Fundamental principles
Whole-school improvement is generated by a critical mass of leaders and teachers committed to continuing professional development, which in turn grows out of their sustained, collaborative, critically reflective practice. The following may be taken as principles to guide your efforts in promoting autonomy, participation and cooperation in individuals, teams and communities.
The most significant interfaces in education are between teachers and pupils and between leaders and teachers, though leaders’ encounters with pupils can be mutually influential.
Though teachers’ work is bound and led by laws, statutes and policies, they are responsible for how they teach their pupils. Though your work as a leader is bound and led by laws, statutes and policies, you are responsible for how you treat your colleagues and staff.
In the same way that what teachers’ achievements depend on what pupils want to achieve, what you as a leader achieve depends on what teachers want to achieve.
The more effectively your leadership shows that everyone is in the same boat, and that nobody is above or exempt from processes of continuing to learn and performance management, the more successful your school is likely to be.