Career as Teacher

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Would appreciate some advice on my situation. My RO hinted to me that I should aim to be an HOD as a possible career goal. Currently I am GEO5 but am not holding any SH positions
I know that if I want to climb I will need to leave the school because the leadership here is very static.

I really like the school that I'm at, it has a pretty good leadership and staff culture which I am not sure that I can find elsewhere. So for me it's having to decide between leaving for leadership opportunities in a different school which may be worse than where I am right now. Or just staying here and accepting that I may not be able to rise despite what my RO says.

I was sort of in your shoes, doing great in school and basically my RO is taking good care of me and value the work that I was doing. Similarly for me, leadership at my previous school is quite static and I know I had to leave for better opportunities even though I love the school. One of the other HOD which I am on good terms with suggested I try HQ work. I took a leap of faith and applied to HQ and I got into a position that I wanted, spent three years in HQ doing work that is very different from teaching, got posted back to school as a SH and I got promoted to HOD. This is the path that you might consider.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I was sort of in your shoes, doing great in school and basically my RO is taking good care of me and value the work that I was doing. Similarly for me, leadership at my previous school is quite static and I know I had to leave for better opportunities even though I love the school. One of the other HOD which I am on good terms with suggested I try HQ work. I took a leap of faith and applied to HQ and I got into a position that I wanted, spent three years in HQ doing work that is very different from teaching, got posted back to school as a SH and I got promoted to HOD. This is the path that you might consider.

Were you also GEO5 when you applied for HQ?

I applied as a GEO5

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Would appreciate some advice on my situation. My RO hinted to me that I should aim to be an HOD as a possible career goal. Currently I am GEO5 but am not holding any SH positions
I know that if I want to climb I will need to leave the school because the leadership here is very static.

I really like the school that I'm at, it has a pretty good leadership and staff culture which I am not sure that I can find elsewhere. So for me it's having to decide between leaving for leadership opportunities in a different school which may be worse than where I am right now. Or just staying here and accepting that I may not be able to rise despite what my RO says.

A wise HOD once told me, if you want to climb and improve, try not to be too comfortable where you are, it will hamper your growth as you will just repeat the same comfortable things and routines you are doing.

If i were you, i will either apply to go HQ or to another school (but don’t go in as a teacher, apply for SH minimally as you are already GEO5). Can consider cross deployment as well. Need to find the opportunity. Sure the next place you go might be crap but that really depends on your luck and what good you make out of it. You can stay in your school but there will not be progression unless a new P comes in to clean house or KPs move on. Even worse your school mergers and there is even a greater abundance of KPs. Most of us are not scholars with things handed on a plate so we need to find ways out. Alternatively, just be a HOT GEO5, relax, do minimum but don’t disadvantage your kids and go and do other stuff outside

W the current climate..How long will it take for a geo3 hot to reach geo4, sia.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

W the current climate..How long will it take for a geo3 hot to reach geo4, sia.

Promotions are no longer determined by time norms, so there is no "time pressure" for an RnP panel to push a teacher for promotion. The technically correct answer to this is therefore: indefinite.

In practice, probably 6 to 8 years.

Any advice on what committee is good based in a school?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Any advice on what committee is good based in a school?

student leadership, will be involved in a lot of school events like orientation, speech day, open house

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Any advice on what committee is good based in a school?

Highly visible work. Student leadership, applied learning programme, ICT/EdTech committee (especially in light of recent edtech push), PD committee, or if your school has any acad taskforce, 21CC taskforce etc to do broad planning work together with the KPs.

[Kloip]

But student leadership can be tiring? How about less taxing committes that still are visible?