Waterloo Road: Who's The Best Headteacher?

My opinion holds weight. But yours does too lol. Hopefully Kim can hold her own too.
#waterlooroad #bbc #cmdav
CMDAV talks all about Waterloo Road. StoryTimes, season reviews and soon my personal top 10 characters
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[@thecritic2746]

Michael and Vaughan were definitely not better than Jack. Jack actually cared about his staff and the kids. Michael and Vaughan were just about making themselves look good.

[@cmdav]

100% they wanted to make themselves look good especially Michael but I didn’t always agree with the way Jack was and I liked Vaughn trying to save the school

[@qk1050]

Jack didn't give a fuck about the students...

[@FurryWulfz]

@@qk1050 I mean, he did.

[@JangoUnchained98]

​@@qk1050 He did, but in an unorthodox way, which is why I think his character is great. He's easily the 2nd best head teacher behind Rachel imo.

[@theanonymouscritic1710]

Hot Take: I actually have a soft spot for Michael but maybe that’s because I like Alec Newman as an actor.

[@cazzabojangles]

1) Rachel. She's an icon, she's a legend and she is the moment, now come on now 2) Kim. I won't go into spoilers for series 11 and 12 but all round she's been a very responsible head so far and has put a lot of work in to change the school for the better WHILE listening to the students. She's lower than Rachel partly because I've had too long to idolise her and partly because her personal relationships with the students are somewhat lacking. She's generally well liked by everyone, but hasn't had the moments like Rachel and Bolton/ Denzil/ Bianka/ Lindsey/ Emily yet. 3) Jack? It's a close call, he was a bit... manic in the end (and the beginning, and the middle), but he did ultimately build Waterloo road up from the ground, got to give him that. His interogation skills? Chefs' kiss. 4) Vaughan, he was a bit narcissistic, bit too sarcastic, but didn't have as many glaring red flags as the others. His family had problems, he cheated on his wife, treated both Leo and Justin badly (ended up almost punching Justin, though I daresay he deserved it, people seem to forget that he slept with a 15 year old) and yet he is sTILL higher than Karen and Christine whoops 5) I've got to add Brian Vaisley, though we know little about him other than he had a breakdown on the roof and threw a lot of documents off the roof (not great, a lot of those were likely sensitive, like accountant things, student files etc). We know that Jack improved things after he left so things were bad, especially discipline wise. He wasn't in the right head space at the time so it's hard to rank him morally. 6) Hot take: I like Christine? But morality wise, she's in the bins- arguably she's worse than Karen but I just can not abide Karen for personal reasons. At least Christine had a reason behind her behaviour towards Connor (alcohol) and a reason for her alcohol consumption (his unwanted and forced conception), and improved a lot from seasons 8-10. She let herself get wrapped up a bit too much with Simon and Sue, but other than that, decent in the end, though more as her character as a teacher in season 10 and for most of season 9 more than anything else. 7) Nicki was a head mistress for a bit as well (literally one day, the same as George) just before Micheal left and she actually did a good job, all things considering. If she hadn't felt guilty about taking the job, maybe she could have been a decent head. If we had any other info other than the one day she was head, maybe she could be higher, but I worry that she may have gone a bit too controlling, like she did with the PRU. 8) Simon was, again, only head for an episode but he was a bit of a wet biscuit. He could have been good, if his head had been in the right place- morally, he's a bit pompus and can get a bit too ambitious, but he's arguably one of the least problematic teachers at Waterloo Road. 9) Micheal: well, he did kill his father, so morality wise, he's quite low. Also, pulls a Tom Clarkson and seems to have a crush on half the female colleges- Linda Radleigh, Sian Diamond and Christine Mulgrew and look how well they went- one tried to murder him, one was already married and one took his job after he turned out to be a bit too cold emotionally. He didn't do much exceptionally bad, but he was arguably the least hands on out of all of them, except for George, seeing as most of the time, he was arguing with Lorraine. Out of all six of the head teachers Grantly served under, he was deemed the worst, so I've got to take that into account. 10) I forgot that George Windsor was a head teacher for an episode (the same one Lula was taken by immigration) and was just somewhat terrible- his narcissism, laziness and general self righteousness was only really cut by some fairly decent dry wit. But at least he didn't protect a man who slept with a student! 11) I think Lorraine was a head mistress at some point, but I can't be sure. I'm reluctant to rank her considering it was the "Lorraine Donnegan institution of excellence", or something like that. 12) Karen.

