Svetlana, This is a.more interesting question than you may realise. This is a question that involves: ~ class ~ politics ~ language trends ~ history Let's do a survey: 1. Eton College (royal foundation and royal patronage, alma mater of Prince William, his brother and a great number of his cousins and relatives, boys only, upper class, private fee-paying) Headmaster 2. Wycombe Abbey (upper crust, very exclusive, brainy, girls only, private fee-paying) Headmistress 3. Phillips Academy (upper class, academic elite, exclusive, private fee-paying, the closest that the USA has to Eton) Head of School (in the UK, a head of school means something different: a head.boy or head girl, a head prefect) 4. The Michael Tippett School, Lambeth, London (government school for students with severe learning difficulties) Head Teacher Conclusion: In the UK, government schools use "Head Teacher" for political correctness. Private elite schools have retained the traditional "Headmaster" and "Headmistress". So if someone says, "We are giving a 70th birthday party at the Carlton Club for our old Headmaster", you know that he is male, rich and are likely to vote Conservative, if he is not himself already a member of the Conservative Cabinet or indeed the Prime Minister. This is a very emotional and divisive subject in the UK (private schools, not birthday parties). You asked a very interesting question indeed.

P.S. In the United States, the most common word is "principal" because a) 75% of the schools here are public schools, and b) many or most of the private schools are "parochial schools" operated by the Roman Catholic Church, and I think they use the term "principal"--our local parochial school does.

My own experience in the UK is that it is 'Head teacher'. Gendered titles are now generally rare, so you aren't likely to see Headmaster and Headmistress often. Although, it was still the case in my school only 20 years ago that the head teacher was 'Headmistress'. As for spelling, I would actually naturally have written 'Headteacher,' but I see that, in reality, it is more commonly split into two words.

Yes, to address the "common" in the question, here is the statistics. 93% of British pupils from 3 to 18 years of age go to state-funded schools. So "Head Teacher" is the most common form. Svetlana will have realised, however, that getting to grips with the issues is more important than relying on a Benthamite criterion of "the largest number" when learning English. One issue is that the parents of the 7% of the population that go to private schools control considerably more than 7% of the wealth and policy making powers of the country. The much discussed question is whether these schools are designed to perpetuate this state of affairs, and if so, is that a good or a bad thing? For the advanced English learner, one extra piece of information is vital. Pupils at these private schools all end up speaking with an accent that is extremely close to Received Pronunciation, or beyond (on the traditional accent-defined social class scale). The "professional alliance" of these private schools is indeed called the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. http://www.hmc.org.uk/ Everyone in the UK has a view on these aspects of education, income distribution and politics. This is what the intelligent advanced learner of the title "Head Teacher" needs to understand.

There is no difference - it's simply a question of where the school is and which era you are talking about. In the UK, we usually say 'Head teacher' or simply 'Head' nowadays. It doesn't matter whether you write 'Head teacher' as one word or two. Headmaster is always a man. This term, along with it equivalent female term headmistress, is rather outdated. As with all professional titles, we tend to avoid gender-specific terms these days. Principal (with a c) is used in US schools.