What is a deputy headteacher?
It’s a leader
When the leader is away
Stepping in,
(Sometimes)
To save the day.
Speaking with authority
That is delegated
Often berated
Ofsted rated
And never sated.
What is a deputy headteacher?
It’s a behaviour preacher
The headteacher’s creature
A supporting act
To the main feature
A shouter, a screecher,
A lesser performance
Than the headlining band
A dotted line drawn in the sand
Of Performance Management
(The cardboard cage for Leadership)
And hands on hip
This deputy stands
Dotted line fading on shifting sands
A guide with a flickering lamp
One foot in each camp,
Both driving and conducting the bus;
Requiring limbs like an octopus.
What is a deputy headteacher?
It’s a rota maker,
Temper faker,
Confiscator
“Have it back later”
A blusterer, a badgerer
A business manager
Teach and mark
Take kids to the park
An acronym guru, an E.V.C.
Knowing A.F.L. and A.P.P.
With S.E.N. and I.E.P.
Being merely tools for P.R.P.
A deputy headteacher
Is out of the classroom forty percent
(Sometimes)
Yet one heartbeat away from the top.
To some, the deputy is heaven-sent
To others, the deputy must repent,
Or simply give up and stop.
What is a deputy headteacher?
Is it a mouse who’s learning to be a rat?
Or a cat
Who hasn’t quite got the cream,
Not quite living the dream?
Is it a dog without a bite?
Or the penultimate step of ambition?
A sub-aspiration?
A role in its own right?
Or is it a not quite?
An almost? A maybe?
Is the emphasis on ‘head’?
Or ‘teacher’?
Or ‘deputy’?