A virtual head teacher is someone appointed by the local authority to promote the educational achievement of all the children looked after by that council. Those children are on a ‘virtual’ school roll, even though they are physically spread across the schools in the borough and beyond.
The idea is that each local council employs an experienced teacher to oversee the educational progress of all children under the care of that local authority. A single school may have only one or two children in care on their registers and be unfamiliar with the issues.
The virtual headteacher will have the specialist knowledge to provide extra support to designated teachers. They also have a 'bigger picture' remit to work with all professionals in the Children's Services department of the council and with all schools in the area on initiatives to promote the education of children in care.
Sometimes the virtual headteacher will need to have tough discussions with schools who don't want to admit a child who is in care, or need to get involved when a young person is facing exclusion from school.
This is not a statutory role, but the Department for Education says that, as of July 2010, all but three local authorities in England had someone acting in this capacity, although they might have a different job title.
After they were suggested by a government white paper in 2007, virtual school heads were piloted in 11 local authorities from 2007-2009. An evaluation report shows educational outcomes for children in care in those places - Greenwich, Bournemouth, Warwickshire, Cambridgeshire, Stockport, Salford, Merton, Dudley, Medway, Walsall and Gateshead - rose, with GCSE grades being driven up in most of the pilot authorities.
The evaluation, undertaken by the School for Policy Studies at the University of Bristol, said: “Across the research participant groups it was generally perceived that the pilot virtual school heads had successfully raised the priority of educating looked after children. The research concluded that it is indeed a valuable role.”
Read our interview with Peter McNamara, head teacher of a virtual school of 360 children in the care of Salford City Council. His job is to look after the education of all the school age children in the care of the authority as if they were on one school roll, despite the fact they are actually spread over as many as 120 ‘real’ schools all over England.
Keith Morrison, the new virtual headteacher at Medway Council spoke to Community Care about his experiences. Although his 'virtual school' has 500 pupils he says he's been able to improve the way that personal education plans are written by teachers, as well as intervening in individual cases. He adds 'unless you listen to young people themselves you are missing a trick'.
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