A Year in Review - Part 1

It is almost a year to the day since my career as a headteacher came to an end. After seventeen years in senior leadership, including twelve years as head of a primary school, I felt that I had done my time. To be honest, like many other leaders I knew, I was feeling completely burned out by the events of the last few years, so I needed a complete break for a while before seeking a fresh challenge to inspire me.

Luckily, I finished in the middle of the cricket season, which meant I had ample opportunities to spend time in my happy place, watching the team I have supported for over forty years. The timing also worked well for a week in the sun, although that was tinged with sadness and the thought that financial restrictions might curtail my love of travel for a while, at least.

By September, I was ready to consider my next steps. On reflection, I was not entirely ready, but after thirty years in teaching, the school calendar had become part of my DNA, so it was easier to go with a September restart than to fight it.

I definitely wasn't ready to retire just yet, so I needed to consider whether I could apply my skills in another context, or whether I had become so institutionalised by my career that I had no use outside of the classroom. I did wonder whether the universe was telling me to give up, though, when I spent a gift voucher that I explained to the till operator was a leaving gift from work and was met with the question, "Oh, was it a retirement present?"

As you would expect, I had been spending a considerable amount of time reflecting on what prompted me to decide to leave teaching over the summer. I knew that I was not alone and that senior leaders were leaving the profession in droves, so my mission soon became clear. I would write a book for new headteachers, to give them the support I didn't have when I started my career, and hopefully help them extend their careers beyond the point where mine ended.

I am not entirely comfortable seeing this written down on the page in front of me now, at least not without some further explanation. I always felt that I could write; my degree in English Literature certainly suggested this, and I had always enjoyed making the most of the writing opportunities that came with being a head teacher. I used to joke, in fact, that I wrote better than I spoke, and I usually received good feedback from colleagues. Therefore, combining my years of teaching experience with the potential to string a few sentences together seemed a good place to start. Adding a pinch of sadness that burnout had ended my career a few years before I had hoped, the plan was clear. So, on a Monday morning in September 2024, I sat down at my desk and started to write.