Raised in Walsall in the Black Country, Rowley comes from \u201cvery working-class stock\u201d. Her parents left school at 14 without academic qualifications. She attended the local comprehensive school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her education journey \u201cwas almost like a blind discovery experience, because I had no one with experience to tell me what to expect\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She had friends who would \u201ctruant for days and days on end, and now nobody seemed to wonder where they were\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was a very difficult school, and you were very much going against the grain if you were someone who was interested in learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd I don’t know biologically what went on in my brain, but I was interested in learning,\u201d she jokes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think for me, school was full of adults that seemed to know about a different world from the world that I knew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey knew about books I’d never heard of. They travelled to other countries, which I hadn’t, and they seemed to have a lot of enthusiasm for the things that they’d experienced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018I enjoyed that there was a place to go that was full of energy\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd I think I enjoyed the fact there was a place to go to that was really positive and full of energy, and I came away with more knowledge in my head.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rowley developed a passion for sciences, and went on to study chemistry at the University of Manchester. She eventually did a PhD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI was just enjoying the learning experience,\u201d she says. \u201cThis is back in the day, of course, of maintenance grants. I often wonder, what would I have done now? I definitely wouldn’t have done a PhD.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rowley eventually decided the life of a researcher wasn\u2019t \u201cthe kind of lifestyle I wanted\u201d so trained to be a teacher, taught chemistry, and took on leadership roles when the opportunity arose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ASCL\u2019s presidency is usually held by a headteacher or, especially in recent years, an academy trust CEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rowley has used her presidency to champion those in other leadership roles, and believes a more positive message about teaching and leadership is needed nationally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI’m an optimistic person at heart, and I go into school not expecting it to be bad,\u201d she says. \u201cI go into school looking forward to it, and without any shadow of a doubt, every day there’s something wonderful that happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cChildren are wonderful people who say the most bizarre things and bring the most interesting stories in. And I think there’s a collegiality amongst teachers, because it is a challenging job that brings reward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “When I’m in school, I do love that family feeling that you get from working with your colleagues. And I think we all have a role to play and actually selling the positives of the profession.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Rowley says she encourages younger colleagues to pursue leadership roles, urging them to \u201clook at all the good things you can do\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLook at all those children over there that have benefited because of a decision that you’ve made that has allowed them to access something that they maybe couldn’t access before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe need to promote those positives, because it’s easy to jump on a negative.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But other incentives are needed. She notes a \u201clot of the profession\u201d is female, while teaching \u201cdoes, by and large, require an adult in a specific classroom with 30 children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd so the hybrid working or working from home or altering what days you work has historically not been in place in education, but it certainly is coming through.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She actively encourages flexible working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs a school leader, I encourage that. Those people give you far more back as a consequence of that decision than if you just blanket say no, because historically, that’s not what we do in our profession.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But challenges in teaching and leadership are many and wide-ranging. Rowley\u2019s school is in Staffordshire, one of the f40 group of council areas where schools receive the lowest amount of funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Part of that is due to demography. Inner-city schools attract more funding because of high levels of disadvantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI’m under no illusion about the challenges my colleagues face and yes, there are schools that definitely, to get those children through the doors, sat down and to learn something and have something meaningful for education takes more money.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the \u201cbig issue is there’s just not enough money in the pot\u201d, she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGenerally the pot is very small, and if you just keep shuffling the financial deck chairs within that pot, then we’re still not really going to solve that disadvantage problem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The government\u2019s schools white paper will shake up deprivation funding for schools, to focus on family income rather than free school meals eligibility. Rowley welcomes the review, but says she\u2019ll need to \u201clook at it in more detail\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She describes the white paper more broadly as \u201cvery ambitious\u201d and it reads like many of ASCL\u2019s concerns about the system have been listened to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She acknowledges that describing the system of support for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities as \u201cbroken\u201d is a \u201cwell-worn phrase\u201d, but action is needed because the system \u201cjust isn\u2019t working\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe need to do something differently, primarily for the children and their families, but also for the adults that work with those children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo adult walks into school saying \u2018I don’t want to help that child\u2019, or \u2018I don’t care that you’re struggling with X, Y and Z\u2019. But the reality is, we don’t have the resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo we’re effectively not helping that person, and that puts emotional pressure on the professionals at work with the children, because you go home knowing that you haven’t been able to help in the way you wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n When not in school or on ASCL business, Rowley enjoys hiking in the Lake District. She says if she hadn\u2019t been a teacher, \u201cI\u2019d have probably ended up doing something outside\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She has previously served as her school\u2019s acting headteacher. But would she ever take on a permanent headship?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don’t rule anything out. I think I’ll always be engaged in education, having dabbled with other careers as either summer jobs as a student or the PhD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat I’ve learned is that I get my buzz from education. Working with teenagers, in my case, is definitely the thing I want to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLong past the time I should have retired, I’ll probably still be doing something to do with education. Because it excites me. It always has, and I’m sure it always will.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jo Rowley never planned to be a deputy headteacher. Now she\u2019s the first deputy in decades to serve as president of her union, the Association of School and College Leaders. “I’ve always just moved on to other things because I’m interested in them, and I think I can play a valuable part in that role,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":243154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"post-theme":[3420],"class_list":["post-243342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-profiles","post-theme-profile"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/schoolsweek.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Jo-Rowley-yand-sister-Lindsay-inset-600px.jpg\")
Love of learning<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
Optimistic outlook<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
‘Look at the good you can do’<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
Funding pot shot<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
‘We need to do something differently’<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Future plans<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/schoolsweek.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Jo-Rowley-with-dog-lucy-inset-600px.jpg\")