Preparing for Headship - Tuesday 11 November 2025 (Online)

This course is for: Aspiring Heads of HMC and other independent schools.

Description

Course outcomes:

  • Learn about headship and its opportunities and challenges, including advice from a serving HMC head
  • Understand your own development needs and career pathway in preparation for headship
  • Increase your awareness of the application, interview and recruitment process for headship
  • Acquire strategies for making an effective transition to headship
  • Have the opportunity for structured reflection: how ready am I and how can I continue to prepare for future headship?

 

Course Programme

Time

Session

09.30

Welcome and introduction

 

Speaker: Jill Berry

09.35 – 10.15

The Nature of Headship

 

Speaker: Sue Woodroofe, Previous Principal at The Grammar School at Leeds and Previous HMC Chair

10.15 – 11.00

Making the Leap: navigating the recruitment and selection process

 

Speaker: Jill Berry

11.00 – 11.10

Break

11.10 – 12.00

Making the transition to headship – the perspective of a HMC head

 

Speaker: Karl Guest, Head at St Columba’s College

12.00 – 12.30

Structured Reflection: How ready are you, and what are your next steps?

Speaker: Jill Berry

12.30

Close

 

Course Leader Biography:

Jill taught for thirty years across six different schools in the UK, state and independent, and she taught adults to GCSE and A level in the evenings for several years.  She was a head for the last ten years of her time in schools.  Since 2010 she has completed a doctorate, researching the transition to headship and written a book about it: 'Making the Leap - Moving from Deputy to Head' (Crown House, 2016) https://www.crownhouse.co.uk/publications/making-the-leap (also now available as an audio book); and carried out an extensive range of leadership development work.  She has given a TEDx presentation on the subject of ‘Take a Second Look: Bring Out the Best in Yourself and Others’: https://www.ted.com/talks/jill_berry_take_a_second_look_bring_out_the_best_in_yourself_and_others and she has published four novels. See her author page:  https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/author/B01JSM9UXI