Lack of female headteachers in secondary state schools, statistics show

Only 38 per cent of headteachers at state secondary schools in England are women, despite the majority of teachers at those schools being female, according to new research.

The Oxford Open Learning Trust researched official statistics from the Department for Education, which show that 63 per cent of all teaching staff in English state funded secondary schools are female - including headteachers.

Despite this, just 1,400 of England’s 3,700 state secondary schools and academies are headed by women.

The gender ratio for all secondary school teaching staff in England suggests that this should instead be closer to 2,330 female headteachers.

Primarystate schools, both local authority maintained and academies, have many more women at the helm with 73 per cent - though the primary school teaching workforce is 85 per cent female.

Brian Crosby, CEO of the Hope Learning Trust in York, which runs several primary and secondary schools, said: “It is a waste of our most valuable resource not to see female colleagues develop into leadership at a rate comparable with male colleagues.

“In Hope’s secondary schools we have five out of the eight senior positions held by female colleagues, but this should be mirrored across the country.”