The Sustainable School Leadership project studied how England, Scotland and Northern Ireland recruit, train and retain school leaders. In Scotland the research combined an analysis of the leadership workforce (Teacher Census, 2010–2023), a survey of 332 Scottish leaders, and in-depth interviews with 28 leaders across two contrasting localities — a diverse urban city and a coastal-rural region. The results offer a snapshot that reveals dedication and exhaustion, and a profession at a critical point.
Scotland's school system encompasses the densely populated central belt, including Edinburgh and Glasgow, through to the small islands and sparsely populated regions of the Scottish Highlands. Around 2,500 schools in total are funded, supported and held accountable by Scotland's 32 local authorities.
The two localities studied sat at opposite ends of that range: a diverse urban city grappling with poverty and rapid demographic change, and a coastal-rural region stretching from a seaside town out into isolated villages and farming communities. The fieldwork covered everything from tiny two-teacher rural primaries to large comprehensive secondaries serving complex urban communities.
Blue points are primary schools, terracotta points secondary. Where the two colours
crowd together into a dense band, that is the central belt corridor running from Glasgow to Edinburgh.
Thin scatter across the Highlands and Islands marks the small, remote schools where one headteacher
often covers every role.
Scroll to zoom, drag to pan, hover a point for the school name.
Leaders were asked to select the three to five factors they found most draining, and the three to five they found most sustaining. The key concerns in Scotland mirror those across the UK but with some distinctly Scottish flavours. Staffing issues topped the list, followed by poor work–life balance and the escalating challenges of special educational needs and inclusion. Behaviour challenges ranked far higher in Scotland than elsewhere, reflecting what headteachers described as an increasingly dysregulated post-COVID student population.
Yet despite these pressures, what sustains leaders remains powerfully relational and altruistic. Relationships with students, seeing young people succeed and grow, and collaborating with colleagues within school were the clear top factors. The moral purpose that drew people to teaching still keeps them going, even when everything else threatens to grind them down.
Asked which description best fitted their own experience of the last twelve months, Scottish headteachers painted a more challenging picture than their counterparts elsewhere in the UK. A combined 29.2% described themselves as mostly or sometimes sinking, the highest proportion across the three nations studied, against 21.9% in England and 19.1% in Northern Ireland.
Around a third of leaders in every system describe themselves as mostly surviving. But leaders in Scotland are the least likely to say they are thriving: 34.8%, compared with 44.2% in England and 42.7% in Northern Ireland.
The age profile of headteachers in Scotland has shifted significantly since 2010, with a clear movement away from older age bands toward mid-career leadership. In primary schools the proportion aged 55–59 has halved, from 30.7% in 2010 to 15.9% in 2023, while those in their early forties have increased markedly (40–44 now 21.9%, up from 12.2%).
Secondary headteachers show a similar trend but continue to skew older: in 2011 more than 70% were aged 50 or over; by 2023 that had fallen to 49.6%. The same shift appears among deputes, more sharply still — which is why the depute role matters as the pipeline into headship.
Tracking whether individuals remain in any headship post — so a move between schools counts as retention — around 15% of headteachers leave within the first year, rising to 34% after three years and roughly half by year five. After a decade, nearly four-fifths have gone.
Age is the single most significant factor. Headteachers aged 40–44 and 45–49 are the most stable groups in the workforce; beyond the early fifties, attrition accelerates dramatically, reflecting early and full retirement patterns.
The Scottish education system is proud of its coherence and its commitment to equity, but this research highlights challenges for leadership sustainability which is key to making those commitments meaningful on the ground. School leaders are spending significant proportions of their time and energy on issues of care — inclusion, wellbeing, behaviour and attendance — while the word "relentless" appeared in almost every interview.
Almost every headteacher articulated a powerful commitment to social justice and to education as a force for overcoming disadvantage. Yet this very commitment made them vulnerable: they cared too much to walk away easily, but the job demanded more than many could sustainably give. The research also highlights risks around the appetite of future generations to step up into roles that look increasingly challenging.
Only 9.9% of Scottish heads had always wanted the job. 59.0% say the aspiration emerged during their career, and 31.1% describe the route as accidental — "it just happened".
Aspiration to headship among non-heads is highest in Scotland: 39% say "yes, perhaps" or "yes, definitely", against 33.1% in England and 24% in Northern Ireland.
Women hold 77% of headteacher posts overall but only 47% in secondary (up from 31% in 2010). Ethnic minority representation remains very limited: 3.2% of primary and 4.2% of secondary heads in 2023.
The strongest drains — staffing, work–life balance, additional support needs and behaviour — are system-level levers rather than individual resilience problems.