What Makes a Great Middle Leader (and How You Can Become One)

What makes a great middle leader?

Laura encourages all the aspiring leaders on her courses to cultivate some key skills and qualities. As the executive layer of school management, middle leaders will spend much of their time removing obstacles to senior leaders’ strategies and fixing snags. This requires a sense of critical enquiry, an appetite for challenge and a systematic approach to problem solving.

A middle leader is typically given control over a subject, a year group or the school’s Special Needs coordination. With this power comes the responsibility to accurately monitor progress (and address its lack, if necessary). In this sense, an effective middle leader will be both a data analyst and a people manager, often in the same morning.

In Laura’s telling, building up these capabilities allow middle leaders to embody the ‘vital leadership behaviours’ of self-awareness, integrity, respect and a commitment to continual improvement. These are the traits that bring about positive, school-wide change. 

Do teachers need to change schools to get promoted to middle leadership?

As we reported in February 2022, more than half of teachers with leadership ambitions do not feel they have any scope for progression in their current posts. To break this stasis, teachers are increasingly keen to move on – almost 50% would move to a local school in special measures if offered a suitable promotion.

While a move to another school is always a big choice, Laura does not seek to dissuade teachers thinking of upping sticks for better opportunities. ‘This is a really nuanced area and very much depends on the context of the school and the teachers looking to secure a promotion’.

A teacher’s decision to switch schools should be partly informed by the senior leadership culture and the extent to which the top tier of management recognize the importance of middle leaders. ‘Middle leadership is a key function in all schools. Where it is working effectively, it is because senior leaders see the opportunity that middle leadership can offer the school, its pupils and leaders themselves’. 

How can new middle leaders adjust to their workloads?

Middle leaders have many plates to spin. Monitoring pupil progress, liaising with SLTs, developing more junior members of staff and good, old fashioned classroom teaching – life as a middle leader can feel like a relentless raft of tasks.

While some teachers will take to this maelstrom of new responsibilities like a duck to water, others will understandably find it harder to adjust. For Laura, it all comes down to prudent prioritising. ‘The key to successful middle leadership is maintaining focus on what is going to support pupils’.

While a new middle leader will undoubtedly encounter more tasks than they can handle at once, not all of them are created equal in their urgency or their impact on the people who matter most – the pupils. As Laura puts it, ‘when leaders can discern between these tasks and suss out what is going to support pupils, the rest can follow’. 

How does being a middle leader benefit teachers?

While some teachers are content to devote themselves to classroom teaching, many educators see reaching a managerial position as an important career milestone. Climbing the ranks isn’t just good for a teacher’s longer-term prospects; it can be an extremely enriching experience in itself.

Laura is keen to stress the holistic benefits of middle leadership. ‘What’s great about it is being involved in a variety of aspects of school life, as well as classroom practice. This could be in the form of supporting parents and carers, involvement with governors, implementing change projects and a whole lot more.’

This deep immersion in how their school runs will help middle leaders understand more about their own teaching styles and pedagogical philosophies. 

How can middle leaders avoid being moved back down the ranks?

Reaching a mid-level position is no guarantee of further progression. A major study in 2019 found that middle leaders were four times more likely to be demoted to classroom teachers than to move up to a senior position. This is partly due to schools’ use of temporary contracts at leadership level, and partly due to what Laura calls the ‘fluid’ nature of school structures ‘as they respond to staff turnover, to pupils’ changing needs and national or international approaches and requirements to education’.

Whatever its cause, this stat is unlikely to offer much solace to educators with one eye on their career development. But recently promoted middle leaders need not feel demoralised. Educators can decrease their likelihood of demotion through outstanding performance.

Laura nominates ‘adaptability, resilience and flexibility with the school development plan’ as the most important behavioural buffers against the threat of demotion. ‘Aspiring senior leaders [should be] well-briefed and experienced in implementing effective change. When this is displayed in conjunction with the skills and behaviours cited earlier, middle leaders will be noticed’.

Above all, leaders lead. Whether you’re a classroom teacher looking to reach the next rung of the teaching profession or a current middle leader looking to stay in your post, you should take every opportunity to demonstrate your initiative and acumen. Your comfort zone is the last place you want to be. 

How Teaching Personnel can help you reach your career goals

As the UK’s leading educational recruitment agency, Teaching Personnel works with thousands of teachers each year. Our specialist consultants can offer guidance on your career development, whether that’s through upskilling your way to a promotion at your current school or finding a new position elsewhere.

Our partners at Best Practice Network are offering accredited NPQ programmes, starting this autumn and funded by the DfE, that will help you make your ambitions real.  

Whatever path you take, Teaching Personnel will be here to offer advice, job opportunities and professional development. All you need to do is get in touch.