Secure Your First Leadership Role – Preparing for Senior Leadership

The interview panel is weighing you up, but you should be weighing the school up too. The right SLT post fits your strengths and what the team is missing, and it's worth holding out for.

A former headteacher and trust director of education shares how to find that role and make your case. You'll work out honestly why you want to lead, research schools before you apply, and pair each strength with a recent example and each weakness with what you're doing about it. You'll also look at four qualities effective leaders share (energy, enthusiasm, hope and kindness) and turn your values into a leadership vision you can explain at interview.

He once withdrew from a deputy headship he'd applied for mainly for the money, so the advice to apply only for jobs you want comes from experience.