What is the Shared Leadership Model?
Two headteachers sharing the leadership of a school. One email. One office. One full-time job.
We have a headship crisis. We also have a gender gap. We also have a struggling school system.
We have put together answers to FAQs for different stakeholder groups. To answer these questions, we have drawn on our bank of case-studies from current co-headteachers leading a range of different schools nationally.
Why should I consider this model for my school?
Co-headship combines the experience, energy and personal qualities of two excellent leaders.
Headship is an increasingly broad and challenging job. In a co-headship, accountability is
increased: each headteacher is accountable to the other and to the governors. Equally, stress
and isolation are reduced: each headteacher develops and coaches the other; each
headteacher checks and balances the judgement and decisions of the other. It is a richer and
safer model of leadership. Co-headship can support first-time heads; enable succession
planning for a retiring head; and increase the capacity of the headteacher.
2. How can a school afford two headteachers?
Different schools answer this question in different ways. The cost varies depending on whether
both heads are full-time or are working flexibly. Overall, we suggest you consider the entire cost
of SLT rather than the cost of the headteachers in isolation. Three examples from Shared
Headship Network case studies are listed below:
One ‘outstanding’ primary school has both heads working 0.8 allowing both heads time to lead
the school and to generate additional income for the school as system leaders on school
improvement. The additional income cover the additional 0.6 headteacher cost.
One primary school case-study has two headteachers and no deputy-head.
One large ‘outstanding’ secondary school with two full-time headteachers splitting one
headteacher and one deputy salary.
3. How do you interview job-share headteacher candidates?
In appointing co-heads, you should feel like you are getting the top two candidates who have
applied (one of the benefits of co-headship is that you do not have to choose between them!)
Therefore, each co-headteacher applicant should be interviewed in the same way as the other
applicants and be assessed individually at each stage. If both candidates reach the final stage
of the interview process, we recommend a joint interview focused on how they would operate as
co-headteachers. Please contact us for a template of suggested questions for this stage of the
process.