Scotland’s primary school leaders’ body the AHDS is calling for headteacher workload to be addressed, following research showing that promoted staff find the prospect of taking on the top job in school increasingly unappealing.
The AHDS says that, in a recent survey, fewer than a fifth of deputes and fewer than a quarter of principal teachers agreed that they were “keen to become a headteacher”.
The survey - conducted in March and completed by 1,300 primary school leaders - found that 18 per cent of deputes and 23.3 per cent of principal teachers said they wanted to pursue a headship.
By contrast, in 2016, when AHDS first carried out its survey of school leaders, over a third of deputes (35.7 per cent) and principal teachers (38.6 per cent) agreed they wanted to pursue headship.
The survey also found the proportion of promoted post holders in primary schools saying they actively did not want to become headteachers had risen.
In March, 69.1 per cent of deputes and 65.6 per cent of principal teachers disagreed they were keen to pursue headship - up from 49.1 per cent of deputes and 48.6 per cent of principal teachers in 2016.
Greg Dempster, general secretary of primary school leaders’ body the AHDS, said: “That’s a 20-percentage point worsening in terms of negativity about headship. It’s not a pretty picture given these are the groups you recruit headteachers from - you can’t get them from anywhere else.”
Mr Dempster suggests that it is the huge workload associated with headship that is putting prospective school leaders off pursuing promotion. The AHDS survey also found the average number of hours worked by primary headteachers per week is 53.6.
Increasingly, Mr Dempster said, his members tell him they do not have enough time to get the job done.
“There is a lack of desirability about the role and that comes down to a few factors,” said Mr Dempster. “Salary is one but it is not what people focus on - what they talk about is too much bureaucracy and the need for proper support for inclusion.
“Basically, what they are looking for is more management time. Lots of councils reduced the threshold for schools being entitled to deputes and principal teachers, in order to make savings.”
Difficulty filling headteacher posts is cited as one reason for the interest in these collective leadership models - but parents and Scotland’s largest teaching union also say cash strapped councils are looking to save on headteacher salaries. According to the EIS teaching union, it is primary leadership posts that will likely be squeezed out if the proposed changes go ahead.
The full Tes Scotland investigation will be published on Wednesday on the Tes magazine website.
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