe in Education’ and you should have a clear knowledge off
these roles, which include:
• raising awareness of the school’s child protection policies;
• being available for staff to share any safeguarding concerns or
worries with;
• acting as a source of support, advice and expertise for all staff;
• managing referrals to the local authority children’s services,
the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS), the police,
radicalisation prevention services or other relevant agencies;
• liaising with the three safeguarding partners- the headteacher,
the local authority designated officers and school staff;
• upholding safer recruitment practices.
As a deputy DSL, you can deputise for the DSL, carrying out the
responsibilities as and when required.
to offload is all that is needed, other times you may need to
act upon the information you are given. How you do this could
impact on continuing relationships and should always be
carefully considered.
It is also important to remember that you are there to support
teachers in their role, with the joint goal of the best outcomes
for all pupils. Anything you are asking teachers to do should
ultimately benefit their pupils’ education and should be
achieved by working together.
Other things to consider are how you will encourage and
motivate staff to share your vision for the school and come on
board with any school improvement measures and changes.
Knowing your staff really well should help with this and taking
the time to get to know everybody in the school on a personal
level is invaluable in building positive relationships, although
professionalism should also be maintained.
You may also be asked to support teachers who are not
meeting performance targets and require a support plan.
How you handle this should also be in line with the school’s
pay and progression policy. It may include observing teaching,
looking at planning or conducting book scrutinies. This can be
a difficult task and may involve challenging conversations so
being prepared and following protocol will always help.
Being a senior leader in a primary school can often be a lonely
place, especially if you are new to the role, You may find it
helpful to have someone in a similar situation to turn to for
support. Reach out to other senior leaders in schools in your
local area and use meetings or group training sessions as
an opportunity to create supportive relationships with other
leaders. You might find groups or individuals on social media
can help you to answer questions and solve problems or are
just able to offer moral support when you need it.
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Working in a Team
How will I contribute to school self-evaluation and improvement?
You will probably work closely with your senior leadership team
to evaluate the quality of education across the whole school; it
will be a regular focus of your senior leadership team meetings
and may also involve teachers with middle leadership roles.
How you monitor and evaluate the quality of provision within
the school will be decided by the senior leadership team and
may vary from school to school. You may operate a five-point
cycle of self-evaluation, identifying areas for improvement,
finding solutions, trialling these solutions, evaluating their
What makes an effective senior leadership team?
To be an effective senior leadership team in a primary school,
all members must have a collective vision for the school. To be
an effective member of this team, you should share this vision
for the school, supporting your senior leadership colleagues
in forging the path towards the vision, encouraging and
motivating the rest of the school to follow.
Who will I need to liaise with as part of my senior leadership role?
Aside from a close working relationship with the headteacher
and frequently working with teachers and support staff,
assistant and deputy headteachers will need to liaise with a
variety of other people within the school. Who and when will
depend on what the current priorities are. You will almost
certainly need to work closely with the Special Educational
Needs and Disabilities Coordinator (SENDCo) at some point.
You will also need to liaise and work with school administrative
staff, such as the business manager, bursar or secretary, as
well as site staff and lunchtime supervisors. You should
make sure that you are aware of each individual’s job role and
responsibilities so that you can form effective and respectful
working relationships.
You may be asked to sit upon the board of governors for the
school, either as a full member of the governing body or as an
associate. You will need to build close working relationships
with the governors for your school and should ensure that you
are aware of what areas of responsibility each governor has,
inducting them accordingly in school improvement planning.
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impact and finally sharing the positive changes more widely
across the school, or your school may have a different system.
Whatever approach your school adapts, you, as a senior leader,
will be expected to contribute through collecting and analysing
evidence, such as data, to find areas for improvement,
monitoring and evaluating practice within the school, planning
strategies for improvement and motivating staff to work
towards them.
Some strategies for senior leadership teams to work
effectively include:
• open and frequent communication;
• taking time to consult staff and listen to their ideas;
• working collaboratively towards success, not as individuals;
• keeping up to date with educational practice and research.
