Getting Started

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.

You'll feel more alone than you are When I first stepped into the role, I genuinely thought I was navigating something nobody else quite understood.

That the specific chaos of my school, my year group, my team was uniquely mine.

It took a while to realise that the colleague in the office next to mine — Head of a different year group — was dealing with almost identical situations.

Same parental complaints.

Same tutor dynamics.

Same Friday afternoon energy.

The moment I started leaning on their experience rather than pretending I had it all figured out, everything got easier.

Other Heads of Year in your school are one of your greatest resources.

Whether you're completely new to the role or transferring from somewhere similar — there will be things you don't know.

That's not a reflection of your suitability.

It's a reflection of the job's genuine complexity.

Everything gets sent to you — learn to push some back Once you have "Head of Year" next to your name, an extraordinary volume of things begins to land on your desk.

Some of it is genuinely yours.

Much of it isn't.

Subject teachers who want you to "have a word" about attitude in Science.

Parents contacting you about a friendship fallout that happened on a Saturday, in a park you've never been to.

Colleagues who've worked out you'll always answer.

In the beginning I thought absorbing all of it was the right thing to do.