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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, writes Steve Munby.

Great school leadership doesn’t come just from the headteacher, despite the impression given by the media on an almost daily basis.

We know that leadership is at its best and most effective when it is distributed amongst a number of talented individuals according to their skills and expertise.

It’s the deputy and assistant heads, heads of department and coordinators heading up areas such as business management or special educational needs who are just as vital to school improvement.

We’ve been strong promoters of this view for many years. Indeed, some years ago the National College adopted a phrase to describe those energetic and committed leaders, operating below headteacher level, who play a critical role in driving improvement and raising standards in our schools.

We called them “the engine rooms of school improvement”, a neat phrase which is just as relevant today.

When I visit really great schools, more often than not, I meet heads who are quick to recognise these key individuals on their leadership team and highlight how critical they have been to their school’s success. And increasingly I also hear how these leaders are working beyond their schools, with others, to achieve improvement.

One example of this approach are those senior and middle leaders working in national support schools as part of the National College’s National Leaders of Education Programme. Each one of these draws on their leadership teams – the deputies, the assistants, the curriculum specialists – to form a potent force for turning around struggling schools. It’s a compelling picture of senior and middle leaders playing a critical part in improving more children’s lives and closing the achievement gap.

I was delighted that last year’s Schools White Paper recognised the achievements and great potential of these talented leaders with the creation of the specialist leader of education (SLE) role. This role will give even more senior and middle leaders the opportunity to support improvement in other schools.

SLEs will bring a diverse range of skills and expertise. They may be a head of a curriculum stream, a head of teaching and learning, an expert in behaviour or a school business manager.

But the one common feature they will share is that they will be highly accomplished leaders of what they do and they will have a strong track record in coaching and bringing on others. They will also have the capacity and commitment to support leaders in other schools to achieve improvement.

These leaders will play a very significant role in school improvement and our aim is for the first 1,000 SLEs to be designated over the next 12 months. We hope to have up to 5,000 SLEs to be in operation by 2015, working alongside a network of 500 teaching schools.

The new teaching schools – which also start operating in September – will be key to the delivery of the SLE programme. They will designate SLEs, using criteria developed by the National College, and help schools find the SLE that is right for them. They will do this by maintaining a directory of expertise, which schools can consult to find the experts to help them with their particular challenge.

It is important to stress that SLEs won’t need to come from an outstanding school and could be drawn from any school working in a teaching school alliance.

SLEs will provide leadership expertise and will be able to bring together all the great work that classroom specialists have been doing in schools, acting as a leadership link between the classroom and the leadership team.

Leaders now have an unprecedented opportunity to take the reins of school-to-school improvement. We will only succeed if we continue to recognise the potential of our talented senior and middle leaders and ensure they have a frontline role that will, ultimately, benefit most schools.

It’s time to properly realise the power of our very own engine rooms of improvement.

Steve Munby is chief executive of the National College. For further information about teaching schools, SLEs and the College’s role in leadership development and school improvement, visit our SLE page. There you will also find details about the proposed SLE criteria and details on the proposed directory of expertise, listing the key SLE skill areas.