As I approach 20 years as head of English, I might be forgiven for wondering how I’ve managed to plateau for so long. Professional life is frequently demanding, if not exhausting; and restarting the process each September can be daunting.

I am very grateful to my colleague for her words of wisdom in the first whole-school gathering of the year, when she said “don’t ask ‘what do I want to do this year’, but ‘what do I want to be?’” From such a perspective, what might at first appear to be a flat, bureaucratic job description for a department head - a list of duties spanning several pages - takes on exciting dimensions:  

1. Subject promoter: For me, English has always been the channel along which everything else is conducted. It provides the language, the narratives through which school life and professional experiences can be understood, and the opportunities to create as well as interpret the world around us. English is the only discipline that is fundamental to every transaction within the school.

2. Visionary: It has been said that senior management provides the vision and middle managers deliver upon it. To some extent that is true because actions need to fit the whole-school direction. But the subject leader’s professional identity is bound up in their own ambitions for their department and the way their subject should be constructed.

3. Pathfinder: The introduction of GCSEs was a turning point in my career as a teacher. It wasn’t just the radical swing from norm-referenced assessment to criteria-based grading, but the path my then head of English took, the thinking underpinning his choices and actions, and the way he carried his department along with him. Every time the specifications change, I refer back to this formative phase. The wellbeing of the department rests not just on the choice itself or even the rationale underpinning it, but the way in which changes are introduced.

4. Stage manager: Leading a department shouldn’t be about taking centre stage. Getting the timetabling right provides synergy between teachers and groups. Stock control is mundane but necessary. If workload is well planned and everything possible is done to reduce bureaucracy, teachers will become more relaxed and prepared for performing miracles in the classroom.

5. Mentor: It’s a responsibility and a privilege to support beginning teachers and new arrivals. The paperwork may be onerous but the dialogue provides two-way learning. The most fruitful part is seeing new colleagues gain confidence from trying out more adventurous strategies in the classroom. Every mentee has different needs and abilities. Get mentoring right and the effect on the classes and the department can be transformational. Neglect new staff or fail to find the time for them, and another teacher will be lost to the school - and possibly the profession.

6. Results deliverer: Far too often, results delivery is seen as the main job of the department. Wise leaders know there is so much more to education than exams. Sometimes the pressure of targets can result in a narrowing of the curriculum, which is, in the end, self-defeating.

7. Firefighter: Not everything runs smoothly in a school and there can be days when the subject leader is occupied in patching together the timetable because colleagues are ill. It may be frustrating but it can also be satisfying, even exciting, to keep the machine going.

8. Counsellor: No teacher arrives without context. Everyone has a private life and very few people sail through their careers without hitting a rock or two on the way. The best professional development I ever experienced was my qualification in counselling in the development of learning. The most important thing I learned was the value of listening: we don’t always have solutions to our colleagues’ problems, but if they trust us enough to air their problems, we can give them a sympathetic hearing. Sometimes we can help them consider options. In a few cases we can act directly if they’re within the span of our control.

9. Researcher: Initiating an independent classroom study is increasingly fashionable and potentially rewarding. Even if the project never quite reaches fruition, there is so much that has been learned on the way and even the process of wider reading, quantitative analysis and experimentation can make teaching more flexible and deepen pedagogical understanding.

10. Collaborator: We are all part of a wider picture and learn so much from each other. Keeping connected is vital in the fragmented and often unstable environment accelerated by the Gove reforms. Networking used to be considered undignified, with connotations of securing preferment through friends, a kind of cronyism. More positively, technology now allows for greater sharing of resources and expertise within subject organisations. Local teach-meets and exam-board hubs add to the professional mixture.

11. Counsel for the prosecution: When exam results come in, there can be minor or major anomalies. Over the years, I’ve learned how to overcome defensiveness from exam boards, how assessment works, how the regulator has changed the rules of engagement. At the furthest extreme, I have actually taken on the role of prosecutor in a stage 2 appeal. Knowing how to negotiate reviews of marking and moderation is vital to ensure that justice is done.  

12. Chronicler: Every September comes the inevitable report on the department. Throughout the year, there is the departmental development plan. More than this, though, is the need to maintain a positive narrative for the department, to keep morale high. Marketing the department has become a necessary role for every subject leader in today’s competitive environment, so it’s vital to appreciate and publicise initiatives and successes.

And just outside the top dozen roles are:

13. Diplomat: There will always be challenges, queries and mistakes to address. Smoothing things over while being transparent and honest with people is probably the best way to proceed.  Anything else causes dissonance that becomes undermining. 

14. Risk assessor: A necessary role, maintaining vigilance to keep staff and pupils safe in the subject area, even if it boils down to filling in self-evaluation forms that change every year with new legislation.

and

15. Quality control…

Yvonne Williams is head of English and drama at a school in the South of England, and a member of the National Association for the Teaching of English’s post-16 committee