Carole Lorimer - The Seven Deadly Demons of Deputy Headship

For Amy and James

who went through it all with me.

About The Author

Carole Lorimer has a lifetime's teaching experience in Junior and Infant Schools in the UK spending eleven of them in Headships of two Urban Schools. She writes because she believes that much of the wheel has already been invented and whilst we still need to experience steering it, we shouldn't have to start by assembling the wood and spokes....

Carole has a steadily growing catalogue of Primary School Teaching solutions including iPhone and iPadApps for Primary/Elementary School Teachers and the 'Primary Learning Bulletin' which can be ordered through www.Classaid.net or Strawberry Pirate Ltd

If you would like further copies of this book, or information on any Strawberry Pirate products, please email us at we would love to hear from you.

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"Top Marks! An informative and reassuring guide to inspire and support every newly appointed Deputy Head. You have the job and now you have the book! Congratulations!"

Brenda Chapman - St Nicholas JMI

"I have to mention my eBook publisher Strawberry Pirate who made everything so easy for me. "

Pete Willett, Author, Singer, Songwriter.

Cover by Strawberry Pirate Ltd.

Demon by Michael Edwards.

Deep Breath!

There are deadly demons which invariably rise up screeching and moaning at any and every opportunity with one aim in mind; that of making a Senior Leader's role insurmountable. However, these horrors can all be faced full on, cut down to size, summarily dispatched whimpering into the distance with a few, well-chosen weapons to supplement our armoury and a pre-knowledge of their soft under-belly. Properly forearmed in this way we can deal with them cleanly, freeing us to concentrate on developing our excellence as a senior leader without the distractions of catastrophic meetings, disastrous change management, over-whelming work load etc.

In order to fight the good fight we need to strap on our armour, bright and shiny, formed to withstand the icy blast of intransigence, the arrows of belligerence, the slough of confusion and the heat of exhaustion. It will keep you warm in the chill of the late night meeting and withstand the fire and brimstone of accountability. This carapace will grow with each challenge encountered and school term accomplished, reflected upon, ticked and consigned to the iron box under the bed called experience.

You have been appointed. You have proved your worth as an excellent teacher; you have made the presentation to governors and the local authority, and completed whatever in-tray task you were assigned at the interview and your references speak highly of your qualities.

Deep breath!

Now believe in it. If you are like 99% of newly appointed leaders there is some part of you that thinks you got in more by luck than skill, that if they really knew about your insecurities and doubts, if they had seen that particularly galling meeting with Parent A, or that mistake you made with curriculum report B, then they probably wouldn't have appointed you. This is not the case!

A Head looks to appoint a Deputy who will support them in their role, someone they can work closely with and who has potential to grow their school. Most importantly he/she will want you as a partner. It is like marriage without the washing up.

This short book has been written from the heart in order to support you on your appointment. It doesn't tell you how to write a department budget, or how to produce a top notch school development plan, there are plenty of books out there to help with that. It identifies some of those major demons which lurk in staff rooms, offices and the processes that encompass school leadership. It enriches the armour of newly appointed leaders and replenishes that of more established colleagues who I hope will also find something of interest in its pages.

After all why reinvent the wheel?

The Go-it-alone Gorgon

The Gorgon is a close relative of the Know-it-all-Nobbler. Both demons attack the soft underbelly of self confidence of our armour in different ways. Like many of the Demons, the Gorgon consumes time and emotional energy, seriously undermining your effectiveness as a leader. It attacks by compelling you to demonstrate to all around that you are the most capable, talented, gifted and proficient individual the school has ever known and should be wearing your underwear on the outside (having previously changed in a phone booth). This demon needs thwarting swiftly...

You would not expect a student/child or less experienced colleague to take on a massive new project or initiative all alone; it would be demoralising, time wasting, stressful and unnecessary, so why expect it from yourself? Get together with other Deputies and Assistant Heads - Network!

Support Groups...

Some authorities have the luck to have a Deputy Support Group, usually set up by the Deputies themselves. Most Heads are keen that the DH attends these as they are often a source of good ideas and initiative development. If you have one go to it!

If you do not have a support group handy, join up with another DH and then snowball each one of you bring another DH along to the next half term get-together and then each repeat for the next meeting.

Groups sometimes meet in contact time which can be difficult for schools to cover, especially with the teaching timetable that many deputies have. If this is the case, put forward the suggestion that it starts half an hour before end of lessons a half an hour story time slot once a half term should not be a problem for even Heads to cover if necessary and therefore early enough that it won't go on too late. Of course there are some DH groups who are less formal and meet at the pub after a long day, if you have the energy - fine!

Places to meet could initially be a room in one of your own schools, the local teacher's centre (if it still exists), a cafe, a pub, or someone's living room. There are benefits and drawbacks to consider:

• If you meet in a public place be very careful about naming children, schools or staff as it may be overheard. Also, dependent on the neighbourhood, it may create hurtful gossip as parents can be very negative about staff appearing to enjoy themselves (especially in school time!) no matter how much work you accomplish. Try for further afield.

• Meeting in one another's schools is great for the visiting D.H.s as you can usually squeeze in a walk-about and pick up some good ideas.

• Meeting in a teacher's centre gives the group some kudos and removes any stress from the host DH as in the last example. A possible drawback of this is that many Local Authorities now will charge to rent their rooms out.

• If you are a Primary/Junior/Infant/Nursery School, Approach your Secondary/High school - they usually have a small room/office available at some point during a week.

Remember to include Deputy and Assistant Heads from other phases Nursery, Infant, Junior, Middle, Primary and Secondary all make good additions to the support group and bring a wide variety of skills and experiences to the table. The bonds created across the phases are good for the schools involved as well as the DHs.