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    • ldr summer 2011
      • New challenges for the new academies?
      • Time to harness the engine rooms of improvement
      • Business partners
      • Meet the parents
      • Don't be a data slave
      • Viewpoint: seven vital ingredients for closing the achievement gap
      • DCS leadership: time to get resourceful
      • Why blogging makes good CPD sense
      • "If you stand still you will go backwards"

ldr summer 2011

• Featured articles

• New challenges for the new academies?

  New research is pinpointing the unique challenges of leading recently converted academies and established 'sponsored' academies, while three new academy heads share their personal reflections on the conversion process in exclusive extracts from their diaries.

• Time to harness the engine rooms of improvement

  The crucial role played by deputy heads, assistant heads and middle leaders in driving school improvement will be officially recognised in an important new role which launches in September.

• Business partners

  Almost 1,200 schools have joined together in partnerships that will give them access to a professional school business manager for the first time. Richard Earle talks to leaders about the difference it has made to them.

• Meet the parents

  Parents are still a largely untapped resource that can improve your school and raise attainment. We speak to a group of leaders taking parent power to the next level.

• Other features

• Don't be a data slave

  Data will help your decision making - but be wary of its limitations. "Not all data is equal", says headteacher Chris Luck. "If school leaders rely purely on data, they will find themselves forever chasing their own tail."

• Viewpoint: seven vital ingredients for closing the achievement gap

  If leaders are to close the educational achievement gap, they need to combine a complex range of strategies and leadership behaviours, says John West-Burnham.

• Time to get resourceful

  Big changes in the organisation and delivery of children's services are prompting leaders to adopt a much more resourceful approach.

• Why blogging makes good CPD sense

  Blogging has a major role to play in the modern school leader's professional development, says headteacher and enthusiastic blogger Michael Shepherd.

• "If you stand still you will go backwards"

  Christian Cavanagh, headteacher of Debden Park High School in Essex, takes the ldr questionnaire on leadership.