Each AHT is normally in charge of a specific area of the school, such as administration, staff appraisal, first year, sixth form, or discipline.
In some primary schools, deputy heads may be class based with some non contact time to carry out leadership or management roles.
In recent years, however, it has become usual to officially use the gender neutral term in state schools.
In state secondary schools, the second master or second mistress was usually the third most senior teacher after the head and deputy head, and in coeducational schools, there was often a second master and a second mistress, in charge of the boys and girls respectively.
In many schools, deputy head teachers still retain some teaching responsibility, but in most, their duties are increasingly managerial and pastoral.