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Headteacher exam mistakes to avoid

Updated 17 September 2026 · 3 min read

Candidates for headship are experienced educators, so lost marks rarely come from ignorance. They come from answering as a busy teacher rather than as an accountable leader: solving the problem personally, moving before establishing facts, or taking a shortcut that a head cannot take. These are the patterns to watch for.

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Doing it yourself

A head who covers the lesson, chases the parent and repairs the roof personally has stopped leading. Questions often offer one option where the head acts alone and another where the head assigns, supports and follows up. The second is usually correct, unless the matter is one only the head can decide.

Acting before establishing the facts

Options that discipline a teacher, rebuke a learner or answer a parent before anyone checks what happened are distractors, however reasonable they sound. The expected first step is almost always to establish the facts from records, observation or the people involved.

Bending a rule for a good reason

Scenarios are written so that breaking a procurement rule, spending a grant on something urgent, or admitting a learner outside the process would genuinely help someone. A head cannot. Choose the answer that meets the need through the correct route, even when it is slower.

Forgetting the learners in a management question

Staffing, finance and timetable questions are ultimately about teaching time. Where two options are both administratively sound, prefer the one that protects lessons and learner welfare.

Ignoring the record

Heads are accountable, and accountability rests on documentation: minutes, observation notes, support plans, financial records. Options that resolve a matter without any record are weaker than those that resolve it and write it down.

Answering as the deputy you used to be

Most candidates have led part of a school, and the habit shows: they choose the option a good deputy would take, which is often to handle the matter personally and report it upward. A head has nobody to report it upward to. When two options differ only in who carries the decision, ask whether this is a matter the head must own, and choose accordingly.

Committing what the school cannot fund

Scenarios about buildings, materials or staffing often include an option that spends money the school has not got, or that assumes a grant will arrive. Heads are accountable for what they commit. The expected answer plans within the resources available, seeks approval or funding through the proper route, and is honest with parents and staff about what has to wait.

Treating the district as an obstacle

Some options work around the sector or district rather than with them. Reporting honestly, seeking guidance and acting on inspection findings are expected of a head, and questions reward candidates who use that relationship rather than avoid it.

Questions where these mistakes cost marks

  1. The following are the competences that a school leader should have for effective implementation of the competence-based curriculum. Indicate one of them that is the one odd out.

    1. Recognize and promote effective classroom teaching strategies
    2. Enhance artificial and horizontal alignment of subjects in curriculum implementation
    3. Lead and manage change and act as a change agent lead and manage change
    4. Design and implement a monitoring and evaluation system
    Show the answer

    B. Enhance artificial and horizontal alignment of subjects in curriculum implementation

    Curriculum alignment is vertical and horizontal. 'Artificial' alignment is not a concept in curriculum design, which makes C the odd one out.

    Real past-paper question; the source had no key, so the answer was reasoned from the question. Open this question

  2. Leadership can be denoted by the following:

    1. Dominance-descendance
    2. Dominance- forced support
    3. Dominance- following
    4. Dominance- repression
    Show the answer

    C. Dominance- following

    Leadership is a relationship in which influence is met with willing followership. Repression and forced support describe coercion, which is not leadership.

    Real past-paper question; the source had no key, so the answer was reasoned from the question. Open this question

  3. Q41.E. Which of the following piece of advice would you suggest for the effectiveness of the next training?

    1. Teachers should be sensitized about the relevance of continuous professional development
    2. The deputy head teacher should organize academic trainings himself as it one of one amongst her duties
    3. Teachers who are competent and skilful enough should not be obliged to attend the trainings.
    4. The school head teacher should not be involved in the next trainings
    Show the answer

    A. Teachers should be sensitized about the relevance of continuous professional development

    The session failed because staff did not see why it mattered. Sensitising teachers to the purpose of continuous professional development addresses that; excluding the head teacher or exempting able teachers would make it worse.

    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 if I have never been a head?

Use scenarios and discuss them with a serving head. Explaining your reasoning aloud exposes shortcuts you did not notice you were taking.

If two answers both seem right, how do I choose?

Ask which one establishes facts first, which follows procedure, and which protects learning. An option that does all three is the answer.

More Headteacher guides

The same guide for related positions