Leading School Transformation – serie

Tomorrow’s schools will need new forms of leadership. The old hierarchical models of leadership simply do not fit any longer. We need to develop new leaders at all levels of the system if we are serious about sustaining improvement and change. But, how do we go about this?The book focuses on the why, how and what of distributed leadership by offering a practical insight into what it looks like in schools. It argues that our new system leaders are already in schools and that the main challenge is to develop them and maximise their collective capacity to make a difference. Drawing on the ‘Developing Leaders Programme’, which aimed to develop young leaders in schools, it provides practical examples and case-study evidence of distributed leadership in action. The main aims of the book are to: provide a clear account of more widely distributed leadership offer evidence about its positive impact on organisational and individual learning give case-study exemplars and practical illustrations of how it works in practice. The book also considers the leadership of networks and the new forms of partnership schools are engaged in. It looks at how lateral capacity is built and the part distributed leadership plays in generating leadership capacity between schools. It will be of interest to headteachers, aspiring school leaders, teachers and educational professionals.

Tomorrow’s schools will need new forms of leadership. The old hierarchical models of leadership simply do not fit any longer. We need to develop new leaders at all levels of the system if we are serious about sustaining improvement and change. But, how do we go about this?The book focuses on the why, how and what of distributed leadership by offering a practical insight into what it looks like in schools. It argues that our new system leaders are already in schools and that the main challenge is to develop them and maximise their collective capacity to make a difference. Drawing on the ‘Developing Leaders Programme’, which aimed to develop young leaders in schools, it provides practical examples and case-study evidence of distributed leadership in action. The main aims of the book are to: provide a clear account of more widely distributed leadership offer evidence about its positive impact on organisational and individual learning give case-study exemplars and practical illustrations of how it works in practice. The book also considers the leadership of networks and the new forms of partnership schools are engaged in. It looks at how lateral capacity is built and the part distributed leadership plays in generating leadership capacity between schools. It will be of interest to headteachers, aspiring school leaders, teachers and educational professionals.

Raising the Stakes provides an understanding of the breadth of resources that are needed in order to provide a quality education to all students so that every individual, organisation and institution can become a stakeholder in the enterprise.This comprehensive book draws on best practice in several countries to show how resources can be allocated to help achieve high expectations for all schools. The book demonstrates how schools can move from satisfaction with improvement to accepting the challenge to transform, identifying and exploring the need to align four kinds of resources: intellectual capital, that is, the knowledge and skill of talented professionals social capital, being support in the form of cash, expertise and advocacy drawn from a range of individuals, organisations, agencies and institutions in the broader community financial capital, which must be carefully targeted to ensure that these resources are aligned and focused on priorities for learning; and finally spiritual capital, which can be viewed in a religious sense or in terms of the culture and values that bring coherence and unity to these endeavours.The authors also outline a Student-Focused Planning Model with particular attention to the deployment of resources to support each student and embracing the notion of personalising learning.Practitioners and researchers reading this book will be inspired to work more closely in networking knowledge about how ‘high quality’ and ‘high equity’ can be achieved. Raising the Stakes is essential reading for those with the responsibility of ensuring that resources are acquired and allocated to achieve the best possible outcomes for students.

Raising the Stakes provides an understanding of the breadth of resources that are needed in order to provide a quality education to all students so that every individual, organisation and institution can become a stakeholder in the enterprise.This comprehensive book draws on best practice in several countries to show how resources can be allocated to help achieve high expectations for all schools. The book demonstrates how schools can move from satisfaction with improvement to accepting the challenge to transform, identifying and exploring the need to align four kinds of resources: intellectual capital, that is, the knowledge and skill of talented professionals social capital, being support in the form of cash, expertise and advocacy drawn from a range of individuals, organisations, agencies and institutions in the broader community financial capital, which must be carefully targeted to ensure that these resources are aligned and focused on priorities for learning; and finally spiritual capital, which can be viewed in a religious sense or in terms of the culture and values that bring coherence and unity to these endeavours.The authors also outline a Student-Focused Planning Model with particular attention to the deployment of resources to support each student and embracing the notion of personalising learning.Practitioners and researchers reading this book will be inspired to work more closely in networking knowledge about how ‘high quality’ and ‘high equity’ can be achieved. Raising the Stakes is essential reading for those with the responsibility of ensuring that resources are acquired and allocated to achieve the best possible outcomes for students.

The evidence is clear - school leaders make a difference to the learning of the pupils they serve. And yet, not all leaders have the same degree of impact. What are the factors that make the difference to student learning? Why are some leaders able to raise student achievement in schools in the most challenging circumstances whilst other leaders struggle to simply maintain the status quo?Drawing from international case study research over many years, from the experience of hundreds of school leaders serving widely diverse communities, Judy Halbert and Linda Kaser argue that there are six distinct mindsets that characterize the way successful, learning-oriented leaders operate and make sense of their professional world. These leaders are:motivated by intense moral purpose knowledgeable about current models of learning consistently inquiry-oriented able to build trusting relationships evidence-informed able to move to wise action.This book outlines an alternative way of thinking about school leadership. It examines research evidence that leaders will find most useful and suggests how they might use this evidence to maximise their learning and the learning of their students. Leadership Mindsets has been written specifically for aspiring to newly-appointed school leaders who are determined and motivated to create quality and equality for learners in the schools they serve, through networks of inquiry, learning and support.