Introduction – leadership and school 
         improvement
  • The main factors affecting school outcomes 
   are classroom practice and leadership 
  • Schools do not improve without talented 
   leaders (Leithwood et al 2006)
  • ‘The closer leaders are to the core business of 
   teaching and learning, the more likely they are 
   to make a difference to students’ (Robinson 07)  
    Instructional Leadership (IL)
  • IL is strongly focused on teaching and learning 
  • Principals and SLTs should provide the 
   framework for effective teaching and learning
  • Middle leaders focus on subject leadership, 
   model good practice and provide CPD    
  • Teacher leaders manage classroom teaching 
   and collaborate with colleagues 
        Leading Learning
  Effective principals and middle leaders lead learning 
   through six approaches:
  1. Evaluation of school and student outcomes
  2. Monitoring classroom practice
  3. Structured classroom observation
  4. Modelling good practice
  5. Mentoring and coaching colleagues
  6. Dialogue and meetings with colleagues
  These are discussed in the following slides 
         Evaluation
  • Assessing T&L at a strategic level
  • A systematic review of performance (e.g. KS4)
  • Avoid ‘blame the learner’ responses
  • Devise strategies for improvement – e.g. CPD, 
   monitoring, mentoring, and modelling 
  • Address within-school variation (see next 
   slide)
   
     Within-school variation
  • Comparing schools is difficult but comparing 
   learning areas is more straightforward
  • Twin effective and less effective departments
  • ‘Buddy’ underperforming colleagues 
  • Structured classroom observation
  • Confront the issues, don’t avoid them!