Earlier this year the respected policy think tank Policy Exchange published a surprising report on education. After careful consideration and an abundance of statistics, a heavyweight team of experts concluded that replacing a head teacher has little or no impact on school performance. It’s a piece of research that London’s fee-paying parents will find particularly interesting since, by the beginning of next term, eight of the capital’s leading independent schools will have seen the recent arrival of a new head.
In the past two years, St Paul’s Girls, Westminster, City of London School for Girls, King’s College School Wimbledon, South Hampstead High, Haberdashers’ Aske’s School for Girls, Channing and Highgate – all high in the academic league tables – have welcomed a new voice at assembly, a new force in the staff room. But, while pupils may worry about the neatness of their uniform or the increased likelihood of detention, it is parents who have the greatest fears about these recently appointed chief executives – since they pay their salary.
The Policy Exchange concentrated its findings, however, on the state system, and James O’Shaughnessy, editor of the report, concedes that independent-school heads can have a far greater impact than those in the bureaucratically tied public sector.
“State schools are constrained by the area they serve, so there’s little scope to alter selection, and they are also very unionised, so heads don’t have the ability to hire and fire or the resources to attract the best teachers. Private-school heads have far greater freedom.”
The role and attributes of a successful independent-school head were perhaps best summarised by the late Dr John Rae, celebrated headmaster of Westminster School from 1970-86, in his book Letters from School (1987). “The head is an autocrat, whether he likes it or not. There are checks and balances on his power but they are only as effective as he allows them to be. In an independent school, he has the power to hire and fire teachers as well as to admit and expel pupils. By his patronage, he can advance or retard the careers of his staff. However much he may wish to present himself as first among equals, he is not. His power, his responsibility for all decisions and his personal identification with the school suggest an autonomous guerrilla leader or an absolute monarch of the old regime – L’école, c’est moi.”
Rae considered the qualities needed to pull off this tricky job were “a thick skin, a quick wit, stamina, a steady nerve, political dexterity, a capacity for ruthlessness and a keen sense of the absurd”.
Certainly, those who track the shifting fortunes of the country’s finest fee-paying schools feel the impact of a new head can be as profound as the appointment of a new prime minister.
“At the oldest, best-endowed schools like Eton, Harrow and Winchester, the spirit of the school is very strong, so the effect will usually be less dramatic,” says Ralph Lucas, long-time editor of The Good Schools Guide (Lucas Publications). “But elsewhere, the arrival of a bad head can be devastating. In prep schools, where parents are less committed and more mobile, I’ve seen schools die within a term. But I’ve also seen heads who’ve taken a school from the second or third division to the top of the first. They have to be real leaders with a clear vision of what they want. It’s partly about sharing that vision, and partly about imposing it.”
Andrew Halls, who has left Magdalen College School, Oxford, to start at King’s College School, Wimbledon this September, is just such a head. When he arrived at Magdalen nine years ago, this relatively small independent boys’ school was a middle-ranking establishment, with adequate facilities, an unpretentious atmosphere and pleasant results. Halls transformed it into a premier-league star. A-level statistics now rival those of St Paul’s, Westminster and Eton, and Oxbridge performance has moved from an annual trickle to about 25 per cent of its high-octane sixth form.
Halls is a softly spoken man but his views are clear and his actions decisive. During his time at Magdalen, he abolished Saturday school, lowered the entry age, introduced study skills for all boys and oversaw the replacement of 60 per cent of the staff. Unsurprisingly, he also witnessed a tripling of applications.
“I think the two most important changes I made were raising the boys’ ambitions and strengthening the roles of heads of department,” says Halls. “At Magdalen all the boys meet every day for chapel, so it was easy to talk to them. Certainly, no one could be in any doubt that we were here to help them do well in their exams. As to the teaching, in the old days it was felt you needed to preserve a teacher’s autonomy, but one man’s autonomy is another man’s loneliness. I helped staff realise that every boy and every colleague plays a vital part.”
Dr Anthony Seldon, another famous reforming force, completed a nine-year-stint at Brighton College last summer before transferring to Wellington College, one of the country’s leading public schools. He, too, is unequivocal about his role.
“I have a very clear plan of what I want to do,” says Seldon. “In the first term I listen and assess, talk to parents, prospective parents and teachers. At the end of term – obviously in consultation with the governors – I present a 10-year plan, which I circulate and communicate. The plan has to be appropriate for the history and culture of the school – it can’t go against the grain – but I feel my job is to listen, devise, communicate and then monitor.”
