Warwickshire Primary Heads Conference Leadership for the Future

1
Warwickshire Primary Heads Conference
Leadership for the Future
Sian Carr Operational Director Stakeholders and
Networks, NCSL 9th February 2009
2
Future Leadership Roles
From Victorian 21st Century
3
Leadership in a time of change
4
The Childrens Plan vision

• The 21st century school is a school that
• provides an excellent education andactively
  contributes to all aspects of a childs life
• engages and listens to parents...
• looks beyond the pupils on its roll, and works in
  partnership with other schools to ensure
  education in the local area is as good as it can
  be.
• plays a central role in the wider community,
  opening its facilities for the benefit of
  families and others
• (is) an active partner in planning and delivery
  arrangements under Childrens Trusts, helping to
  define the priorities for their local area, and
  agreeing how the whole pattern of local services
  best fits together to meet need.
• The Childrens Plan, DCSF, 2007

5
Strategic leadership sustainable leadership
It is a dual approach really how to get
the staff to give the best deal possible to the
kids today, but to get them to rethink the way it
might be a different deal in the
future! Headteacher in Leading the
Strategically Focussed School Success and
Sustainability, Brent Davies, 2006 Without
strategic leadershipthe urgent drives out the
important the future goes largely unexplored
and the capacity to act, rather than the
capacity to think and imagine, becomes the sole
measure for leadership. Hamel and Prahalad,
Competing for the Future, 1994
6
School Leadership today

• We have the best ever generation of school
  leadersbut the context is continually changing
• The demands on school leaders have increased
  significantly since LMS, straining leadership
  capacity, but so has their autonomy and ability
  to make a difference
• There are skills gaps in some areas
• Recruitment difficulties are already hitting and
  succession planning is a priority
• Schools are exploring a range of alternative
  models of leadership, but the key message is that
  one size will not fit all
• Findings from PwC and other key sources

7
Independent Review of School Leadership

• Evidence suggests many school leaders are too
  involved in operational and delivery matters and
  that this has been, to some extent, at the
  expense of embracing their more strategic
  imperatives.
• Longing for that mythical period of calm and
  stability is to misunderstand the nature of the
  world and of leadership.

"Independent study into school leadership" 1/07
www.dfes.gov.uk/research or www.teachernet.gov.u
k/publications ref RR818A 
8
Three themes for future leadership

• Leadership for Personalised Learning and User
  Centred Leadership
• Models of School Leadership
• Change Leadership

9
Alternative models of leadership are emerging

• co-headships
• executive heads
• leadership of federations
• community leadership
• multi-agency leaders
• academies, trusts
• system leaders leading beyond own school.

10
Key influences on pupilsThe task of school
leaders is to mobilise the key resources
available to secure better outcomes for children
parental engagement
barriers to learning wider outcomes
teaching and learning
11
Narrowing the gap making a reality of ECM and
Extended Schools
The schools with the most effective services
had integrated the development of extended
provision within their school improvement plans,
with a clear focus on improving positive outcomes
for children and young people.
Source Ofsted quoted in How Well are They
Doing? The Impact of Childrens Centres and
Extended Schools, 2008
12
Narrowing the gap 8 high leverage leadership
actions
ECM Premium Project, University of Cambridge,
NCSL, 2008
13

• 8 schools in the town, 1 Secondary and 7 Primary
  - with a history of informal collaboration

14

• Town services deal with every school individually

15

• The L.A. sees the town as the administrative
  unit, but the schools as discrete delivery units

16

• The Secondary school agrees to act as ECM
  mobilser - and lead whole town shared ECM
  provision

17

• Services and Service leaders invited to
  participate in a single service distributed
  campus

18

• A new leadership team is appointed to manage the
  ECM provision

19

• Set up joint governance through a shared
  committee of delegated members from all the
  schools

20

• The Local Authority engages directly with the
  joint governance group as a new entity

21

• New entity pools budgets, makes new
  appointments, has intervention authority, shared
  accountability, cross-service CPD, develop a
  Family Support Strategy etc

22
New Sure Start Centre

• 2 of the Primary schools making plans to
  establish a Sure Start childrens centre,
  governed by ECM group

23
There are just 4 considerations for most
partnerships

• Defining the Partnership
• Kinds of shared provision
• Form and location of leadership
• Boundaries and form of governance

24
and two other determinants

• Shared purpose and vision the drivers
• Defining the Partnership
• Kind of shared provision
• Form and location of leadership
• Boundaries and form of governance
• Relationships and alliances beyond the
  partnership

25
Or, in other words

• Why are we doing this..?
• Whos in / whos out - whos close by..?
• What will we do together..?
• Whos in charge..?
• Who keeps their eye on it..?
• Where can we go now..?

26
(No Transcript)
27
(No Transcript)
28
Leadership for the future
Some priorities Encourage the best school
leaders to support the rest within and across
schools. Develop collaboration with
accountability at local and national
level. Further equip school leaders to focus on
leadership for learning. Develop models of
leadership that lead outward and which engage
parents and the community. Embed leadership
development within schools and develop a more
coherent approach to leadership development for
childrens services. Use the demographic
challenge as an opportunity to transform school
leadership.