While most schools are confident in their whole-school staff professional development offer, few can offer bespoke leadership development.
This means leadership is often developed through external programmes offering support in various areas. The popularity of national professional qualifications (NPQs), for example, has risen since changes were made to the qualifications and government funding, so that schools can help more staff learn key leadership skills. Numerous other private providers for such courses exist too.
It is one thing to put someone on a course, though, and another to ensure it will have an impact back at school. For example, is an NPQH only “worthwhile” if the participant becomes a headteacher soon after completion?
Thankfully, there are other ways schools can monitor the effectiveness of leadership programmes and their impact, rather than simply being a line on someone’s CV as they apply for their next role.
1. Line management
The key relationship that middle and senior leaders have in any school is with their immediate line manager.
While these meetings often feel pressured, with competing priorities and information sharing at the top of the agenda, leaders must make time to check in on individuals’ progress on any external courses: what has your key learning been? How are you going to apply it in school now?
These meetings can also be helpful for the more senior party to ensure that any new learnings were properly understood and to check any misunderstandings or misconceptions that may have crept in.
2. Identify action (and inaction)
Building on this, get people to identify the key actions they need to take as a result of their learning: ask, what are you going to do differently? Leaders need to have focused time dedicated to exploring how they will apply their learning in practice.
It is worth noting that actions arising from training may not - indeed, should not - consist solely of new things to start, but also of ineffective or unimpactful things to stop.
By asking those on your staff who have attended a course what it has helped them to identify that they or your school might do less of, you are creating the time and space to do more of the stuff that will have impact.
3. Share the learning
As well as sharing learning in line management meetings, it is a good idea for those on courses to share what they are learning elsewhere, such as with their department or in senior leadership team meetings.
Sharing it with a team creates a sense of accountability and makes improvements more likely to be actioned across a school or trust.
You will also be able to identify any wider messages that might be better delivered through meetings, briefings or continuing professional development sessions for other staff.
4. Connect people
If you have multiple members of staff who are completing external programmes with the same provider, offer a structured opportunity for these individuals to connect.
Providers will often ensure that there are key overlaps in learning and alignment of language that, when harnessed by teams, will develop a shared understanding that can facilitate improvement across multiple areas of a school, not simply in the area they happen to work in.
5. Leading through others
What is leadership all about? Other people. One of the most important ways to gauge and assure the impact of a leadership programme is by assessing the impact the individual has on those they directly line manage and work with.
Ask them to identify measures that show their impact on the teams and areas they lead, and track the improvement of these as the programme goes on. They might include retention of colleagues, pupil results or pupil behaviour.
If leaders are unable to identify tangible impacts on those they manage, they might need to change tack or apply their learning in a different way. If their training is appropriate and impactful, everyone and every area they are responsible for should feel the benefit of their learning and the improvements they will bring about.
6. Where do they go next?
A final way you might identify whether leadership programmes have had an impact is by looking at what individuals go on to do next.
Your school or trust might track career moves through its exit interview process, perhaps asking simply: to what extent did this course support you to make your next career step?
Such qualitative feedback would also be of great value to the course provider themselves, who could build any feedback into future programme improvements.
Jo Facer is a former headteacher and the head of the national professional qualifications faculty at the National Institute of Teaching