Seldon divides heads into two categories: “transformers”, who give the school a new sense of purpose and vigour; and “maintainers”, who take over a school that is already running well and keep a firm hand on the tiller.
“Transforming heads are needed once in a hundred years, where a school has fundamentally lost the plot. The grander and richer the school, the less often they are required.”
Whatever category they fall into, a new head will present the opportunity for a school to reassess but, in an already thriving set-up, alterations tend to be peripheral, not fundamental.
“The children will always notice a difference,” says Ralph Lucas, “but often the change is on the margins. Sport may become more or less important – the boat club, for example, may be less well supported – and bullying better or less well dealt with. You often see it particularly in special needs, where a new head can take fright or know precisely what’s going on. But if the school is already good and you have a mainstream child, you’re unlikely to notice a significant change.”
The problems arise, of course, if you do, and you don’t like it.
A new head’s style is often evident the moment they arrive. “You can tell from the first communication,” says Dr Kathryn Riley, visiting professor at the Institute of Education specialising in the field of leadership. “We saw one letter written entirely in capital letters. It was like being shouted at.” But it can take some time for parents to get the measure of what is going on.
“You have to go and see the head,” says Lucas. “Even if it’s only listening to a speech and getting a sense of what is important to them. We’re used to judging subconsciously and you can quickly get a sense of whether the head’s a slippery bugger or an upstanding gent. You don’t have to like them, but you do have to respect them.”
First impressions can certainly upset parental equanimity. “We went to see the new head talk on several occasions,” said one disgruntled lawyer with two children at a leading independent day school, “but all he was prepared to discuss was pastoral care and the building of a new playground. I tried to ask a question about the academic direction of the school but it was completely ignored. I pay my council tax to provide my children with playgrounds; I want to know how my school fees are going to be spent in the classroom.”
It can take months or even years before a new head’s impact is fully apparent. “Heads are usually at their most productive after four to 10 years, when they’ve done the groundwork,” says Lucas. “It takes time to get rid of any rubbish and to build up confidence. Usually, after about 10 years, heads start to go a bit stale.”
Even so, if a new head doesn’t have what it takes, trouble can often be spotted reasonably quickly. “A weak headmaster will soon find his will thwarted by powerful groups of teachers,” wrote Rae. “There is nothing worse than a weak headmaster. Policy and discipline fail, the school drifts and pupils suffer.”
Oddly, a school can continue to achieve reasonable exam results, while showing all the evidence of chaos within. “I had to remove my 14-year-old from his London day school, because there were all sorts of factional in-fighting among the teachers, which the head either couldn’t or wouldn’t control,” says mother of three Janine McDougery-Thomas. “It meant teachers were bullying my child and it went completely unchecked.”
A poor head can also drive off good staff. “A new head arrived at our school two years ago and now four of my daughter’s best teachers are leaving at the end of this term,” says one worried mother, with a child taking GCSEs next year. “When I asked one of them why she was going, she just said there was no opportunity for career advancement.”
Occasionally, a head who finds himself seriously out of control or at odds with the prevailing ethos will leave again rapidly. In 2003, for example, Dr Nick Tate, headmaster of Winchester College, resigned his post after just two-and-half years, when his plans for reform provoked a rebellion.
“Tate tried to change Winchester and the system rejected him,” says Lucas. “His life was made so uncomfortable he had to leave.”
But even where most parents, staff and pupils are reasonably happy with the new regime, your child can still be the exception.
“If you think that a head has taken against a certain type of child, it can matter. My own son had one head who understood him, but the next didn’t. In the first three weeks, he received 22 detentions. You can get through two years of a difficult head, but any longer you should certainly consider a move,” says Lucas. “It’s not worth having an unhappy child, when there are places out there where they can brighten up and flourish.”
Though most parents feel trapped once they’ve committed to secondary schooling, there are a number of logical breaks – at 13, at the start of GCSEs, and then again just before A levels.
But these are drastic measures and Lucas believes that parents can worry unnecessarily. “If you’ve had a good head, you’re likely to get another one. Good heads are picked by good schools.” Which, oddly, was the conclusion reached by Policy Exchange.
The FT’s special report ‘Top 500 Independent Schools’ is published on September 15
