Executive Leadership

What exactly does a National Leader of Education do?

Amanda Godfrey explains the role of an NLE and the challenges they are confronted with when heads get into difficulties.

Headship is a varied and difficult job and the training and preparation for it can be equally varied. NLEs (National Leaders of Education) are available to provide additional support and capacity to those heads that find themselves in challenging circumstances at particular points in their career. They work directly with heads in a mentoring role, but also provide additional practical help and support at an exact moment in time.

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      string(380) "... for School LeadershipThere was also evidence that collaborative leadership strategies, in partnership with other schools, weredeveloping. While one-half (51 per cent) of middle/senior leader respondents reported that their school hadno plans to share leadership responsibilities with a partner or across a family of schools, exactly one-thirdwere already ..."
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      string(5658) "categorised by Ofsted as ‘satisfactory’ or ‘unsatisfactory’ were less likely toanswer that teachers had been encouraged to contribute to school leadership ‘in the last 12 months’.69 © National College for School LeadershipThere was also evidence that collaborative leadership strategies, in partnership with other schools, weredeveloping. While one-half (51 per cent) of middle/senior leader respondents reported that their school hadno plans to share leadership responsibilities with a partner or across a family of schools, exactly one-thirdwere already doing so (including 18 per cent for more than a year). Further, while 81 per cent had no currentplans to develop an executive head and head of school model, 9 per cent were already doing so (6 per centfor more than a year). This mirrors the existence of executive headship within the sample discussed above.In Table 5.4, the figures in brackets are taken from the headteacher survey and are discussed in more detailin chapter 6. There is a broad similarity in responses across the two surveys, although it should be borne inmind that the headteachers and middle/senior leaders were not necessarily from the same schools.Table 5.4: Information about leadership strategies (senior leaders)To what extent has yourschool used the followingstrategies on leadership?We havebeen doingthis for a yearor more%Yes in thelast 12months%Plan to do soin the next 12months%No currentplans to doso%No response%Widened SLT membership 44 (23) 25 (22) 5 (12) 24 (40) 3 (2)Built a flatter less hierarchicalleadership structure and ethos36 (38) 22 (23) 6 (8) 31 (28) 4 (3)Encouraged and enabledteachers to contribute toschool leadership50 (52) 32 (37) 5 (5) 11 (1) 2 (1)Shared specific leadershipresponsibilities with a partneror across a family of schools18 (14) 15 (14) 12 (16) 51 (55) 4 (1)Developed an executive headand head of school model6 (5) 3 (1) 4 (3) 81 (88) 6 (2)N = 769Note: From a series of single-response itemsThe percentages in this table are weighted by school type, size and student FSM eligibility.Percentages in brackets are from the headteacher survey.Due to rounding, percentages may not sum to 100.Source: NFER and IOE leadership survey for the National College, 2012Interview and case study participants commonly described how building a culture that supports leadershipat all levels and sharing a vision for doing this was an important part of the role of the headteacher. Seniorleaders often reported that they needed to continue to develop shared responsibility and accountability foroutcomes among all staff. The need to develop the ability of colleagues to cope with uncertainty and changein a shifting climate was also reported.70 © National College for School LeadershipOn specifically middle leadership, differences emerged between primary and secondary schools. Withinprimary schools, headteachers referred to the successful sharing of leadership roles across the school andthe willingness of all staff to take on additional responsibility even where there was no formal recognition ofthis in terms of pay or status. Commonly, the majority of teachers had subject co-ordination responsibilities.Where primary schools were too small for middle leadership to be applicable as a ‘layer’ of leadership, allteachers with teaching and learning responsibility (TLR) points were usually included within the SLT. Overall,leadership in primary schools was nearly always considered by the headteacher to be good and developingat all levels, with the main area identified for development relating to the roles of support staff.In secondary schools, a mixed picture was more frequently reported. Concerns about middle leadershipwere usually reported about heads of department (or faculty), including for the core subjects of English,mathematics and science. Headteachers referred to a number of strategies for monitoring and improvingmiddle leadership. These included deploying:— line management, for example with senior leaders monitoring closely student progress and the impactof interventions in a specific department— performance management, including formal or informal capability measures and individual improvementplans— mini-inspections of subject areas, conducted by internal or external colleagues— leadership development programmes, such as those from the National College, were often run locally ina partnership arrangement or in-house— support from other schools, for example with the head of department from another school supportingdirectly the respective subject leader— restructuring, for instance in one case using an AST to lead teaching and learning in a core subject areawith an SLT member leading departmental managementCase study 2: Senior and middle leadershipA mixed 11-18 Church of England (CoE) school had been judged by Ofsted to be ‘outstanding’ in allinspection categories in 2006, a judgement confirmed by an interim assessment in 2010. The schoolshad a very low proportion of students eligible for FSM and converted to academy status in 2011.The SLT structure was described by the headteacher as being fairly conservative but flexible andincluded: a deputy head responsible for learning and the curriculum; a deputy head responsible forpastoral care; an assistant head of 14-19; an assistant head of Key Stage 3; an assistant head ofassessment, CPD and teaching school bid lead; a personnel director (personnel and plant); a financialdirector (newly appointed on academy conversion); an AST with responsibility for pedagogy ‘in-reach’and professional tutor for NQTs and"
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Leadership

