NCSL’s advice on primary leadership
In August 2007, NCSL provided advice to the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families on the key issues facing primary school leaders. This followed discussions with the primary leadership advisory group in meetings through summer 2007, and with school leaders through online discussion in NCSL in Dialogue.
We were pleased that Ed Balls’ response was positive and, importantly, that he recognised that leadership in primary schools is a challenging and complex area, and that this advice is a first step towards a more innovative strategy for primary leadership.
This advice is the start of some sustained work on developing primary leadership to meet the complex and challenging demands of securing children’s well-being and developing skills for life in the 21st century. We hope that you will engage with and support these developments, which include the following.
- Developing the role of school business management via 30 demonstration projects to trial and explore the roles of advanced school business manager and school business director. NCSL has already approved several projects in a range of settings and geographical contexts. We believe that a good school business manager can enhance a headteacher’s capacity to focus on leading learning and teaching. For example, research commissioned by NCSL from McKinsey suggests that school business managers, when deployed effectively, can save almost one third of a headteacher’s time.
- We are working with two local authorities to explore further ways of engaging school leaders and governors in discussions about different and flexible models of leadership, in keeping with our advice that no one model will fit all contexts. Underpinning this area of activity is a range of work undertaken by NCSL’s Research and Policy team relating to different models of leadership.
- Other projects, about which further information will appear soon, include peer support for newly appointed headteachers, promoting collaborative leadership around the role of extended school cluster co-ordinators, targeted support for the leadership of satisfactory or ‘coasting’ schools, and the development of primary leadership hubs.
(116kb, 16 pages)