Members' library

• Leading schools
  • Working in partnership
    • Promoting collaboration
      • Questions and outcomes
        • Question 1
        • Question 2
        • Question 3
        • Question 4
        • Question 5
        • Question 6
        • Question 7
        • Question 8
        • Question 9
        • Question 10

Promoting Collaboration: questions and outcomes

What have we learned about collaborative leadership of extended service provision as a result of the National College’s Promoting Collaboration project?

The project was focused on 10 enquiry questions that framed the work of the clusters and the consultants attached to them during the nine months from September 2008 to May 2009.

The enquiry questions are set out below. Click on each to see a short summary of key learning around each question. You will also find links to case studies and resources arising from the project.

Examples given in the answers are not necessarily the only examples that arose during the project. However they are examples where the question at hand, and its solution(s), formed a key and explicit feature of the work of the particular cluster(s) featured. It does not imply that clusters not mentioned in a specific example are not engaged in this aspect of collaboration.

1. What forms of collaborative leadership have provided the most effective strategic leadership of extended services?

2. How have governors been best engaged in ‘collaborative governance’ of extended school provision?

3. In what ways has collaborative leadership made more effective use of extended schools sustainability funding?

4. What value has the collaborative approach brought to the role of cluster co-ordinator?

5. What are the key success factors for making the joint-post work effectively?

6. What areas of operational leadership and management have cluster co-ordinators been able to take on in relation to the extended schools agenda?

7. What impact has the collaborative leadership and cluster co-ordinator role had on the workload of headteachers? What examples are there of reducing management burden?

8. What impact has this collaborative approach had on local decision making and the engagement of families, community and voluntary sector?

9. What would be the implications of taking this collaborative approach to a national scale?

10. What implications might there be for the training and development of leaders of schools and settings?