[@theanonymouscritic1710]

Who died and made George acting headteacher? Shouldn’t Simon (Lowsley) have been given the job instead? Also, Christine chose a hell of a time to take the week off! Lula was going to be deported.

[@lostshadow7161]

​@@theanonymouscritic1710 no one died

[@thepetobsessedrainbow]

@@theanonymouscritic1710 I think it was just because he was her friend, I didn’t watch that episode but in his defence Simon didn’t seem to do all that good of a job in episode 20 either since he had to ring Christine to come and sought everything out.

[@cazzabojangles]

@@thepetobsessedrainbow Damn, I knew I forgot someone

[@JangoUnchained98]

​@@thepetobsessedrainbow they ruined Simon imo. He had great potential.

[@Foebane72]

HOW THE FUCK WAS FITZGERALD BETTER THAN RIMMER!?!?!?!?!?

[@cmdav]

I liked Vaughn a lot ahahaha

[@youngloux]

@@cmdavall the guy did was deal with one family crisis after another nothing that proves he’s a good head unlike Jack he’s the best. Cause he tried to take care of the school and pupils a lot more than Vaughan and he could deal with the trouble makers better than any head he got it into hadleigh Flynn’s head why he shouldn’t have a knife and has Lewis seddon shitting bricks and he could defo deal with pupils like earl or Kyle or traiq or Barry or Justin if he was head and expelled pupils before they got to the point where they did proper damage and if he was around as long as Tom jack would be the best character in general

[@BenBanjo87]

I agree with this almost 100% 👍 My only change would be to put Jack Rimmer above Vaughan Fitzgerald.

[@stabadaisy2]

Very late comment but kinda depends if you're basing it off likability or how good they were as head Likability wise 1. Rachel-Cuuldn't really fault her 2. Karen (always liked her)-Seemed like a really nice person. I felt bad for her when Jess kept blaming her for Bex's disappearance. 3. Jack-Always had the schools best interests at heart. 4. Christine-Once she was over the alocholism was nice 5. Kim-Always found her a bit smug, but she really cared for the kids 6.Vaughan-Took him far too long to take responsibility for what he did to his family but he did the right thing in the end. I didn't like how he treated Olga in the second part of series 10, dismissing her worries about Leo etc. 7. Michael (he just never seemed guilty about what he did to Jez when he cheated with Sian. Plus he always seemed smug and up himself. Linda was also insane but Michael did lead her on) How good they were as head 1. Rachel (obvious) 2. Vaughan (saved the school, along with Rachel the only person who never left the school due to some outside issue, wasn't forced to resign or fired etc) 3. Michael (wasn't forced to leave, but did leave due to external factors) 4. Kim (from what we've seen she's a good head) 5. Jack (was forced to resign cause he was paying parents to send their kids to the school, but he was doing it for the good of the school.) 6. Christine (Good until she was fired from being head after her relapse) 7. Karen (was fired nothing else to say. But her family before the needs of the school.)

