Career Development

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.

First: it's okay not to know yet One thing worth saying plainly before anything else: you don't have to want to be in SLT.

The Head of Year role is a significant, skilled, meaningful leadership role in its own right.

There is no shame in wanting to do it well and stay in it.

Some of the best pastoral leaders I know have no interest in becoming an Assistant Head.

They're exactly where they want to be and they're brilliant at it.

That is a valid and valuable choice.

But if you do want to move on, or you're not sure yet but you're curious, the conversations in this article are worth having with yourself sooner rather than later.

Because the gap between HOY and SLT is not automatically covered by time served.

It requires deliberate action.

What SLT is actually looking for The natural pastoral pathway from Head of Year typically runs to Key Stage Lead, then Assistant Head of Pastoral.

But that's just one route.

Many Heads of Year go on to become Heads of Department or Heads of Faculty — the skills transfer across both the pastoral and academic sides of the school.

What SLT panels are consistently looking for, across both routes, is evidence that you can think beyond your year group.

A HOY who is exceptional within their own cohort is doing the job well.

A HOY who is also thinking about the wider school, contributing to whole-school systems, and taking on responsibility that sits outside the formal job description is demonstrating something different.

That something different is what gets you shortlisted.

Specifically, the things that appear most commonly in SLT job descriptions and interview feedback: Strategic thinking.

Not just solving the problems in front of you, but identifying patterns, asking why systems are producing certain outcomes, and suggesting improvements that go beyond your immediate context.