A leader needs to inspire with a vision, winning hearts and minds for strategic projects and building ethos and partnership, says the man whose job it is to improve leadership in Scottish schools.

“Leadership is different from day to day school management. Vision and purpose - where the school is going - are the key factors.”

Her Majesty’s inspector Ian Gamble says there is a correlation between good leadership and high quality education, and he should know as he was responsible for the HMI report Improving Leadership in Scottish Schools, which was published last autumn.

The development of leadership skills has come to the fore with devolved school management and the introduction of the Scottish Qualification for Headship. “Inspiring Leadership - Achieving Success” is the subject of today’s TES ScotlandEdinburgh Conference at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, which brings together leaders from education and business.

Much has been made in recent years, particularly under the last Conservative administration, of using business leaders and leadership techniques as possible role models for education. However, business has as much to learn from education, says Mr Gamble.

“Leadership in any context has something to offer. Business leadership isn’t necessarily the model for schools. Local authorities and schools are developing models and practices that business may want to look at as well.”

And leadership skills can apply as much to teachers with leadership roles, in departments, curriculum areas, pupil support or in whole-school developments.

When the HMI report was published, three national seminars on leadership were held in Edinburgh, Nairn and North Lanarkshire, and local authorities are now developing courses based on these and on the education pack which accompanied the report.

“The report is based on 16 case studies of effective leadership. So we are not looking for leadership clones,” says Mr Gamble.

“You have to develop the skills in your own style. No one comes into the profession stamped as a future leader. You improve your skills as you develop.”

The report, which is a practical guide to improving leadership and aims to remove some of the mystique, identifies 10 key characteristics drawn from school inspection evidence, such as being committed and purposeful (see opposite page). The best leaders are likely to demonstrate strong performance across the 10.

“These key characteristics could equally be applied in a business context,” says Mr Gamble.

Central to leadership and to developing individual leadership qualities is personal credibility.

“A leader has to have personal credibility. We all take something from good leaders but we can’t slavishly imitate. Good role models can be inspirational but without personal credibility a number of the other leadership skills won’t adhere or be fully effective.”

Effective leadership involves partnership not only with members of staff but also with pupils, parents and the local authority.

“Developing leadership in schools is the responsibility of local authorities and they should be supporting and challenging schools while letting headteachers run their schools as they see fit. The role of the authority is that of a critical friend, to challenge them to improve,” says Mr Gamble.

Pupils, he says, should be given opportunities to take responsibility for their learning, to develop and exercise skills and to examine why sometimes things go wrong. Education is about teamwork.

Even before the emergence of devolved school management, effective schools depended on leadership. Now there is more scope for headteachers to be influential, so that has increased the importance of leadership.

“I think you set out to have an influence in education and a possible impact on young people,” says Mr Gamble. “I think people take on a leadership role in education to have an influence. But it is an influence that must be shared.”

One person who has had a notable influence in education in a short time is Iain Campbell, the headteacher of Clackmannan Primary school.

After the kind of school inspection report which is the stuff of every headteacher’s nightmare, in September 1997 Clackmannan Primary was nicknamed “Scotland’s first failing school”.

Within two years, with the aid of extra resources including (temporarily) two teaching staff, a temporary school consultant (former school inspector Glenda White) and a new headteacher, Mr Campbell, the school was turned around. It is now one of the models of best practice cited in Improving Leadership in Scottish Schools.

A strong sense of partnership and shared ethos at Clackmannan Primary is evident even before visiting it when your call is taken by a P7 pupil, who is polite and professional in putting you through to an appropriate person. P7 pupils do volunteer telephone duty at lunchtimes, as well as being buddies and messengers when necessary.

Instilling a sense of respect for others and for school property was an initial target for Mr Campbell. Here pupils say “Good afternoon” when visitors enter a class and they open doors for you.

It is a big change from when he first came to the school and the morning lines were “the equivalent of a football riot”, so much so that some parents would stand apart with their children for fear of trouble or injury, he says.

Within his first week, Mr Campbell had the lines entering the school in silence. He did this by introducing a weekly awards scheme for the best behaved lines, watching them go in himself.

He still makes a point of visiting every class once a day. This, coupled with a voluntary five-minute staff meeting every morning before the bell, helps to ensure effective communication and makes him visible as the head.

He established working groups among the staff to develop policies and practice, ranging from curriculum development to making the school environment more attractive, which instigated pride and credit display boards.

“I think effective practice comes from ownership, encouraging staff belief in initiatives and ideas, with the staff deciding how best to proceed with policies,” he says.

“I’d produce draft policies which they developed and put into practice. I only ever produced something entirely myself to be handed out or implemented in full when time was a major pressure.”

His vision was to get the staff, pupils and parents working together to create a school which all of them would be proud of and to make opportunities for staff development; in short, to put the school back on the map in a positive way.

The pupils are encouraged to take responsibility for their learning: that is key to his strategy, Mr Campbell says. They help to set their own targets and understand those that teachers set for them.

This is complemented by class and pupil councils and the promotion of citizenship, which has influenced personal and social development and encouraged positive behaviour and good manners.

Mr Campbell advises that you have to work through changes at a realistic pace and measure success before moving on. Also, you should listen to parents and their worries; “Be a listening ear and reassure them,” he says.

He now works closely with the school board and parent-teacher association; he has established parent helpers and enrolled parents to take after-school clubs during termtime and holidays, and he produces a monthly newsletter.

He took every opportunity to get the school into the local press in a positive manner. Within his first year, the number of pupils wearing school uniform jumped from 30 per cent to 90 per cent.

The follow-up inspection report spoke of strong teamwork, mutual trust and a sense of common purpose, while pupils’ attainment had increased significantly.

“You have to be calm, patient and skilled in dealing with people. You need the support of your local authority. Ours has been tremendous,” says Mr Campbell.

“But really, within the school, it’s down to team work.”

10 key leadership qualities

* Building alliances within and beyond the school

* Being committed and purposeful

* Developing teamwork

* Developing and sharing a vision

* Focusing on learning

* Demonstrating interpersonal skills

* Developing personal credibility

* Prioritising

* Being responsive

* Delegating and sharing leadership