Climbing the Teaching Ladder: A Guide to Promotion for ECTs

Aiming for the Stars – Promotion

At some stage of your career, you will need to sit down and work out how far you really want to go up the ‘promotion’ ladder.

A good time to do this is at the end of your ECT induction; hopefully, you will still have enthusiasm for the job and, with two years of teaching behind you, you will have a good grasp of what being a teacher really means.

Promotion isn’t just about your ability to teach – you often have to be in the right place at the right time in order for things to happen; someone else moving on or retiring to create a vacancy.
Will you need to move school to gain promotion? – if teachers at your current school tend to ‘stay put’ and/or the range of positions at your current school is narrow, then there may be limited opportunities for promotion; you will need to consider whether you want or need to move school to progress.
The nature of your job will change – as you move up the ladder, there is usually a lightening of the teaching expectations made of you. 
A secondary Head of Department is likely to teach less than a ‘regular’ member of their department, and a Head of Year is likely to teach less than both of them, so they can carry out their role effectively. 
You will need to establish whether you want to spend less time in the classroom.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to be in the classroom – in teaching, there is pressure to strive for promotion, but please remember that there is no-one saying that you have to move up; some teachers spend their entire careers trying to be ‘simply’ the best teacher they can be, without any management responsibilities or leaving the classroom.
Promotion means a better salary – this goes without saying; there are only six points on the Main Teaching Pay Scale, meaning a teacher reaches the ceiling pretty quickly.
What kind of promotion do you want? – Do you want a pastoral role or a curriculum role?
Where might promotion sit within any plans you might have for a family? Would you be able to juggle the increased demands from your job with the parental duties that come with having children?

When you are making this decision, it is important to consider the advantages and disadvantages of promotion.

The Advantages of Promotion

A salary increase – although this will not be as huge as you might imagine
More responsibility – as you work your way up the ‘ladder’, you will have more responsibility for managing increasing numbers of both students and staff.
Increased job satisfaction – taking on more responsibility can actually increase the level of job satisfaction someone feels.
For example, you may have the chance to have more of an influence on school policy and philosophy, leading to increased input into how things are run and subsequent improvement of working conditions.
Developing your subject or faculty – by becoming Head of Department or Faculty, you can influence the procedures used and direction taken by your area.
You will be employing, managing, developing and promoting others within your area and you will also have responsibility for a departmental budget, to use as you see appropriate.
Relationships with pupils change – as you go up the school ‘ladder’, you will naturally receive a degree of respect from the pupils; this will, of course, be balanced by how you are seen as a teacher, but you will clearly receive more (and more instant) respect as a Head of Year than as a ‘regular’ teacher – subsequently, behaviour in your classes may improve.

The Disadvantages of Promotion

A changing, more stressful job – with promotion comes the need to play a more and more managerial role within the school; despite training as a teacher, you will have to carry out a quite different role, which will need very different skills, that you may not have used before. You will need to manage both staff and pupils; these are difficult and stressful jobs.
Changing relationships with your colleagues – this will have an effect on how you work with and relate to other teachers; you may have to deal with a colleague not doing their job properly.
Working outside your ‘comfort zone’ – If you are promoted into a management role, you may have to do things that you have never done before and have never considered doing; a Head of Department will need to manage a budget, which isn’t easy without experience, whilst those in pastoral roles will increasingly spend time away from their subject specialism, which may have been their driver to become a teacher in the first place.
Working with difficult pupils – in a management role, you will spend time dealing with, and trying to solve, behavioural issues; you will need to interact with parents or carers, who may themselves have a negative experience of school.
You may have joined the profession to inspire bright, motivated pupils – these opportunities will decrease as you progress, in favour of dealing with those who lack the desire to be in school.
A changing persona – taking on a role with more status will mean that you have to adopt a different persona to that of a ‘regular’ classroom teacher; a classroom teacher will be able to, after a few years, get away with a more ‘relaxed’ style with their pupils – this isn’t an option for a pastoral leader.
You will need to be a ‘leader’ at all times, dressing and behaving in an appropriate manner; as a Head of Year or House, you will probably have to lead assemblies for a large number of pupils, which could be a daunting prospect.
Additional workload and responsibility – as you go higher, you will have to attend a wider range of after-school meetings, eating into your free time, and you may also have to sacrifice your involvement in extra-curricular activities.
In addition, as you progress, it becomes more likely that should anything go wrong, there’s no-one left to ‘pass the buck’ on to.