Senior leaders will often need to work closely with parents
of pupils to celebrate successes, solve problems and
resolve conflicts. You will need to act with integrity and
professionalism, particularly if the situation is sensitive or
challenging. You should make sure that parents feel that their
voices are being heard and their opinions valued. Only promise
to act upon things that are within your power and always make
sure you follow up on your actions within the timescale you
have promised.
As a senior leader, it is likely you will also liaise with external
individuals and organisations too; this may include local
authority advisors, training and educational consultants,
teacher supply agencies and organisations within the school’s
local community.
At some point during your senior leader career, you will probably
need to work closely with an Ofsted inspection team. What you
will be expected to do will be dependent on your responsibilities
within the school but an inspection could involve joint lesson
observations, work scrutinies and interviews with inspectors.
You will also be involved in receiving feedback from the
inspection team and sharing this with teaching staff, where
appropriate.
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Responsibilities and Workload
What will my teaching responsibility be?
Although you will now be paid on the leadership pay scale, you
will still be expected to meet the requirements of the teachers’
standards, as defined by the Department for Education. As a
leader, you may also be required to be consistently excellent in
all aspects of the teachers’ standards, leading your colleagues
through exemplary practice.
How do I balance class responsibilities with management responsibilities?
Developing and maintaining an effective balance between your
class and leadership responsibilities is essential to allow you
to work at your best and provide the children in your class,
as well as those in the whole school, with the best possible
outcomes.
You may find it helpful to plan when you will carry out class
responsibilities, such as planning and marking and dedicate
time to complete these each day. Using your PPA time,
whenever possible, for planning and assessment for your
class and not leadership tasks will help you to manage your
class workload. In the long term, it is useful to plan out when
you will have the larger class-related jobs, such as assessment
and data collection, parents’ evening and report writing and set
aside time to achieve these where possible, well in advance.
As a senior leader, you are entitled to a reasonable amount
of non-contact time during school hours for leadership
responsibilities. The amount of time and when it can be taken
is determined by the senior leadership of the school and should
be outlined in your individual job description. Just as with your
class responsibilities, it is wise to plan which tasks you will
complete during this time and follow it as closely as possible.
How will I promote best practice in teaching and learning?
Assistant and deputy headteachers should always set an
example of best practice in teaching and learning. You should
always provide timely and constructive feedback to your pupils,
make sure your displays are up to date, meet all deadlines and
deliver excellent learning opportunities.
Balancing your new leadership responsibilities with those
of a class teacher is not always easy but it is important that
you illustrate to the teachers in your school that you are able
to uphold the same expectations that you have of them.
You should also bear in mind that you may be more likely to
How can I balance workload and wellbeing?
Balancing workload and wellbeing is difficult in all levels of
teaching but particularly so in leadership roles where you will
have more demands made upon you and your time. Make
sure to set time aside for yourself each week and during the
holidays to carry out an activity that you enjoy, for example
exercise, reading, a craft or socialising.
Also, set yourself reasonable working hours. For example, you
might say that after 5 p.m. on a Friday you will not look at your
school emails until Sunday morning, or you may decide that
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Occasionally, senior leaders (particularly in large primary
schools) may not be class-based at all. However, it is common
for assistant and deputy headteachers to have class teacher
responsibilities alongside their leadership responsibilities. In
this case, contact time with pupils should be reduced, allowing
time to be dedicated to leadership tasks. Any non-contact time
will be outlined in your individual job description.
Keeping on top of demands on your time is key to managing
your workload. It is also important for you to be visible and
available to all staff, although you should be mindful of being
called upon during your dedicated leadership time, which may
impact on your ability to meet the demands of your role.
Prioritising and managing tasks is key to being an effective
leader. Set yourself long-term goals that can be broken down
into smaller manageable tasks and plan time to achieve them
that fits around your responsibilities as a class teacher. It is
very probable that you will find additional and unexpected
jobs occurring frequently. Managing and prioritising this extra
workload can be challenging and you will need to decide what
can wait and what cannot.
