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Middle Management Courses for Teaching Career Progression

By Mark Richards,

24 Jan 2020

I thought that a little bit of research on the kind of middle management courses that were available to teachers looking for promotion might be handy.

I thought I could have a look online, have a word with a few ex colleagues and offer a few details about half a dozen promising courses from which teachers could select. I’m really sorry, but I can’t avoid a touch of cynicism today.  It is probably mis-placed, but there we have it. You know the sort of thing; a day on managing a department about how to manage a group of tutors as year head, preferably over a pint.   The sort of course that a school can afford to fund, that the teacher can take themselves away to do, without the distraction of Mrs Smith asking about Susie’s missing pen or who’s going to play centre half for the U11s now Joe (or Jo) has the flu. The Perfect Middle Management Courses – after the Government’s Got its Hands All Over It. Well, the Government have had their dirty hands all over our profession once more, and what a shambolic, idiotic, impractical and, to be honest, completely unfair system they have come up with.  Still, none of us should be surprised by that. Eighteen months – that is one and half years – to complete a middle management courses.  That’s more than the time is spent on initial training.  What kind of teacher can spend eighteen months on  middle management courses?  And note, this is not some fifth year sabbatical, but training on the job. I don’t know that much about the particular course that they (through their approved agents) are offering – nor do I want to.  Perhaps there are thousands of teachers, totally committed to their classes, professional in their planning and assessment, offering a bit outside the school day, who study for these courses and come out the other end even better than when they started.  I just haven’t heard of any. Key Skills To Acquire – 3 Months on Each Over our eighteen wasted, sorry I meant to say worthwhile, months, we will study:
  • ‘Strategy and Improvement’.

    Or, how to come up with more pointless and time wasting idea.
  • Teaching and Curriculum excellence; isn’t the assumption that as an experienced teacher we do not already display ‘excellence’.
  • Leading with impact.

    I bet we never thought of that.
  • Working in partnership.

    Personally, I think that’s over-rated.  Don’t we all want to plough our own furrow, stepping on toes, wrecking careers?  Or is that just Governors?
  • Managing Resources and Risks.

    I love the way that ‘resources’ are linked with ‘risks’.’
  • And at the end of those eighty weeks of pointless teacher speak and politically correct nonsense, we will know about increasing our capability.

    For sleep, at least.
I am sorry, but we are talking about training for middle management; not heading up Education in Britain (a role, of course, requiring no qualifications other a complete lack of understanding of how a school works). A Priceless Course (In as much as it is hard to find the price) It gets better.  Apparently, as a result of the above, we will have acquired commitment, collaboration, personal drive, resilience, awareness, integrity, and respect, man.  Characteristics the Government clearly feel are lacking in teachers who do not take part in their middle management course. It’s going to cost a fortune, by the way.  We can tell that because the Government refuse to disclose prices on their website, instead blaming their ‘designated providers’ for the exorbitant costs.  There is funding, but to qualify for that a candidate needs to be working in a ‘Category 5 or 6 school’ which is a polite way of saying  one in a poor area. Even the Name’s Stupid (Or ENS) I might be wrong.  Maybe every teacher looking to find a middle management course should be heading straight to www.gov.uk and following the link to their local provider. Consider this:  while we spend eighteen months of our time studying nonsense, our peers are spending a weekend at a nice hotel, adding the qualification they achieve their on their application form, getting a job and gaining the experience that will turn them into proper middle managers. Eighteen months down the line, when we are finally ready to get the applications in (if we still have the will to teach, or even to live) we are going to be faced with a very tough question at interview.  As a head, I was not alone in wanting teachers who could get on with the job, deal with problems, offer solutions and take the school – my school – forward.  I didn’t really want people prepared to sacrifice eighteen months of pupil care pursuing their own qualifications.  Or at least if they wanted to do that, not while they were drawing a salary and supposedly giving their best to what should be of highest priority to them.  Their classes. The Sort of Middle Management Courses We Need So an old man’s advice is as follows.  If you want to take middle management courses, take the following route.
  • Ask around for the name of a course that offers US something we need.

    Sign up and go along.  Don’t do anything that involves role play, takes more than a weekend to complete or comes with an online exam.  They are the signs that we will be wasting our time.
  • Visit other schools in similar settings.
  • Talk to other middle managers.
  • Do a lot for the kids.
  • Know where WE want to take our department or our Key Stage or Year Group, fit it in with the school’s development plan and tell your Head about your ideas.
  • And DON’T, please, do anything that involves the sort of pointless, irrelevant tosh that has been spouted by this Government.

    By the way, with ‘this’ I mean any Government since Thatcher arrived in power.  Probably before then as well, it’s just I can’t remember that far back.
Taking a middle management course can make sense as we navigate the steps that lead up the ladder towards headship.  But if any school expects us to have spent eighteen months training to get there, it shouldn’t be the school for us. If that place of (little) learning expects eighteen months training of a Head of Department, imagine what they would have wanted of their head!  It might explain why he or she is either about to celebrate their ninety-second birthday, or more likely, has very little experience of proper education. Some promising sounding middle management courses:
  • Head of Year – Getting the Best from Your Team - £500, five short twilight sessions.  ucl.ac.uk
  • New to Head of Department - £300 approx – delivered in school.

    osiriseducation.co.uk
  • Leading from the Middle - £490 – two days.

    dragonfly-training.co.uk
  • Leadership Skills for New and Aspiring Middle Leaders – £299 – one day (or can be delivered in school).

    creativeeducation.co.uk
  • Have a look on your own local authority website.