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  • Leading personalised learning
    • Leadership for personalised learning
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        • Making it happen

About the leadership of personalised learning

Leading personalising learning is synonymous with learning-centred leadership. This means that the focus of leadership – at school, middle and classroom levels – is on the quality of the learning experience of every learner in the school community.

The leadership of personalising learning thus involves:

• creating a learning-centred culturemodelling effective learning and enabling learning
• creating a shared language of learning
• monitoring and reviewing the learning process
• building leadership capacity and sustainability

The sections of leadership of personalising learning are:

• Culture and values
  Personalising learning will only take root if school leaders are able to secure clear values and a shared purpose. Leaders are offered a variety of ways in which this might be achieved, ranging from an emphasis on the Every Child Matters (ECM) agenda, to working to secure excellence and equity across the system and a focus upon the needs of the individual learner.
• Learning-centred leadership
  The framework helps leaders to understand how to model the behaviours that they wish their staff to follow, as well as showing the importance of dialogue and the careful monitoring of data.
• Distributed leadership
  Personalising learning involves leadership being widely available in every aspect of the school's life. One of the most powerful potential benefits of distributed leadership is to increase a sense of personal responsibility and accountability – to remove dependence on school leaders and so create a culture of interdependent learning. A number of ways are suggested to achieve this aim, including developing a team-based leadership structure and a focus on teacher and student leadership.
• Networks and partnerships
  Personalising learning involves a focus on the whole student as learner – the school cannot work in isolation from all the other partners that contribute to effective learning and educational success. The website and framework offer a range of examples of how schools can develop highly effective strategies to link with parents, community groups and a range of extended service providers.
• Leading change
  Personalising learning is more than another change; it has the potential to be a fundamental reworking of the historic pattern of schooling. It is therefore vital that school leaders use the change process as a model of best practice.

"The reason we’ve been able to do it is it isn’t just me. The reason we’ve been successful and been able to spin multiple plates is there are a lot of plate-spinners" - headteacher, Mills Hill Primary.

Leadership of personalising learning video

The video clip on this page explores the leadership strategies that are essential in making personalising learning work. The clips offer a rich combination of voices and ideas on how to lead and develop personalising learning in your school.

Making it happen: practical tools

Use these practical tools to review this topic.

Case studies

For full case studies, visit the Case studies page.

Reflective questions

Q: What are the implications of personalising learning for the vision of the school and how it is expressed through aims or mission statements?

Q: What do I need to do to ensure consistency and consensus across the school?

Q: What networks, partnerships and relationships am I developing to support the implementation of personalising learning?

Q: Am I maintaining a balance between the operational and the strategic issues involved in moving towards personalising learning?

Q: What do these issues mean in terms of the readiness (motivation and engagement) and capability (knowledge and skills) of me, the leadership team and all staff?

Q: To what extent am I modelling the principles of personalising learning in my own language and behaviours?

Q: In what ways am I supporting creative and innovative approaches to learning and teaching?

Related publications and resources

• Leadership for personalising learning framework
• Audit tools
• Learning through sharing - online networking

Leadership for personalising learning: a framework

Key components of personalising learning	Management for personalising learning	Leadership for personalising learning
Learning how to learn Assessment for learning Teaching and learning strategies Curriculum choice Mentoring and support	Minimising within-school variation Student voice and choice Information and communications technology (ICT) School systems and structures	Culture and values Learning-centred leadership Distributed leadership Networks and partnerships Leading change