You will also be expected to attend weekly Senior Leadership
Team meetings. These often take place after school, with
varying lengths. It is worth bearing in mind that along with
weekly staff meetings, as a senior leader, you may have
two evenings each week dedicated to meetings. It is also
worth noting that some senior leadership teams also meet
during school holidays, particularly during the summer when
determining priorities for the next academic year.
encourage class teachers to improve their own practice if you
can show that you are doing it too and that it works.
As a senior leader, it is also important that you are visible
to all staff in upholding the standards you expect of them,
maybe think about how you will model effective behaviour
management when leading assemblies or how you will
contribute positively during whole school training sessions.
Remember you are always setting an example in everything
you do.
you will not carry out any school work after 9 p.m. during the
week. Managing how and when you receive messages about
school will also help your personal wellbeing; not receiving
emails on your personal phone or device may help you to
switch off for a while when away from school.
Try to be aware of your triggers for stress and anxiety and
anticipate these. Let colleagues know when you are struggling
and make them aware of how they can help you to maintain
your wellbeing.
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Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
What CPD opportunities should I look for?
As an assistant or deputy headteacher, you may have already
completed the National Professional Qualification for Senior
Leadership and you may want to apply to work towards the
National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH). The
NPQH is delivered by Department for Education accredited
providers and aims to develop your leadership knowledge,
skills and awareness of leadership behaviours. You will have
What should primary senior leaders read?
As a senior leader you may want to expand your knowledge
and improve your practice by reading the latest educational
research and literature. Keeping on top of this will help you to
reflect on and improve your own pedagogy, benefitting your
pupils. It may also help you to support other teachers in your
school to develop and improve their own practice, as well as
helping you to plan CPD sessions for your staff.
Performance Management and Leadership Payscale
What are the leadership pay scale pay points?
The leadership pay scale begins with L1 which is currently
£41,065 per year in 2019-20, this will vary depending on which
part of the country you are working in. The starting point for
an assistant or deputy headteacher on the pay scale depends
upon factors, such as the size of the school and the experience
of the teacher.
What is the difference between the leadership pay scale and the main and upper pay scales?
When you move from the teacher’s main pay scale to the
leadership pay scale your terms and conditions of employment
shift, as outlined in the School Teacher’s Pay and Conditions
Document. Assistant and deputy headteachers are not bound
by the 195 days or 1265 hours of directed time applicable to
teachers on the main and upper pay scales. What this means,
How will my performance be appraised?
As a senior leader, paid on the leadership pay scale you are
entitled to have your pay annually reviewed. This may be carried
out by the board of governors or trustees, who will assess your
individual performance over the previous twelve months.
You will likely be set targets relevant to whole school
improvement and issues, as well as some that may involve
‘stepping up’ to headteacher responsibilities to facilitate career
progression.
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the opportunity to lead a whole school change programme
while being supported by a coach or mentor.
You might also wish to look at what opportunities are available
for senior leaders through the National College for Teaching
and Leadership or explore CPD opportunities offered by local
university education departments.
The Education Endowment Fund (EEF) is a good place to start.
This provides summaries of the latest educational research
with the aim of guiding teachers and senior leaders on ways
to use their resources to improve learning outcomes; it also
provides up to date educational news.
https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk
The leadership scale has 43 steps and an assistant or deputy
headteacher could expect to be paid anywhere between L1
and L9 or 10, which is approximately £50 000-£51 000. The pay
range for assistant and deputy headteachers is determined
locally by the school governing body or board of trustees and
should allow for performance-related progression within the
range. This will be outlined in the school’s pay policy.
practically, is that a headteacher can reasonably direct their
assistant and deputy headteachers to carry out work outside
of these directed hours, for example attending training or
meetings at weekends or during school holidays, without
additional pay.
Your performance management will probably be carried out by
the headteacher but the decision on pay-progression will be
made by the governing body or board of trustees. All guidelines
of performance management for leadership group teachers
will be outlined in your school’s pay policy.
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