Head of Year

Head of Year Blog

Read Head of Year articles on interviews, behaviour culture, attendance and practical pastoral leadership in UK schools.

EBSA, Anxiety and Attendance: A Practical Guide for Heads of Year. A practical guide for Heads of Year on emotionally based school avoidance, anxiety and attendance, including early signs, parent conversations, soft plans and when to escalate. Mobile Phones, Group Chats and the Head of Year Role. A practical guide for Heads of Year on mobile phones, group chats, online conflict, parent conversations and building healthier year group norms. The Weekly Pastoral Rhythm: What a Good HOY Week Actually Looks Like. A practical Monday-to-Friday rhythm for Heads of Year, covering attendance checks, tutor meetings, visibility, positive calls and the weekly pastoral reset. How to Lead a Tutor Team You Didn't Pick. A practical guide for Heads of Year on leading inherited tutor teams, building better tutor meetings, supporting willing tutors and handling difficult conversations. The Quiet Five: Identifying the Students Nobody Has Noticed Yet. A practical guide for Heads of Year on noticing quiet students earlier, using attendance drift, tutor prompts and year group visibility to identify hidden need. Your First Half Term as Head of Year: A Week by Week Guide. A practical week by week guide for your first half term as Head of Year. Eight weeks of priorities, systems, and honest advice with links to templates you can use from day one. 12 Head of Year Interview Questions You're Likely to Be Asked. The 12 most commonly asked Head of Year interview questions in UK secondary schools, with honest guidance on what panels are really looking for and what to avoid saying. Beyond the RAG Rating: What Actually Improves Attendance. A practical guide for Heads of Year on what improves attendance beyond RAG ratings, including early intervention, EBSA, belonging and targeted support. Looking After Yourself When Everyone Else Comes First. The HOY role is one of the most emotionally demanding in education. Here's what the data says about teacher wellbeing, what actually drains pastoral leaders, and what genuinely helps. From HOY to SLT: Planning Your Next Step. What SLT panels are actually looking for, why the HOY role makes career progression harder than it should be, and seven concrete things you can do right now to build towards senior leadership. Nobody Tells You This: What I Learned in My First Months as Head of Year. An honest, personal account of stepping into the Head of Year role for the first time, what caught me off guard, what I wish someone had said, and what every new HOY needs to hear. Building Culture, Not Just Managing Behaviour. Why managing behaviour incident by incident never moves anything, and how Heads of Year can deliberately build a year group culture where good behaviour becomes the default.