[@ikram_248]

Jack - Is the reason why Waterloo Road is a school, risked his Career by paying privileged kids to move the School forward, good results attracts more pupils etc. Izzy’s death traumatised him and towards the end he was manic and just lost. (He’s my personal favourite) Rachel - Improved the School, behaviour with kids like Bolton etc… was well liked by the pupils, you can argue after her reign the School went downhill (as well as the overall show) Karen - was absolutely useless, her management team was all over the place, didn’t have control of the School, she spent most of her time being a Mother and neglected the School. Tbf Chris her deputy didn’t help as he was struggling towards the end to. Michael - seemed like he cared more about his image and status, not that he didn’t care about the pupils or anything, but it felt like most of his reign was transitioning the School to Scotland. Christine - was an alcoholic mother struggling to keep her family together, the pressure of the Job got to her, and her relationship with her son was up and down like Karen probably the worst Head out of the lot. Vaughan - Family issues, issues with his children, tried protecting is status, only positive thing is he fought to keep Waterloo Road open (the entire season was probably the worst in the shows history) Kim - I personally felt she was more of a social worker than a Headteacher, as brilliant as she was, she never gave me that Headteacher vibe, but one thing she did care about was the pupils, and like Rachel people found her more approachable and understanding. (Season 11 - 13 was good but I just found it too dramatic and out of touch with realism, hard to explain it really)

[@J2_Trappy_1]

Best Headteacher 1) Rachel Mason 2) Jack Rimmer 3) Christine Mulgrew 4) Karen Fisher 5) Vaughn Fitzgerald I also think that Tom Clarkson would of made a great headteacher if he had the chance

[@__.-.-]

And we cant forget nikki, simon and george they did so bad on the 1 day they were acting head 💀

[@LiamHall0308]

I agree I love Tom my favourite out of all of them was definitely the Best Deputy Head

[@cazzabojangles]

Bung Karen. Her whole bit was about how she prioritised her children above her job (and fair enough, she is a mother, but from the point of view of the parents, maybe take your job seriously) and she was not even a good mother. She was decent with Harry in the end (though maybe she could have been a bit more conscious what the stress of her failing marriage was doing to him) but let Bex and Jess walk all over her, to all three of their detriment. Her deputy slept with her daughter, one of his pupils?! And when one of the best teachers at the school at that moment, Marcus said "hey, are you dumb, why is this creepy little man still here, I can't stand for this, it's either him or me" and she chose chRIS!? For the sake of who- Marcus was a better teacher hands down, had no more experience than Chris, got on well with pupils (and wasn't being blackmailed by two of them) and dIDN'T sleep with her child!? I swear she was also the only one who was fired for how she ran the school, which would make sense seeing as it was in a damn state.

[@JangoUnchained98]

Rachel is definitely the best.

[@ahmedyusuf3573]

Rachel mason was a hero!

[@337Lht]

Ok I hope we can all agree TOM NEEDED TO BE HEADTEACHER

[@raven_canopy8195]

Frrrr he would make the best head teacher but noooo Waterloo road had to kill him off

[@337Lht]

@@raven_canopy8195 exactlyyy and we didnt even get a funeral

[@raven_canopy8195]

@@337Lht like now uknow would have been a great time for him to be head teacher bc they jus rebooted the show and he was the last OG actor

[@raven_canopy8195]

@@337Lht also didn't u think it was abit weird how most of the Kelly's ended up dead like sambuca and her brother and earl ended up in life in prison and tom dated the mum so he ended up dead 🤣😭😭😭😭

[@LiamHall0308]

I did agree Tom would have been as good as Rachel if he was head I reckon and I loved Tom my favourite out of all of them and I also thought he was the best deputy headteacher

[@TheMiz-gt5kz]

I wonder who was the hardest person in waterloo. I would have to say, between Jack and Michael, I think Tom would put up a fight, but for me, I would still say Jack and Michael are a level above

[@Foebane72]

Rachel Mason, 100%!!!

[@raven_canopy8195]

Jack Rimmer is the best in my opinion he would put anyone in there place it jus too bad he left before the Merger happened he would absolutely put Max Tyler in his place and Rachel mason coming second place

[@Nas_Allie]

Christine was a better head than Vaughn definitely

[@ezekielbertrand809]

For me it’s: 1 - Karen Fisher ❤ 2 - Christine Mulgrew 3 - Rachel Mason 4 - Jack Rimmer 5 - Michael Byrne 6 - Vaughan Fitzgerald

[@mattthesilent777RED]

How can you not have Rachel be number 1?

