Lydia Ridding, English Subject Advisor

As subject advisors, we often speak with newly promoted Heads of English about the daunting and exciting task that is taking on the running of a busy department. In this blog I’ll share some some tips and ideas on things to consider in the first days, weeks and months of the academic year

Results day

Depending on how things operate in your school or college, you may be working on results days for GCSE and A Level students. Hopefully, you’ll be spending much of the time congratulating your students on their successes! You may also be required to conduct some analysis of your department’s results. We can recommend Active Results, our free online results analysis service to help you review exam performance. It’s available for all GCSEs, AS and A Levels and Cambridge Nationals.

Before the start of term: timetables, books, rooms and names

Week one is very much about the practical side of organising the department. Take time to check that all teachers have accurate timetables and are happy with rooming. If you haven’t already done so, make sure you arrange a 1:1 meeting with everyone in the team. Give your colleagues the opportunity to share views and opinions about the running of the department and listen to any concerns they may have. 

If you have ECTs in the team it will help to spend a bit of extra time with them to go over any questions or issues they have. Your school or college will no doubt have a programme for supporting new teachers too, and this activity should be prioritised if the first year is to go smoothly. The day or two before students arrive for the start of term can feel like a mad dash to get everything in order, so befriend support staff who will help you with making sure the right equipment and resources are in place.

English department meetings

There will probably already be time allotted to departmental meetings in the school or college calendar, but if not, make sure you book them in. They should be regular, include everyone (think about part-time staff) and not run over time. Be confident enough to ‘park’ discussions until the next meeting so that staff get to go home at a sensible time. 

It can be helpful to have a focus for each session, although depending on the size of your department, a formal agenda might not be necessary for every meeting. In September, you will want to set the tone for the year ahead; agree some overall aims for the team, but not more strict targets for people to feel judged by.

Play to the strengths of the experts in your team

One experienced HoD recently told me her plan was to encourage everyone in the department to research and read some potential new KS3 texts for next year. She has a suggested deadline of the Easter holidays but will be flexible about it too. This kind of team effort on a curriculum task tends to play to English teachers’ strengths and has the added benefit of making everyone feel included in set text choices. If you think you’d like to explore some new options, why not have a look at our diverse texts page for some inspiration? 

The end of September (once classes have settled and the rhythm of the working week is established) can be an excellent time to ask everyone in the department to pitch in and take responsibility for something fun. Perhaps running a student poetry or creative writing competition, planning a class trip to the theatre or working with the school librarian to update the fiction offerings for your KS4 students. The list goes on.

Week one: establish good working practices

Anyone who has ever been a teacher knows just how hectic the start of term – and the whole of autumn – can be. It’s worth setting some working practices that will enable you and your team to stay strong in the term and year ahead. 

It’s really important that you look after your physical and mental wellbeing, so right from the start of the year, decide what you are going to prioritise and stick to it. Perhaps you will have an agreement that at least once a week nobody works during a lunchbreak. Designate free time during the working week to spend chatting to colleagues. If workload is becoming an issue, devise supportive strategies you can implement to lighten the burden. Is marking overwhelming everyone? Perhaps you could find ways to streamline – peer marking, departmental feedback sheets and staggering of assignments can be helpful.

Looking ahead

Make sure you have a communal calendar for the department on the office or staffroom wall. Get together as a team and look at where the ‘crunch points’ might be in terms of multiple marking deadlines at once and see what could be done to avoid any problems. It’s also a good idea to ask everyone to think about what kind of subject-specific training they would like in the year ahead. 

Have a look at our professional development events and ask colleagues to sign up, then plot in time on the calendar to share information and updates. If staff are happy to mark their birthdays on the calendar as well, this can be a nice way to create a friendly atmosphere with a shared coffee and cake at breaktime.

Heads-up for the spring

If you teach one of our A Level specifications, you will need to submit texts and tasks proposals to us by 31 January , ahead of the NEA submission in May.

Remember – you can’t do everything in the first day, week or month

Taking on the role of Head of Department can feel like a huge responsibility. It is! The demands of the job don’t mean that you need to take everything on yourself though. Even if your team is relatively inexperienced, everyone has strengths and skills to bring to the job. If you spend time listening to subject specialist colleagues and valuing their opinions, you will be supported by them. 

We wish you the best of luck in your first year as Head of Department. Remember to get in touch with your subject advisors at OCR if you need any help or guidance.

Stay connected

If you have any other questions you can leave comments below, or email us at English@ocr.org.uk. You can also sign up to receive email updates or follow us on X (formerly Twitter) @OCR_English.

About the author

Prior to joining OCR in June 2023, Lydia spent 20 years working in a range of sixth form colleges across the country, teaching A Level and GCSE qualifications in English. She was a coursework moderator with OCR for a number of years and has an MA in Victorian Studies from Birkbeck University.