Managing school staff

Download our report template to record all necessary details during a safeguarding investigation about a staff member. Read guidance on working with your local authority designated officer (LADO), and learn how to store investigation records.

Prepare yourself for challenging conversations with staff. Follow our tips on how to give feedback, develop questioning skills and practice active listening, so you can approach your meetings with confidence.

Understand the rules around 'rarely cover' and 'foreseeable' absence, and find answers to common questions on who can provide cover.

Make a good start as a deputy headteacher by understanding your responsibilities and getting to know your school community.

Find out how to consult staff about proposed changes at your school. Download and use our model consultation letters to invite staff to express their views on issues such as staff restructures, and changes to holiday and pay arrangements.

Download our handover checklist to help your new school business manager (SBM) settle into their role. It includes tasks and information related to finance, premises management and HR.

Make sure your staffing structure is providing value for money. Take a look at our tips and strategies for finding what cost-saving structure will work best for your school.

Whether you're thinking about setting up a shared-working arrangement or trying to get the most out of a current job share, read our top tips about how to make job sharing work in your school.

Find guidance from a school leader on how you can organise your staffing structure, and have a look at how some ‘outstanding’ schools have structured their leadership teams.

Find out how other schools are reducing workload and improving work-life balance for their staff. Use their ideas to retain great people, save on recruitment and make your school a happier place.

It’s up to you to decide whether staff can drink alcohol at social events. Take a look at some of the things to consider, and see how other schools approach this issue.

Happy learners, engaged in their own learning journey: of course, we’re talking about your staff. If you really want to recruit and retain top teachers, it’s out with traditional performance management and in with personalised development. Here, research lead and vice-principal Nimish Lad shares practical strategies to use staff development to improve pupil outcomes, and make your school somewhere top teachers want to come and love to stay.