Deputy Headteacher (DOS) exam mistakes to avoid

Updated 17 September 2026 · 3 min read

Candidates for this post are experienced teachers, so the marks they lose rarely come from ignorance. They come from answering as a frustrated colleague rather than as a school leader, or from reading a scenario too quickly. These are the patterns that cost marks most often.

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Reaching for punishment first

When a scenario describes a teacher who has not prepared schemes of work or has missed lessons, options that report, warn or discipline immediately are tempting. Except in serious cases, the expected answer is to find out why, agree support and follow it up, escalating only if the problem continues. Leadership questions reward improvement over sanction.

Acting without evidence

Answers that decide what is wrong before gathering information are usually distractors. If results have fallen or a parent complains, the correct first step is nearly always to look: at the results, the exercise books, the observation records or the register. Choose the option that establishes the facts.

Bypassing the headteacher or the structures

A deputy works within a structure. Options that act alone on matters belonging to the headteacher, or that skip heads of department, are usually wrong even when the action itself is sensible. Look for the answer that follows the school's line of responsibility.

Confusing assessment terms

Formative, summative and diagnostic assessment appear constantly, and mixing them up leads directly to wrong answers. Formative guides teaching as it happens, summative judges achievement at the end, and diagnostic establishes a starting point. Learn them precisely, along with the difference between reliability and validity in a test. Read the question twice wherever two of these words appear in the same sentence.

Forgetting the learner in the answer

Some options solve an administrative problem while leaving learners worse off, such as removing lessons to free time for a meeting. Ask what each option does for the learners in the classroom, and prefer the one that protects their learning.

Treating observation as inspection

Options that describe arriving unannounced, filling in a form and leaving are weaker than those that agree the focus beforehand, observe against it, and discuss it afterwards. The purpose of observation in these questions is improvement rather than judgement, and answers that treat a lesson visit as a compliance exercise miss what the post exists to do.

Reading only the first line of a scenario

These questions carry detail: how long a problem has continued, what has already been tried, who is involved. Candidates who skim answer a simpler question than the one asked. Read to the end, and note any step the scenario says has already been taken.

Questions where these mistakes cost marks

Which of the following would you not value as the benefit of engaging stakeholders in the school activities?
1. Challenges can be identified and addressed more easily when schools, parents and the local community work together
2. Stakeholders provide greater cooperation and support when they know what is happening in school without necessarily being part of the decision-making process
3. Parents and other members of the wider community can help the school build up their resources for teaching and learning
4. All benefits in A, B, & C are correct
Show the answer
B. Stakeholders provide greater cooperation and support when they know what is happening in school without necessarily being part of the decision-making process
A describes informing stakeholders while deliberately keeping them out of decisions, which is the opposite of engagement. B and C are genuine benefits of it.
Real past-paper question; the source had no key, so the answer was reasoned from the question. Open this question
After a lesson observation, you will tell the teacher that to increase the learners' motivation, s/he should use the following strategies ...
1. Give a descriptive feedback
2. All strategies in A, B & C
3. Empathize and build
4. Remember the learner's identity
Show the answer
B. All strategies in A, B & C
Empathy, recognising the learner as an individual and descriptive rather than evaluative feedback all raise motivation, and they work together rather than in competition.
Real past-paper question; the source had no key, so the answer was reasoned from the question. Open this question
A school community member in charge of catering for psychological, emotional and social needs of the learner is ...
1. Class teacher
2. School head teacher
3. Educational counsellor
4. Deputy head teacher in charge of studies
Show the answer
C. Educational counsellor
The educational counsellor holds specific responsibility for learners' psychological, emotional and social welfare. The other roles carry it only incidentally.
Real past-paper question; the source had no key, so the answer was reasoned from the question. Open this question

Common questions

How do I prepare for judgement questions?

Practise with real scenarios and explain your choice in one sentence based on learning, fairness or process. Discuss the harder ones with an experienced deputy or headteacher.

Do the marks differ between questions?

In the real paper for this post, the questions carry different weights within a total of 100 marks, so pace yourself and give the heavier questions the thought they deserve.

More Deputy Headteacher (DOS) guides

The same guide for related positions

Headteacher exam mistakes to avoid