[@ezekielbertrand809]

@@mattthesilent777RED Rachel was nice and kind but Karen was more realistic and despite the grief always had a smile on her face. Christine, for a recovering alcoholic, handled everything like a pro. Jack was just the OG but he never seemed relaxed. Michael is complicated but as Grantly said “I have served under seven different heads and not one of them has promised so much and delivered so little.” And Vaughan just doesn’t exist

[@mattthesilent777RED]

@@ezekielbertrand809 Yeah, Vaughan didn't make it to my list. Karen only just made it, and Rachel is my number one favourite. My list includes both heads and deputies. Andrew Treneman is number 2, but he's my favourite character overall

[@ezekielbertrand809]

@@mattthesilent777RED cool I didn’t think about deputies - what order did they go in?

[@mattthesilent777RED]

@@ezekielbertrand809 Best Head/Deputy 1. Mason 2. Treneman 3. Lawson 4. Mead 5. Diamond 6. M.Byrne (I did a list featuring Michael's father) 7. Rimmer 8. Lowsley 9. Mulgrew 10. Fisher

[@calleykoenig3504]

Rachel mason 150℅

[@FurryWulfz]

Rimmer. I only rank Rachel high really because of Eddie, who was my fav teacher besides Rimmer and Tom.

[@siblingschannelyah9909]

Guntly neeeds to be there

[@337Lht]

Tom is the best one in the whole thing

[@LiamHall0308]

@@337Lht Tom was the Best Deputy Head Waterloo Road had would have been the best Headteacher out of all them by far because he was gradually climbing up and could have climbed all the way to the top

[@stuartsmith5561]

I would like to Vote for Who is the Best Head Teacher is Jack Rimmer 🗳 ✅.

[@JangoUnchained98]

I think that Vaughan was unnecessary, and Simon should've become head in series 10.

[@demi8547]

I'm halfway through s7 and I miss Rachel so much definitely my favourite!

[@cmdav]

Yeah she was definitely missed!

[@saxsan4191]

For me Best : Karen Fisher Christine Mulgrew Rachel Mason Jack Rimmer Vaughn Michel Byrne

[@cmdav]

Very interesting you're the first person to put Karen as the best!!

[@siblingschannelyah9909]

@@cmdav because she got the highest score

[@wavyhiggins5837]

Rimmer all the way

[@leecomber1062]

Best character they ever created

[@youngloux]

@@leecomber1062if he was around longer defo but cause he was around for 8 seasons Tom’s the better character but Rimmer is second and the best head defo imagine if Rimmer was dealing with max and earl instead of Rachel would have loved to see that he would have put them both in there place like Lewis seddon

[@leecomber1062]

@@youngloux I just feel he left to early into series 3, they should have given him the full series, he’s interactions with Tom was little considering it was one of the major storylines.

[@youngloux]

@@leecomber1062 yeah he left way too early he should have quit right before the fire then have Rachel come in season 4 or just have Rimmer as the head for the whole show

[@maisilva5966]

Ms Fisher

[@cmdav]

I disagree but I did enjoy season 6 a lot!

[@JangoUnchained98]

My only criticism of Karen Fisher is that her ruling as a Headmistress was far too short - and most of her story was entirely family focused. I think she was a great character but she was not utilised.

[@LiamHall0308]

I do think Michael 1 Rachel 2 Jack 3

[@charlotteparratt6104]

Jack rimmer

[@suertesamp]

Christine was the worst by far.

[@Chrissys_multi]

Christine was my favourite 😂 after she got over her drink issues in series 8 she helped her students so much ! I know she relapsed in series 9 but yk no one’s perfect like Rachel mason used to be a p and Jack rimmer did some dogleg things Karen fisher well 😂 and Michal Byrne helped his father khs so yk

[@siblingschannelyah9909]

@@Chrissys_multi what did karen fisher do

[@ethanmoodliarwalsh393]

Karen fisher is worst headteacher ever