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Overview
Secondary school head teachers lead schools for older pupils and keep teaching aligned with curriculum standards. They manage staff, work with department heads, evaluate subject teachers and connect school activity with local communities and public requirements.
In job descriptions, look for curriculum leadership, staff supervision, department coordination, teacher evaluation, school budget, student safety, government-funded programmes, vocational school context and parent meetings.
Explore this occupation
Open in Job ExplorerWork context
The work is centred on secondary school leadership: curriculum delivery, department coordination, teacher evaluation, student safety and contact with local communities. The role often balances academic results with staff management and wider school requirements.
Skills and specializations
Strong roles mention curriculum standards, department heads, subject teachers, education programme evaluation, public programmes and school budget. Compared with primary leadership, vacancies often place more weight on subject departments, adolescent pupils and vocational pathways.
Salary context
Salary context is linked to school size, number of departments, staff responsibility, budget scope and accountability for academic outcomes. A role including vocational programmes or local authority cooperation may carry broader responsibility.
Career paths
Experience can grow from subject teaching, department leadership, pastoral leadership, deputy head work or programme evaluation. Later steps may include executive headship, education administration, school improvement, inspection preparation or multi-school leadership.
Good to know
Check whether a vacancy is for lower secondary, upper secondary or vocational education. Look for the scale of department leadership, teacher evaluation, public programme management, parent contact and cooperation with local authorities.
Editorial note
This guide is editorial career context. It is not official labour-market statistics or role-specific salary data.
Map overview
Click the map to search for secondary school head teacher jobs.
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O*NET relationships
See occupations connected to this ESCO occupation in the official O*NET–ESCO mapping. The relationship type comes from the source and is not a ranking or recommendation.
O*NET relationships: 1
Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary
11-9032.00
O*NET occupation is broader
The O*NET occupation covers a broader field of work than this ESCO occupation.
Open in O*NETSource and method
These relationships come from the official European Commission O*NET–ESCO crosswalk.
Relationship direction: O*NET occupation to ESCO occupation.
Several O*NET occupations can point to the same ESCO occupation, and one O*NET occupation can point to several ESCO occupations.
AltoTrail preserves the source relationship type. The order is technical and does not show which occupation is best, most relevant or recommended.
AltoTrail validates and presents the source relationships without adding ranking or recommendation semantics.
Alternative labels
Occupation group
headteacher (1345.1)
Source facts
| ESCO URI | http://data.europa.eu/esco/occupation/53db8c0d-7aed-47aa-a339-eb9d485d25dc |
|---|---|
| ESCO code | 1345.1.8 |
| ISCO group | 1345 |
| Concept type | Occupation |