Review of the school leadership landscape

6 Jul 2017

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      string(5618) "The Youth Sport Trust (YST) hold a passionate belief in the power of sport and physical activity to improve all young people’s well-being, leadership skills and achievement. Not only is there a strong body of medical research linking physical activity to increased physical and mental well-being in children, there is now a fast growing evidence base citing sport as an effective developer of leadership and  employability skills. Indeed, research from Sheffield Hallam University estimates that household earnings for both non graduates and graduates who play sport (compared to those who don’t) can be higher by up to £7k per annum. When you add that up over a lifetime it reinforces how important it is to get all our young people healthy, active and involved.In light of this, the YST’s ‘Sporting Chance’ strategy has had a very clear focus on raising funding to deliver solutions to schools and youth practitioners, in order to equip them to make their PE and sport offers more inclusive for all students. This couldn’t be timelier as the evidence shows that there is work to be done… Currently;Young people with SEND take part in sport less than their peers,  with only half managing to take part in sport just once a week84% of disabled students would like to do more sport when compared with their non-disabled peers – suggesting that they do not currently have the opportunities to do enough63% of people with disabilities feel they have fewer opportunities to volunteer in sport compared to their non-disabled peers – and therefore less opportunity to demonstrate the ‘social action’ work that employers valueThe Youth Sport Trust Inclusion Schools networkIn response to some of these issues, and as part of its Sporting Chance strategy, the YST have established a network of 60 expert ‘Inclusion schools’ that reach across all counties in England. 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We know that young people with intellectual difficulties face particular challenges in their lives:82% of young people in the UK with an intellectual/ learning difficulty are bullied56% of children with intellectual (learning) disabilities have cried due to bullying1Play Unified does exactly what its title indicates. It uses the medium of playing sport to bring together young people, with and without an intellectual disability, to challenge perceptions, tackle bullying and develop lasting friendships on and off the sports field. It does this through a number of Play Unified summits that introduce an ‘educate, motivate and activate’ approach, equipping young people themselves to drive positive social change in their schools:EducateYoung ambassadors will recognise and adopt the Play Unified vision Motivate  Young ambassadors will inspire and influence others ActivateYoung ambassadors will initiate ‘projects’ that put Play Unified into actionAn example of a school that has participated in Play Unified is YST Inclusion School Arbour Vale Sports College in Berkshire. Through their young people they have brought together nine other schools to play unified basketball. Young people of similar playing ability, with and without intellectual disabilities, train and compete on the same team. As a result 90 students have received high quality joint coaching and are competing on a regular basis in a meaningful sporting competition, while developing greater awareness and appreciation of one another. Alongside this there is a nominated team of Young Ambassadors creating and championing change in their schools focussed on respect and inclusion for those with intellectual disabilities. Karen Erikson, Director of PE at Arbour Vale said: “Play Unified is a great vehicle for developing inclusion through sport, enabling young people from"
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Inclusion

