How do you know when it’s the right time to step up to school leadership? For this podcast, Tes spoke with three education leadership experts, who offer their thoughts on the when and the how of climbing the next rung of the career ladder.
Testing the water
One of the great things about working in education, explains Tes senior analyst Grainne Hallahan, is that “there are always opportunities to try out your leadership skills but in a small, low-stakes way to test the water”. So she recommends “trying out a little bit of leadership first”.
“It could be rewriting the unit of learning or introducing a whole initiative, like Word of the Week or Daily Mile.
“And then, once you’ve had a little taste of it and you decide, yep, I want to be a school leader, then you’ve got two main options open to you. You can carry on getting experience in school - by taking on unpaid roles or asking for acting-up opportunities, or shadowing, and learning on the job. Or you can go down a more formal route, and apply for an NVQ or a master’s in education and leadership.”
In the podcast, sponsored by The University of Manchester’s master’s in educational leadership in practice, Hallahan explores the relative merits of each approach, including the flexibility of on-the-job learning, and the rigour and support of a structured course, where you’re more likely to “find things that you didn’t think you needed to know, [that] actually come in really handy”.
Overcoming ingrained habits
Gemma Cottingham, headteacher of Parkwood Academy in Sheffield, offers a look at the in-depth leadership coaching offered at her school, including how it enables participants to “overcome any kind of existing ingrained habits and take on the new behaviours”.
“The role of the coach is to observe the current performance and set some of those goals…in stark contrast to a traditional practice, where we have an observation and it’s simply about judging the effectiveness of a teacher,” she says.
The school also has a “bespoke middle-leadership programme”, she continues.
“It’s grounded in educational research but designed to identify leadership behaviours, and nurture those leadership behaviours, and develop knowledge that enhances both the emotional leadership among the staff as well as the more traditional leadership skills.
“We really want to help our leaders understand what type of leader they are but also to be flexible with their leadership styles in order to meet the needs of their teams, to motivate and inspire them, and take away that idea of ‘authority’.”
Online and Blended Learning
Martin Lipton is deputy head at all-through international Phorms Campus Berlin Sud in Germany. He recalls how his own journey to leadership began after nine years as a classroom teacher, when he started “looking for opportunities in which I could develop my leadership skills”.
He is now studying The University of Manchester’s master’s in educational leadership in practice, and finding that online and blended learning and global cohort - with fellow students in locations varying from London to Sheffield, Thailand and China - are offering valuable new perspectives on the business of learning and leadership.
“You share your challenges but you also find similarities in the challenges,” he says. “We’ve been working with one another now for the past year and a half, and you develop a good understanding that things are very similar. We may have different local contexts but the challenges that we face are very similar, and having people to bounce ideas off, or get opinions or see what they’re doing in their location and context is really helpful. Because you don’t always have that opportunity to look at the bigger picture. Because, as a teacher in a school or as a leader in a school, you’re generally focused within your little bubble.”
You can listen to the full conversation below, or through your podcast platform of choice via the following links: Apple, Spotify, Amazon and Google Podcasts.
This podcast is sponsored by The University of Manchester’s master’s in educational leadership in practice. Build your confidence and take a critical approach to leadership with practice-based learning on this part-time, online course. Learn from world-leading academics in educational policy and leadership. Build your global network through our conferences, held twice a year, and make lasting partnerships. Create positive change in the workplace by visiting www.manchester.ac.uk/elip for more information on the course.
