Preparing for Senior Leadership - Tuesday 27 January 2026 (Broadway House, London)

Aspiring Deputy Heads, Directors of Studies, Assistant Heads, and other senior leadership posts

Description

By the end of the session you will have: 

  • Learnt about senior leadership roles and their opportunities and challenges, including from a serving senior leader in an HMC school 

  • Understood your own development needs and career pathways in preparation for a senior leadership role  

  • Learnt about the application, interview, and recruitment process 

  • Developed insight into making an effective transition to a senior leadership role 

 

Course Programme

Time

Session

09:45

Arrival, registration, and coffee

10.00 – 10.10

Welcome, introduction and word from sponsor

 

Speaker: Jill Berry

 

 

10.10 – 11.10

 

Session 1: Making the move from Middle to Senior Leadership

 

Speaker: Clare Jarmy, Director of Innovation at Haberdashers’ Elstree Schools 

11.10 – 11.25

Refreshment break

11.25 – 12.25

Session 2: Scenarios: Issues Senior Leaders might face, and strategies they might use as they step up to these challenges

 

Speaker: John Watson, Education Consultant and Former HMC Head

12.30 – 13.30

Lunch

13.30 – 14.30

Session 3: What the head is looking for, both in appointing a new Senior Leader, and in working with their Senior Leadership Team

 

Speaker: Jill Berry

14.30 – 14.45

Refreshment break

14.45 – 15.45

Session 4: The Senior Leader you hope to be: What the best Senior Leadership looks like, and what you have learnt from positive and negative leadership role models

 

Reflection: Where are you now, and what might be your next steps if you are to secure the Senior Leader position you dream of, make a positive transition into the role and do the job well?

 

Speaker: Jill Berry

15.45 – 16.00

Closing remarks and depart

 

Meet your Course Leader

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

Jill is an advocate for the opportunities presented by social media for networking and professional development, on Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/jillberry102,  on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-jill-berry-a5a55a21/ and blogging about education at https://jillberry102.blog/