Increasing participation in PE and sport for students with SEND

20 Jun 2017

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      string(5680) "You might think that a union strongly advocating a merger with a competitor twice its size is not unlike a turkey voting for Christmas. Its says something about Mary Bousted, the leader of the Association of teachers and Lecturers which is seeking to amalgamate with the mighty NUT, that if the vote is yes she will become joint general secretary of the new mega-union and one of the most powerful people in education.It’s a brave venture which has been mooted for some time, and has been slowly inching forward over two years of detailed, painstaking negotiations. One more month will call it, and she is quietly confident that the membership will back her.  The way previous governments have, she says, rode roughshod over the profession in the last decade and engendered what she calls a ‘multi-level crisis’ within the profession will, she is sure,  prompt a call for unity and resistance.But won’t ATL members, seemingly much less militant than those of the NUT, be worried that the distinctive culture of the union will be lost? ‘The majority of members in the NUT and the ATL have much more in common than divides us,’ she responds.“I think amalgamation speaks more exactly to what will be happening. The  two unions, if the members vote ‘Yes’, will become a new union – The National Education Union – and that will have a broad membership. School leaders, college management, teachers, FE lecturers, school support staff, a large independent school membership will change the composition of the NUT – so it will legitimately be a new union.”The fact that she will be joint general secretary of the organisation is, she says, an important sign that the ethos of the ATL will remain alive. Competition between the unions tends to increase their difference but the policies of the NUT and ATL are remarkably similar, she asserts.  Nor is it the case, she adds, that the ATL (as is often supposed) is a non-strike union. Its members take industrial action, always as last resort – when they have to defend their job or when they simply can’t work under the conditions imposed on them any longer.Indeed, although the NUT tends to grab the industrial action headlines, local industrial action by ATL members is surprisingly common around the country. Given that the union has problems maintaining a strong school rep presence it speaks volumes about the responsiveness of the union hierarchy to its members and their own ethos of solidarity.This responsiveness has been one of her main achievements since she was given the post after responding to an advert in the Guardian in 2003. She had no previous experience of executive responsibilities within a union, having spent the previous 12 years lecturing in education departments, ending up as the head of the Education Department at Kingston University. In this her appointment was remarkably similar to that of Geoff Barton’s – a non-bureaucrat outsider with a mission to change the way things are done.When she got the job the union was losing membership and influence, and she swept away the fossilized system of committees and the outdated concentration on minutes and matters arising, towards getting things done and including members as much as possible in the policy-making process of the union.It has grown in membership since then, albeit not by huge amounts, but enough to play a very strong hand in the amalgamation negotiations. With the constant danger of being squeezed by the two giants, the NUT and NAS/UWT, this has been no small achievement.The new industrial landscape, where the power to strike has been further curtailed and requires unions to find new ways to make their voices felt, will undoubtedly favour Mary Bousted’s style of operation within the new union. She likes to use research, well rounded policy papers and thought-out alternatives to press her case for reform. After the years of darkness with Gove and Morgan, she now feels that Justine Greening is much more willing to listen to the profession. It’s an ideal time to get together with the NUT and create a bigger voice. “Size does matter!”She is proudest of the way she has challenged the credibility of Ofsted for the huge stresses it has put on teachers, using authoritative research as her battering ram.“Workload stress is definitely the biggest issue facing teachers, and it’s caused in my view by an accountability system that is capricious, lacks consistency, doesn’t look at the right things and has driven workload through the roof – and I include Ofsted in this. “Now you are not thought to be teaching properly or leading effectively unless it is evidenced and written down. Less than half of teachers have more than 10 years experience and there is a massive spike of teachers leaving after 5 years. Teachers’ working lives are becoming impossible!’Wilshaw, the former head of Ofsted, was a disaster for education, she believes:“I am not a Wilshaw fan. I think, to his credit, that he was unafraid to express something clearly to government when he believed it, such as the public letter on MATs and how many are under-performing and their huge cost.“But he resisted Ofsted becoming more research and evidence led, refused to really accommodate the issues of schools in disadvantaged areas, and had encouraged a very counter-productive command and control notion of leadership in schools.“The Education Policy Institute, founded by David Laws, did some research on Ofsted which revealed that schools in affluent areas could see their value added scores fall"
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Leadership

SLT 8.1 Trends - Size does matter.

