A mentoring network for female teachers to become headteachers has been created by the Leading Women’s Alliance.
The Leading Women’s Alliance recently held a Women into Headship Summit at The Mulberry School, where the announcement was made.
The Leading Women’s Alliance is currently made up of Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), the Future Leaders Trust, the UCL Institute of Education, #WomenEd, Mulberry School for Girls, Hackney Teaching Schools Alliance and City of London Academy Islington.
The mentoring network has been launched to encourage more female teachers to consider roles as heads after Future Leaders Trust release figures showing that despite 74% of teachers being female, only 65% of headteacher positions are held by women.
Carol Jones, leadership specialist at the ASCL and chair of the Leading Women’s Alliance, was reported at the event by the Times Education Supplement (TES) as saying: “We have set up a database for people wanting mentoring and coaching and lots of women, serving school leaders, have also contacted me saying ‘how can I help?’”
“A lot of deputies want to know how women heads have managed their work/life balance and what attitudes they encounter. They want to talk to serving women heads about those issues.”
Reportedly Sian Carr, executive principal of the Skinners’ Kent Academy and Skinners’ Kent Primary School, told the conference that talent spotting should be “the norm in schools” and that “once spotted, mentoring and coaching should be a right, so that colleagues understand the pathways to headship and feel supported.”
Natasha Boyce, assistant principal of Tudor Grange Samworth Academy in Leicester, said mentoring and coaching is “essential” and that teachers need a “critical friend” for support.
