The middle way

Middle leadership development is going local from this term. Lucie Carrington takes a closer look at the approach described as a “philosophical shift away” from traditional leadership development.

As schools reopen this term, up to 800 experienced teachers begin piloting a pioneering approach to leadership training that puts them firmly in control of their own leadership development.

This new approach to raising the level of middle leadership skills follows extensive consultation with teachers and school leaders. It enables clusters of schools to come together and create the training and development interventions that will work best for them. It moves away from the traditional, structured programme and offers a more flexible, personalised approach. The National College insists this is not a return to old-style local provision; it will continue to offer quality assurance, resources, and the support of its network to ensure that development remains rooted in best practice. However, the cluster approach could signal a new direction for school leadership development across the board. Such a radical approach has the potential to reach many thousands more school leaders.

Up to 36 clusters of schools have come forward to pilot the programme for middle leaders this year. The College has chosen middle leadership because it believes this is where there is most impact to be had. Their expertise is critical to improving the quality of teaching and learning.

Liz Moffat agrees. She is headteacher at one of the participating schools – Dowdales School, an 11-16 comprehensive school in Cumbria. “Middle leaders are absolutely key to leveraging the performance of our children,” she says. “And this scheme provides a truly exciting and inspiring challenge for my staff. It should really raise their profile as leaders."

All participants will be following a common curriculum that includes, for example, personal effectiveness, managing teams, leading change and working with other agencies. In addition each participant will be expected to complete a leadership challenge project and to maintain a learning journal that highlights their development across the year.

However it will be up to individual clusters to determine how and when they deliver different aspects of the curriculum. It will inevitably involve a large degree of on-the-job learning. This is critical not just because is one of the strongest forms of learning but because the next generation of middle leaders have said that this is how they prefer to learn.

The pilot clusters involve anything from two to eighteen schools with each school nominating up to three participants. Each will have access to one or two facilitators who will help deliver training. Facilitators will be trained and can apply to be licensed by the National College. Grants of £5,000 per cluster will help schools contribute to the pilot.

Many of the clusters are the result of existing partnerships such as soft and hard federations. Some are local authority groupings and some have been set up from scratch. Liz Moffatt’s cluster in Furness brings together urban and rural schools and includes local FE and sixth form colleges. With its expanded remit in mind, the National College is also working with two multiagency clusters to explore how the approach might be extended to middle leaders from, for example, health and social services.

David Crossley, executive headteacher at Wildern Comprehensive School in Southampton, has been working as a consultant on the pilot. He believes the cluster model is the way forward for schools. "It’s the 21st century way of delivering leadership and represents a philosophical shift away from a traditional programme," he says.

A big advantage in the National College’s approach is that schools are in the driving seat: they can choose what schools they work with and the development methods that are best for them. For example, it is up to the schools and teachers involved to determine the challenge projects participants will undertake. These could be cluster-wide projects or relevant to a particular school. "Teachers participating will be expected to take charge of their own learning and development," David says.

Ultimately, the success of the cluster approach will be determined by whether or not it helps raise standards of teaching and learning. Admittedly, a year isn’t a long time to make a connection between inputs and outputs, but the National College will begin evaluating the project immediately. Initially, this will be based on feedback from individual schools and participating leaders. Ultimately the National College is planning to collect evidence through a range of different sources that the programme is improving the quality of middle leadership and this is enhancing pupil progress.

"We have to be able to show a clear, demonstrable impact on schools and students," David Crossley says.

Liz Moffat had no doubt that she should be involved. Dowdales School became a Leadership Partner School at the beginning of this year and sees involvement in middle-leader activity as crucial to its strategy to raise leadership standards. In addition, enabling more experienced staff to take part in a nationally recognised development programme should enhance recruitment and retention.

"Leadership in schools is about ensuring that your team is the best it can be and so enabling children to be the best they can be,” Liz Moffatt says. “We will know it has been successful if at the end of the pilot participants understand clearly what their role and responsibilities are in raising the quality of teaching and learning and the achievement of our children."

Next steps:

• Around the clusters
• Middle Leadership Development Programme