Melissa Hipkins has a vision. She sees a time coming when teaching and non-teaching staff will work in partnership to lead schools, in a harmony untroubled by prejudice about which members of the leadership team have QTS.

As assistant head at Lawrence Sheriff School in Rugby, she has already seen that partnership in action, but she looks forward to the day when enough SBMs have achieved headship to make it routine:

I’m breaking down the barriers, clearing a path. There’s a lot of prejudice now, but a time will come when SBMs are being appointed to headship in droves. It will become normal.

Asked about the prejudice which she has encountered, she is unmoved: “To be a head you have to have thick skin.” Following a recent interview with the Times Educational Supplement, some teaching staff responded negatively to the idea of a non-teaching head, but Melissa feels that any fear or distrust is misplaced:

Teaching staff shouldn’t feel threatened, because we complement their skills. Together we have the potential to make a very strong partnership, as we do here.

Melissa began at Lawrence Sheriff as a parent governor. She was also chair of the PTA, and an LEA governor for another school. When the post of Bursar and Clerk to the Governors was advertised in 1995, she applied and was appointed. She says now that those who appointed her “could not have anticipated how this role has developed.”

In Melissa’s opinion, change at all levels has driven the emerging role of the SBM as a route to headship. Since her appointment, Melissa’s role has reflected these changes. She was appointed to the Senior Management Team, and was in the right place to take advantage of the opportunities created by workforce reform.

As Bursar, Melissa had a large financial portfolio, and responsibility for several capital projects, some with multi-million pound budgets. Under her direction, the school have upgraded their sports facilities, and built a new sixth form centre and a learning resource centre. As a result, she says that “the governors have confidence in my ability to lead on very significant governance projects.”

Melissa had already introduced performance management for all of the non-teaching staff at school, and as her role expanded, she broadened that to include all of the teaching staff as well. Under her leadership, the school gained Investor in People status. Melissa is a strong believer in parity between all staff:

I interview the cleaners and midday assistants annually, because I believe that they are a very important component of our team.

And for Melissa, it is all about teamwork:

The strength of our school is in our teamwork, not in teachers and non-teachers, us and them. Teamwork is how we drive the school towards excellence, improving educational standards for the young people at the school.

Melissa is warm in her appreciation of the confidence and support which the governors and her head have given. Her head, Peter Kent, wholeheartedly supported her application for NPQH training.

During the NPQH residential, Melissa found that, compared to the others on the course, she had far more experience in every other area of school leadership, except for the teaching and learning. If she becomes a head, this is something she would deal with by teamwork:

You have to prove yourself. I line manage teachers, and have been doing some teaching and learning, but it is very much a partnership. As a head, I would have to work with a teaching and learning director.

Since NPQH, the head and deputy head at Lawrence Sheriff have been appointed to head up another school for two and a half days each week, so Melissa and the other assistant head are now operating as heads for half the week. She says that “the experience of NPQH has been invaluable.”

Asked about her plans for the future, Melissa is uncertain. She says that the negative publicity about the first non-teaching head has muddied the waters, but if she doesn’t become a head herself, she is sure that another academically experienced non-teaching head will be appointed soon. Like many SBMs, she recognises the fundamental mistake made in bringing in a non-teaching head without academic experience:

The dynamics of a school are complex and specific. Parachuting in a head with no experience of an academic environment was naïve.

The prejudice which surrounds the issue of non-teaching heads generally comes from teaching staff who have not yet worked alongside an experienced and able SBM. Melissa explains:

I am a very active member of our senior leadership team. Our success comes from understanding one another’s roles, and being prepared to cover for each other at a moment’s notice. If a speaker doesn’t turn up to take assembly, you just step in – and that happened last Friday!

SBMs are now routinely on senior leadership teams. The obvious progression of their career path is into deputy headship and headship roles, working within the partnership that Melissa outlines. One of the issues to be dealt with is the issue of remuneration for heads who come via a non-teaching route: pay structures need to be amended to reflect the changing nature of routes into headship.

Using the skills and strengths of all staff, teaching and non-teaching, at every level of school leadership can only improve schools. Melissa’s vision of the future is all about achieving excellence for students:

In the end, the students are what we’re here for. We have to give them the best life skills, and a clear strategic plan and a great structure will help us to do that.