20 Jun 2017

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      string(5644) "65www.teachingtimes.com n Vol 3.3AcademiesLeadership DilemmasSchool Leadership TodayIt has always struck me as odd that the best teachers arepromoted out of the classroom. Isn’t it counterintuitivethat we nurture teaching talent, find the mostinspirational and creative role models and then promotethem into administrative, management roles?My passion has always been teaching. Since I joinedDurand as a Newly Qualified Teacher 23 years ago, there hasbeen nothing more rewarding for me than seeing childrencome through the school gates – often at risk of fallingbehind, with English as their second language – and besupported to flourish into ambitious, eager learners. Everyyear we are privileged to teach hundreds of children fromdisadvantaged backgrounds to read, write and achieve overand above national average standards.Yet teaching doesn’t come naturally to everyone and it isa fact that some people just aren’t suited to it. So this is whywe need to ensure that our best teachers – who have the mostimportant job of inspiring and teaching the next generation– are kept in the classroom, doing what they do best.Academy status:It allowed us toteach again!One of the major benefits of becoming an academy is cutting theLA red tape, says Head teacher, Mark McLaughlinReaders will understand why it became frustrating forme when, as Head teacher of a primary school of over 900children, the paperwork, guidance processes and hoopsthat we had to jump through got so extensive that findingtime in the school day to teach became untenable over thelast five years. With statutory requirements, non-statutoryrequirements, consultations, surveys and guidelines inadvance of a million words a year, Head teachers couldn’tsee the classroom for the paper trails.Although Durand is a large organisation, I’m sure thatwe were in no way unique in experiencing this burden ofbureaucracy. We just wanted to get on and teach – and thatis exactly what Academy status has allowed us to do.By putting faith in schools and teachers through theAcademy programme, the Government have removed localauthority safety nets that bred dependency and reducedthe red tape that flooded our timetables. The Governmenteffectively have said, ‘we trust you, be free and flourish’.For us this has been a breath of fresh air. With the focus66 Vol 3.3 n www.teachingtimes.comAcademies Leadership Dilemmasshifted from box ticking to delivery, myself and the seniormanagement team have been able to create space in ourworking week to do what we know is the most importantthing – teach.Teacher LeaderAs Head teacher, I now see myself as our ‘Teacher Leader’,teaching two days a week to ensure that I not only set anexample to the children as a senior role model, but also toset a standard for other members of staff to follow. I operatean open door policy for colleagues to come and observeme teaching, and have willingly signed up to cameras beinginstalled into my classroom, so that we can start to maketraining videos that capture good practice. This time last year,before becoming an Academy, this simply wasn’t feasible.Effective school management, of course, remains acritical part of my role and is assessed just as thoroughlyas it ever was. This is done through a range of measures,including independent assessments that we commissionannually, through Ofsted’s early warning system and mostimportantly, on a daily basis, by the parents at the schoolgate and on our waiting list, who trust us to deliver for theirchildren.It will come as no surprise after my introduction thattaking the decision to convert for us was always a simpleone and was the logical next stage in our journey ofdevelopment. We had already been a Grant Maintainedschool before becoming a Foundation School, soindependent thinking was a part of our DNA. In the past,this meant that we were often isolated and considereddifferent – but this is something that we are proud of. Wehave never believed that a ‘one size fits all’ approach worksin education, but rather, that individual schools shouldhave the independence to identify their own needs anddetermine how best to meet them.Schools are all so different in their set-ups, intakes,surroundings and requirements that a generic approachis both ineffective and inefficient. Giving greaterautonomy to schools not only gives them more freedomto be independent and innovative, but also allows themto allocate resources where they see fit to best benefittheir school, the education it provides and the futureopportunities that it offers.Immeasurable potentialThe potential that this has given us for our future isimmeasurable. We are now in the process of expandingour primary school into an All-Through Academy for 3-18year olds, which will include the UK’s first secondary stateboarding school that will not cost parents a penny.The children will stay on at our newly-createdmiddle school on our main school site in Stockwelluntil they are thirteen, blurring the lines betweenprimary and secondary school, before movingonto our boarding element at Year 9. It has beenwidely recognised that the upheaval of movingschools, making new friends and fitting into newsurroundings leads to drift or ‘lost years’ in terms ofacademic progress. We believe that maintainingconsistency in teaching and learning at this crucialstage will be hugely beneficial for our intake, whocurrently go on to attend over 20 different secondaryschools both within and beyond the Borough.We will use the flexibility of the Academymodel, to take that approach forward into theboarding school"
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Leadership

Academy status: It allowed us to teach again!

2 Nov 2011