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        • Role of the headteacher

Role of the headteacher

Headteachers are pivotal to the success and development of middle leaders. Below are a number of quotes from the headteachers involved in the primary middle leaders project about how they feel about the role of a middle leader and what they have done to support them.

"One of the things that has driven me over the last few years is the idea of distributed leadership. Our middle leaders are at the stage where they are able to leave their teams, which function well without them, in order to join the deputy head and myself in management planning and development planning every week. The structure enables that regular communication between us."
Mary Watts, Appleton Primary School

"Our middle leaders are absolutely at the heart of everything that we do in this school, because they drive the vision of the school. I mean they are energetic, they’re enthusiastic, they’re the people that are every day helping us to make sure that what we’re saying is happening is happening. I can’t imagine running a school now without a group of people like them, always there, keen to be involved, and coming up with initiatives.

I support the middle leaders with time. It’s not a difficult thing to do, because they’re such interesting, enjoyable and exciting people to work with. So we do spend quite a lot of time thinking about whole-school issues together. We actively encourage middle leaders to go out to meet other situations, to do anything that comes through the door that they think will feed their own personal, professional development."
Pip Bridge, Boxgrove Primary School

"The middle leader is, to me, is absolutely instrumental in putting the rhetoric of the values into reality. They are the people that will drive the change forward. They will make improvement happen, and will be part of the vision, they will understand it and will have a passion behind it as well. I have very, very skilled middle leaders in this school, who understand the practicalities of day-to-day classroom teaching, who know what it is to have values and vision and how to translate that into learning for children and for colleagues.

I aim to support anyone with a leadership role in this school, by being observant to what they’re doing, being able to check in a supportive way that they’re on track and have all the necessary support that they need, be that people, money or time. I hope I empower people and I do that by trying to stand back a little bit and not get too heavily involved in their area of expertise."
Laura Wynne, Argyle Primary School

"I think first and foremost it is a commitment to learning and to high standards. They have high standards and high expectations. And, secondly, it’s having the willingness to participate and want to be part of that improvement. There’s always something we can get better and there is a skill in creating that ethos where people are actually willing to have and receive constructive feedback.

Some of the ways we support middle leaders would include mentoring, setting priorities and working with the school leadership team. They’re given time to set up their team meetings in order to support colleagues in terms of monitoring work. Anyone new to any post in school gets a mentor, somebody who is more experienced or well experienced in that post, to help take them through that role."
Peter Maunders, Oldway Primary School

"The biggest difference middle leaders make in this school is that they directly influence what happens with children, and children’s achievement within school, more than any other. This is because they are the leaders that can influence what’s happening within classrooms and with individual children, and provide a real link within a wider community with home and school.

I’m very excited by a quote that I heard from John West-Burnham: 'Really effective leaders need to be hero-makers rather than heroes because they are the people who make things happen in school'. The strength in my leadership is something else I’ve heard - that they feel that they’ve done it all on their own. So we’ve got to create an atmosphere within school that we all feel that we’re effective but at the same time we feel that we’re supporting and being supported by others within the school."
Geoff Mawson, Birley Spa Community Primary School

View a transcript of this video.