Preparing for the move: what colleagues say

Build your experience in a school that encourages you to grow

Schools give differing amounts of support to staff development. In some, continuing professional development is a significant part of the school ethos. Choose which school you work in carefully, bearing this in mind. Once in post, take a proactive approach to developing leadership capability. Look for opportunities to develop your leadership potential within the school. Volunteer to lead projects or to join a working group. Taking these steps may not add to your salary but gives you hands on leadership experience and a taste of what you may wish to do in the future.

Build your belief

Before you start applying for headships, I think you need to develop a very clear understanding of your own principles and beliefs about education and how these will underpin how you lead a school to success. Until recently, I was head of a challenging inner city school, and at times when everything, from government policy to parents' feedback seems to offer conflicting advice about what is best, it's falling back your own beliefs that will get you through the maze. Ultimately, you need to take on board all the conflicting factors and filter them through what you believe and translate them into an effective way of improving children's learning - that is, after all, the central purpose of headship.

"Beyond that, you'll need to understand the school and the community you're going into, or you will struggle to survive - you need to be able to anticipate when you might find your ethos challenged and how you'll deal with that. Finally, if I was recruiting I'd want to see proven success in a similar environment - it's too much of a risk for governors of challenging schools to offer a headship to someone who can't really prove their approach has worked in the past. So, my advice would be to gather evidence of your success in challenging circumstances and think through how you'd adapt that to the setting of the school you're applying to.

Expect to be challenged

I think you have to ask yourself a few questions as you begin the application process, especially if you're looking at challenging schools. Firstly, and very importantly, can you stand up to challenge and face the fact that you might be disliked for changes you make? Your suggestions will meet with resistance sometimes and you need to have the belief to see things through.

"You should make sure you're ready to really listen - there's a big difference between listening and waiting to talk. You don't have all the answers because nothing can prepare you for the uniqueness of the school you end up in, so you have to know you are going to be asking questions and learning for a long time.

"You also have to ask if you have the faith in your principles to get you through the tough times. I've never stopped believing that nothing should disrupt a child's learning, not poor teaching or poor classroom behaviour. Now I'm at the stage where those principles are starting to embed in the school, we're making real progress.

Know your governors

Applicants need to appreciate the role the governing body plays in the life of the school. You need to assess how you can work with the governors, and to show that you appreciate their strategic, critical friend and accountability roles. As a chair, I'm always reassured to see an understanding on the part of an applicant of the corporate responsibilities of governors. If appointed, a good working relationship between the head and the governors is fundamental to the success of the school. To see that recognised from an early stage makes a good start.