Winning teams
Headship is developing rapidly, responding to an educational landscape that is changing at a national and local level.
The resources below can give you ideas about how to shape your headship to respond to these changes, so that when you are appointed to the role you can develop a winning team.
Distributed leadership
Simply put, distributed leadership means shared leadership. So instead of a school having one heroic leader or a super-team, leadership is distributed to people at all levels. This means that more people share the vision and goals of the school and can work with the headteacher to deliver them.
NCSL resources on distributed leadership
Read about the role of distributed leadership in maintaining a healthy work-life balance: A life in the day of a headteacher
School business managers
A school business manager (SBM) is a senior member of the non-teaching staff responsible for managing non-teaching activity in a school.
Recent research has found that a skilled SBM can save up to a third of a headteacher’s time.
To find out more about school business managers, contact an NCSL regional advocate.
Learn more about the benefits of school business managers.
Read about the role of school business managers in distributed leadership.
Models of leadership
Some schools have altered their leadership and governance structure to meet the needs of students, staff and the wider community. Find more information about models of leadership.
The different models of leadership – which include federations and jobshares – can offer opportunities for aspiring heads.
Federations
Becoming a head of teaching and learning in a federation could provide an aspiring head with the whole-school experience they need to progress to headship. This is explored in the NCSL Research Associate report, Can federations help stars to come out?
You can watch or download a keynote address by Vicky Folkes, an aspiring leader in the Federation of Abbey Schools, Darlington, to hear her experience of the opportunities for career development in a federation.
Co-headship or jobshare
In co-headship, the role of headteacher is shared between more than one person. Where two people share the role, they might both work full time, each with contracts for 0.5 headteacher and 0.5 deputy; or they might both work part time, and together make up 1.0 headteacher role.
Co-headships can be attractive to aspiring heads who want to work alongside a more experienced headteacher, or for those who want to enhance their work-life balance.
Read a case study of a co-headship at Wembury primary school.
Co-headship is also explored in the NCSL Research Associate report, Keep your head.
Winning teams – feedback from the seminars
Read the feedback from the Winning teams seminars held in February 2009, with case studies and FAQs.