When do you know it is time to move on?

When I was working as head of physics and key stage 4 coordinator at my previous school I felt that I wasn't far away from being able to tackle an assistant head position. I took a head of faculty post and now I feel that I am miles from the assistant head teacher role.

I wonder why that is?

I reflect and in all likelihood it is due to how immersed I am in the challenges of my own department, and we have a lot to develop, as well as the culture of the school. In my current school the culture is not one where we are encouraged to covet the jobs of those above us, instead it is one where we try and do the job we have well.

I responded to another blog post about developing young leaders within the school and said that I have seen the leadership development scheme destabilise the school by undermining the management as those being developed believe they should have the jobs of those at the top. I fell into that trap myself as a developing leader.

It is an interesting balance between developing the future leaders an ensuring that people are not stepping on the toes of those above them.

However, at the root of why I am not considering my move to the next position is that I am loving being involved in science education, I am embracing the challenges and opportunities that my school is presenting and that an assistant head teacher position just isn't that attractive to me.