Headship appointments arguably are the most important recruitment decisions that schools make.

Appointing the wrong teacher can be detrimental for his or her class, but getting the wrong head can be disastrous for the whole school. The impact is on a different scale.

The high-stakes nature of headship appointments means more people want and need to be involved, meaning that there are usually additional rounds and meetings.

Governors have an important part to play, parents and staff need to be consulted. Everyone has an opinion and all eyes are on the inner circle to whom the final decision falls. No wonder schools often choose to use headhunters - if only to deflect some of the responsibility for the decision.

So, here’s our challenge. One of the headteachers at Kellett Prep is leaving the school at the end of the year after 10 years’ distinguished service. The process of appointing headteachers is complex at the best of times, but how to appoint a headteacher to an international school when there are Covid-19 restrictions in place?

Coronavirus: Headteacher recruitment in quarantine

Because of the way in which most international notice periods work, we need to appoint her successor before the Christmas vacation. The problem is that it is currently impossible for potential candidates who are not already in the city to visit the school to be interviewed on-site.

Hong Kong’s Covid-19 measures dictate that visitor visas are not being issued at this time and even if, by way of exception, the school were able to secure entry, there is a strict two-week period of quarantine in place. 

What this means is that we are embarking on a recruitment process that is going to have an element of “leap of faith” on both sides. The majority of the school stakeholders are not going to have the opportunity to meet the candidates because the lion’s share of the interviews will be conducted by video-conference.

In addition, the international candidates are going to be asked to sign up for Kellett without having visited the campus or met in person any pupils, staff or parents.

Covid-19 aside, this is a politically tumultuous time in the history of Hong Kong (“May you live in interesting times,” as the old Chinese curse goes). Although this has had little impact for expats on the ground and Hong Kong remains a great place to live and work, there may be a different perception around the world.

The process

Recruiting for a significant senior leader in this context is not ideal, but this is 2020 and we are all used to the idea that we have to think out of the box and do things differently.

So, here’s four things that we are planning to do:

1. Advertising

As well as putting the traditional advert in Tes, we are looking to use other channels to advertise the post as widely as possible.

We have rejected engaging recruitment consultants at this stage because the school has an established reputation internationally and an extensive network through which we can promote the post, including the professional associations to which the school is affiliated (IAPS, HMC, COBIS, FOBISIA);

We also have our school and personal professional networks on social media, particularly on LinkedIn and Twitter.

2. Information for candidates

We’ve created a much more extensive candidate pack to try to convey some of the information that would have been picked up in casual conversations and meetings on a school visit.

These include a video tour and recorded video interviews with key staff talking about how they work with the current head. We also provide a sense of what it is like to live and work in Hong Kong.

3. Management tasks and presentation

Like in many schools, our senior leadership interview process includes a number of management tasks, such as data analysis and in-tray letter-writing exercises.

These are usually incorporated into the on-site final interview schedule; but because this is not going to be possible, we have moved these to timed “open book” online assignments. The presentation will be via video-conference.

4. Interviews

It will come as no surprise that most of the interviews are going to have to be conducted by video conference, which, after all, is increasingly the norm for most international teaching (indeed most business) posts.

This medium will allow a range of stakeholders to be involved in the process. One interesting aspect is that we will be able to refer back to recordings of the interview when evaluating candidates.

However, we have taken the decision that, for an appointment of this importance, there needs to be some personal interaction in the process. One thing that the past year has taught us is that video-conferencing can be quite effective in most situations, but it is at its weakest when meeting people for the first time.

For this reason, we will be holding face-to-face interviews in London, even though this will mean 14 days in quarantine on return to Hong Kong.

Up to the challenge 

Being the headteacher of an international school requires resilience, adaptability and commitment, I have a hunch that the Covid-19 restrictions are a perfect climate to find the right candidate for the job.

Mark S Steed is the principal and CEO of Kellett School, a British international school in Hong Kong; and previously ran schools in Devon, Hertfordshire and Dubai. He tweets @independenthead