From Teacher to Headteacher

There are plenty of books on school leadership. Most are written by people who left the classroom a decade ago. This one isn’t.Laura Masson has spent twenty-two years in British education: as a music teacher, class teacher, deputy, headteacher across multiple local authorities, Director of Education for a multi-academy trust, and Principal of a five-school early years group in London. She has led primaries from special measures to good. She has burned out, recovered, and tried, quite hard, not to do it again.This is the book she wishes someone had handed her on the day she got her first deputy headship: practical, honest about what’s hard, and written by someone who has been in the room and is still in the room.In eight short chapters, Laura covers the things that actually matter: finding the purpose that holds you on the bad days; running strategy, money and people without drowning; building curriculum and culture with substance, not slogans; navigating governors, parents and crisis with integrity; and the unglamorous work of staying well enough to keep doing the job.The mistakes in here are hers. So is the path through them. The stories, including the Christmas Eve she resigned over the phone with no job to go to, are told plainly, because frameworks alone do not change behaviour, and stories sometimes do.This book is for the deputy or assistant head thinking about applying for headship; the new head in their first or second term, drinking from the fire hose; and the experienced leader who, periodically, needs reminding what they got into this for.It is shorter than most books on school leadership because most books on school leadership are too long. Read it in any order. The chapters stand alone. There is no test at the end.