Area

Middle leaders

Senior leaders

Focus on learning and teaching

Create opportunities to talk to pupils from other classes about their learning, successes and areas that they are trying to improve in. Celebrate achievements and engender a feeling that effort matters and is recognised.

Help to develop a culture of open classes, modelling this through your own invitational approach to others observing you.

Help teachers to feel at ease with observations by agreeing a code of practice. Begin by taking a lead and welcoming a colleague into your class.

Promote continuing professional development.

Develop the understanding amongst colleagues that professional development is far more than attending courses. Work together to identify opportunities for professional learning, including widening experiences within school.

Reach explicit agreement with middle leaders about their core purpose… and the school’s expectations of them in developing and assuring the quality of learning and teaching.

Promote practitioner research as a means of engaging with learners within the class and the process of learning… and encourage teachers to develop this in their practice.

Seek out relevant professional articles and share these. Establish a reading group.

Take care not to overload middle leaders with routine tasks.

Decide with them how they can make most difference to learning. Meet with them regularly to review issues related to learning to support them in managing workload and identifying priorities.

Generate positive relationships

Understand the importance of emotional intelligence.

Understand yourself, use humour. Accept that people are different. Be patient and aware of other people’s feelings and emotions. Know the team and recognise their needs.

In team meetings, engage the group in discussions about their practice. Use their knowledge and understandings to challenge thinking and support reflective skills. Find ways of relating team practice to a wider knowledge base.

Use your own mistakes as professional challenges or learning opportunities for yourself and the group. Be honest and admit that some things are beyond you – don’t pretend you know everything.

Recognise and value the success of middle leaders, using various informal and formal exchanges.

Praise their success both in and out of school, and report this to governors, colleagues and parents.

Show them that they are valued and key members of the leadership of the school.

Demonstrate your confidence in your middle leaders by encouraging them to “have a go”. Trust them to make decisions and test new ideas. Value their opinions and ideas.

Allocate time for middle leaders to reflect on their practice and assess their impact.

All too often they are the worst exemplifiers of a work-life balance, but are excellent at recognising a need for it in their colleagues.

Provide a clear vision and high expectations

Be confident in your knowledge… of the school’s improvement priorities.

Articulate and sell your vision in staff meetings. Be clear about your intended outcomes and how they relate to school improvement priorities.

Research your case and give a presentation to illustrate it.

Know your subject.

Keep up to date with developments by subscribing to teaching journals and looking on the internet. Be receptive to new ideas: for example, ask NQTs about latest developments in your subject area.

Have a clear vision that is articulated and shared amongst all staff.

Involve middle leaders in envisioning future needs and targets, and discuss aspirations for children’s learning.

Demonstrate the characteristics of learning-centred leadership… through modelling, monitoring and engaging in dialogue.

Enable middle leaders to have access to a whole-school picture in all key areas of the school… including the budget, staffing, governance, community matters and engaging with parents.

Improve the environment

Promote the school’s ethos through display. Consider: “What does the display in our year group classes and shared areas say about our beliefs in relation to learning and caring?”

Think of the learning environment as a learning resource… and use it to promote effective learning. Involve pupils in review, design and upkeep.

Model “displays for learning” within your own classrooms… and share these approaches with colleagues, for example in shared areas.

Encourage and seek to create a school environment which pupils and staff can be proud of.

Seek external validation such as Investors in People and Artsmark to help build pride in the school and gain support from the local community.

Be knowledgeable about how the environment can enhance effective learning, and articulate this across the school.

Use the school environment to reflect the commitment to creative learning.

Ensure that the staff learning environment also reflects the school’s ethos and aims: is staff learning valued and how is this made evident?

Dedicate space for current, relevant, high-quality staff learning resources, whilst acknowledging that a relaxation space is also needed.

Collaboration and dialogue

Create a community that benefits from diversity and multiple perspectives.

Communicate with all members of the school community.

Liaise with a link governor regularly… either through visits or phone calls to discuss progress, improvements, developments and other issues.

Work with middle leaders in other similar schools – identify common goals. Use your work as the material for professional learning. Try to arrange visits to one another to give feedback on particular issues.

Allocate time… for one-to-one dialogue with your middle leaders.

Recognise the benefits of giving staff time to collaborate.

Provide release time. Prioritise target areas for focused discussion.

Invite external numeracy and literacy consultants to work alongside teachers. Disseminate new ideas to all members of staff.

Distribute leadership and build teams

Build a culture of interdependence… by sharing tasks and responsibilities.

Establish a common goal.

Work collaboratively to move towards the goal: take people with you. Overcome barriers in your school by seeking the support and advice of a colleague whom you trust and respect.

Have a team view with regard to communication with parents.

Send joint team letters to parents.

Ensure job descriptions are clear… and include real leadership responsibilities.

Demonstrate the true value and mechanisms for effective delegation.

Promote the idea that delegation can give others opportunities for development. Accept that the consequences can be difficult but it is a process that middle leaders need to appreciate.

Involve members of staff in interview procedures.

Encourage them to meet and greet candidates, as well as showing them around the school and introducing them to potential colleagues.

Engage the community

Look for opportunities for wider partnership with local businesses… to make the learning for pupils relevant and meaningful.

Collaborate with colleagues from other schools. Use existing structures as a basis for networking when it is relevant, such as with development groups or other networks.

Meet up with curriculum leaders from other local schools to share ideas.

Organise workshops for parents and focus on pastoral matters and school improvement… and make this a collaborative process.

Encourage middle leaders to have reporting and communication responsibilities with external groups… including the LEA, schools and colleges, universities, members of the local community and parents.

Use the school in innovative ways to create a community feel and secure local engagement. Think “our” school community rather than “the” school community.

Host literacy and numeracy workshops for parents, computer classes, artists-in-residence, pre-school workshops, environmental awareness activities.

Encourage parents to play a full part in the life of the school… for example,seek their involvement as parent governors.

Invite them to attend school-based training led by staff to equip them with skills in hearing children read.

Create and innovate

Plan creatively across the curriculum and beyond the timetable.
Provide opportunities for pupils to generate creative approaches to their learning across the curriculum.

Ensure that pupils can learn from first-hand experience… by utilising the skills of other adults in the school and from the local community.

Ask questions such as: Why does it happen this way? What if we tried it that way? Respond to tasks or problems in a creative way. Celebrate successful innovation and imaginative ideas.

Encourage the involvement of middle leaders… in current, innovative practice and initiatives.

Value and articulate the importance of well-considered innovation… and celebrate its success.

Develop a school-wide learning forum for middle leaders… where they can: have opportunities to promote new thinking; find space for creativity; evaluate and manage the risks associated with particular innovations; and share good practice and learning that has the potential to make a difference across the school.