Leadership Skills

The A-Z of school life – Understanding, Voice, Wobbling walls, the eXtra mile, Yesterday and Zzz

Good schools are constantly aspiring to do better. Hopefully, the A-Z of school life is supporting your pursuit for improvement. This last e-bulletin in the series looks as the final letters but, although they come at the end of the alphabet they are no less important

The A-Z of school life – Regular reflection, Strengths and Thinking things through

In this edition we are looking at R to T. Access previous editions to think about A-Q. Each edition gives you prompts for a letter and focuses on one. Use them to prompt your thinking and come up with suggestions that mean something for your school

The A-Z of school life – Momentum, Not important/important, Opportunities, People and Questions

A-Z of school life examines maintaining the momentum, sorting out the important from the not important, making the most of opportunities, people and questions, questions, Jane Golightly has written extensively on school improvement and has more than 30 years experience in primary educationuestions

The A-Z of school life – Inclusion, Jigsaws, Knowing your school and Leadership

This week, the A-Z of school life continues to examine some of the vital parts of your role as school leader, including inclusion and knowing your school

The A-Z of school life – Attention to detail and Breaking bad habits

The first in a A-Z series examining important, but sometimes overlooked, aspects of your role in managing your school

Making the most of relationships beyond the school

Children’s centres, multi-agency teams and other schools are valuable resources for every educational setting. This issue looks at how partnerships can help you to work towards the best outcomes for children

Leading and managing people in education

This issue looks at the differences between leadership and management, and examines the skills and dispositions involved these vital aspects of your work

Are you making the most of yourself as a primary school leader?

Jane Golightly starts the term by asking - are you making the most of yourself as a school leader? - and offers examples of best practice to measure yourself against

Staffing: Getting the wrong people off the bus

In the third of our e-bulletins about staffing, we look at how senior leaders should tackle the sometimes difficult, but important issue of underperformance of staff

Transform your work with families

Schools can do their best for each child only if families and carers are involved in children’s learning. Jane Golightly considers the reasons why some schools are great at involving families, while others struggle

Staffing: Keeping the right people on the bus

Following the ezine advice on how to employ high quality staff, the second in the series discusses how to keep the right staff once they're on board

Thinking about visible leadership

Jane Golightly asks, how well do you know your school, are you a visible leader, and advises on how to rectify both

Taking the right road to achieve your priorities

Jane Golightly gives advice on how to keep your priorities in sight when using data to focus on your school improvement

Being a resilient and flexible school leaders

Former headteacher Jane Golightly discusses how to be a successful leader by detailing what she thinks are important school leadership skills - including being resilient and flexible

The importance of following up on your monitoring and evaluation policy

When carrying out your school's monitoring and evaluation (M&E) policy, is it vital that you follow up and act upon your findings in order to make the process effective, says Jane Golightly

School leadership: back to basics

Jane Golightly, author of Primary Leadership Focus, welcomes those in primary school leadership to a new school year and gives 'back to basics' advice on school policy

Headteachers: five things to never say in school

What five things should you never say in a school setting? Former headteacher Jane Golightly discusses five comments that she advises senior leadership to steer clear of in order to maintain positive school leadership

School improvement: 'spring cleaning' attitudes to learning

During the summer term, Primary Leadership Focus will discuss some of the different aspects of school improvement that can be improved with a thorough ‘spring clean’; beginning with attitudes to learning

First year of headship - survival guide

About to embark on your first post as headteacher? Hafise Nazif, a headteacher in the London Borough of Havering, reflects on her first year of headship and offers some personal but common-sense survival tips

Making the most of your partnership with governors

As part of Primary Leadership Focus, Jane Golightly considers the important role that governors play in a primary school, and affirms the importance of a good school-governor partnership

Handing over headship

How do you organise a smooth handover? Having just left headship after 11 years, Suzanne O'Connell discusses why she did it and offers advice to others doing the same

Keep school leadership simple

Roger Smith considers ways to make the role of headteacher more straightforward, and says the best way to achieve this is without additional involvement

Beginning a new school year: tips for headteachers

A new school year offers a number of opportunities for headteachers. David White gives tips on how to take advantage, and keep things manageable

School leadership: effective team building

Team work and the importance of successful school staff team building are the subject of this ezine for primary school leaders by Jane Golightly

Engaging parents: tools for starting conversations

This range of tools aims to help senior leadership teams begin powerful learning conversations between parents, students and school, to get parents to think about at-home involvement

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School improvement: having a consistent vision

Primary headteachers should strive for a consistent approach to school improvement. Jane Golightly explores this process, explaining why you need to consider Who, What and How when following your vision

Secondary headship: looking back at a career

How does it feel to end a long period as headteacher? After 18 years in the role, secondary headteacher Anne Clarke describes her feelings as she approaches the end of her career and considers what she will, and will not, miss

Leadership vision: fact or fiction?

What is your vision for your school? Jane Golightly discusses the factors important in developing a real, responsive vision for your school, and explains how a clear vision can help to create a common purpose

School improvement: intention to action

School improvement can be a challenging aspect of primary headship. The first issue of our e-bulletin Primary Leadership Focus gives primary headteachers practical suggestions and takes a common sense approach to school improvement

School bursars as heads?

Should we be encouraging school business managers and bursars to progress into headship? Ruth Bradbury, who speaks on financial management at schools, voices her thoughts on the subject, as do three School Financial Management readers

Emotionally literate leadership

Emotional literacy coordinator Julie Leoni pays tribute to a late colleague, and reflects on what she learned from her about emotionally literate leadership

Developing leadership using sport in schools

Improving pupils' leadership skills can have a positive impact on many areas of school life and PESS provides a key opportunity to develop, hone and improves them, explains Jill Wyatt

Examining senior leadership roles

Analysing how critical leadership roles are being performed in your school can be a worthwhile exercise, says Richard Bird, former headteacher and now legal consultant to the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) read more

The key to effective leadership

What are the essential characteristics for a school leader? Roger Smith reflects on what leadership is and what makes it work read more

NLE programme: leadership support for struggling schools

The NLE programme, which provides additional leadership to schools in difficulty, is now in its second year. Crispin Andrews meets an NLE headteacher and discusses the role his school is playing read more

Good leadership and management in early years setting

In the first of new series on managing people, Early Years Update looks at the distinction between leadership and management

What is the Early Year Professional Status?

Early Years Update looks at the opportunities available for practitioners to gain Early Years Professional Status read more

Providing difficult feedback to staff: What to say and how to say it

Deputy headteacher David Morley examines how best to provide feedback, how to prepare for it and how to train others to do it read more

Appointing a headteacher - advice for governors

Joan Sallis gives advice for governing bodies on appointing a headteacher read more

School business managers: Building your professional profile

From taking assemblies to sharing your professional expertise, there are many ways for business managers to raise the profile of their work. Paul Ainsworth and Josephine Smith explain how to make a bigger contribution and climb the career ladder at the same time read more

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