School leaders are absolutely fundamental to the success of our school system and the educational outcomes of our children. However, there are lots of different views about what constitutes effective school leadership. This is partly because there are many different theoretical perspectives, but also because the work of school leaders is highly complex. Making evidence-informed ‘best bets’ about what school leaders should prioritise in their busy working lives, or which models, ideas and strategies to apply in their practice, can be tricky. Given the complexity of the work, developing and supporting school leaders is a challenging task, and one which should involve lively debate.
The What Else? What Next? What If? report opens up a welcome conversation on what’s next for school leadership and school leader development. Sharing the authors’ hope, I believe this discussion can help us integrate perspectives to build a high-quality and rich development offer for school leaders, in which the notion of ‘both/and’ replaces a simplistic conversation about ‘either/or’.
I want to set out my stall early: the National Professional Qualifications (NPQs) are of immense value to the sector. Their basis in a set of comprehensive, evidence-informed frameworks provides leaders with access to a shared body of specific, educational knowledge that is raising the bar in senior leadership discussions across the country. NPQs instil confidence in leaders to implement evidence-informed practice and are preparing them well for the next stages of their careers. This applies to those undertaking NPQs, those delivering them, and the partners and trusts we work with that report more schools are viewing the NPQ suite as a key lever of school improvement.
What’s more, the delivery model, moderate price point and universal funding (until now) has meant NPQs have achieved significant reach. This has created a multiplier effect across schools and trusts, due to the high density of teachers and leaders able to participate. This approach also democratises access, allowing more leaders to participate rather than having only one or two leaders being selected for a development opportunity by their headteacher.
Beyond NPQs: Expanding leadership development
However, NPQs can’t, don’t and shouldn’t try to do it all. The concept of an ‘NPQ+’ offer – as mentioned in the paper – that supports alumni to deepen their knowledge and implement their learning is compelling. So is the notion of a much richer ecosystem of school leadership development, through which teachers and school leaders can progress to meet their professional learning needs at all stages of their career.
A greater emphasis on attitudes, attributes and behaviours
This ecosystem can include the foundational offer provided through the NPQ suite, but it should also meet the comprehensive and holistic needs of school leaders. For instance, I’d like to see greater emphasis on developing attitudes, attributes and behaviours necessary for effective educational and institutional leadership. This is especially important considering the worrying rates of recruitment and retention, and the well-evidenced impact that school leaders have on various factors affecting staff wellbeing and retention. I absolutely agree that we should work collectively to ensure that our approaches rely on evidence, drawing from a broad but robust evidence base beyond education.
Addressing complex leadership challenges
School leaders deserve professional development that attends to the reality of the challenges leaders face on the ground. This is particularly important given the complex nature of school environments, especially at the most senior levels of headship, executive headship and trust leadership. As the paper proposes, this doesn’t have to be “either/or”. Professional development should be centred around the problems faced in educational leadership roles, and can be both grounded in the evidence, and allow space for collaborative sense-making, time to reflect, and deeply contextualised implementation support – for example through coaching and mentoring.
Leaders are a critical lever for school improvement, and excellent school leadership enables staff to thrive and children to flourish. As a sector, let’s make sure that we are creating the conditions for excellence. We can achieve this by designing a professional development offer that integrates strong educational knowledge with the wider skills and capabilities required to lead institutions that transform children’s lives.