RESEARCH FOCUS
www.sec-ed.com
SecEd: On Your Side
Looking back...
No more
Well you are almost there!
Congratulations yet again
Pete
on making it to the end of
Henshaw
what I suspect for many of
Editor,
you will have been a year of
SecEd heroes?
excitement, exhilaration, and
innovation, but also challenge, perseverance, and tough
times.
I have no doubt that you will have achieved great things
this year, and you will also be setting yourself challenges
for next year – as this final edition of SecEd goes to press, I
know I am already thinking about September.
In some ways, the SecEd team lives in sync with the
education world in that every week from September
onwards until that beautiful moment in mid-July, we are
working furiously to turn out the weekly newspaper and its
many supplements and additions.
And while I don’t for one moment compare the difficulty
of our job to that of a teacher (we have it by far easier, I am
in no doubt), it does make us appreciate the constant effort
that has to be committed in order to stay on top of your
Whatever happened to all the 14 to 19 agenda, the hero head
game for such a sustained period of time.
heroes?
People still talk about the hero head
can be a destructive entity and
All the Shakespearoes? their style of leadership can lead
It also makes us realise the value of a break come July.
They watched their Rome burn.
– but is this a dying breed? We
to power struggles and dissention
And while SecEd doesn’t close during the summer (the
Whatever happened to the heroes?
office is still open), it is the time of year when the team Whatever happened to the heroes?
carry an extract from deputy head
among headteachers working in
partnership.
takes the bulk of its holidays – I have colleagues jetting off
No more heroes any more.
Paul Ainsworth’s submission for
One of the hardest things for
to Thailand, Romania, Belgium and the Netherlands. Let’s
any headteacher is to compromise
The Stranglers – No More Heroes
hope they all decide to come back!
the NCSL’s research associate programme
with other heads with the aim
of developing a joint strategy. It
I have said before, that the one thing that drives me When a teacher moves schools, is likely that rather than seeking
absolutely mad at any kind of social gathering when I tell
one of the most fascinating things There are some circumstances She describes further compromise and common ground,
people what I do, is the instant retort that “teachers have it
to observe is the style of leadership where such behaviours can be the characteristics of this leadership the hero head may attempt to
easy, they get stacks of holiday and get off at 3.30pm”.
that the headteacher displays. right course of action, particularly type, which include a tendency dominate proceedings as they do
The same is true when a new at crisis points. What is more, many or preference for hierarchical in their own school, and the likely
I usually attack this statement with a challenge that they
headteacher is appointed in your teachers will welcome such a style and coercive ways of working, outcome is stalemate.
themselves should try teaching, even for one day. I have current school. The staffroom will on occasions as they want to know a reluctance to share or develop In fact, the hero head may be
taken a number of journalism classes in schools across the
watch on, trying to work out how where they stand and they may relationships as a working tool or to seen as an old-style leader because
UK in the past few years, and they are always exhausting
the new headteacher is different feel such forcefulness will improve use dialogue and open discussion, they are competitive, they are more
– and this is with engaged and motivated students.
from the previous incumbent and pupils’ discipline. or to leave people space and to interested in the needs of their
whether this will work or not. trust them to tolerate ambiguity school, and can be quite aggressive
The point is, when I take my holiday after this final issue
Those colleagues interviewed
Decline of the hero head
or uncertainty, or to use genuine in pushing forward their own
of SecEd comes out I will feel I deserve it – and so you for senior or middle leadership posts In recent years, the heroic style has listening and understanding as ways agenda. This style obviously can be
should to. Don’t stand for any barracking down the boozer.
are likely to have been asked about become increasingly old fashioned of working. seen as very ineffective as it is likely
Getting away is vital. To relax and recuperate, of course,
the leadership style they favour and in the world of business, and some Mr Haigh further suggests that to alienate fellow collaborators.
possibly to analyse the effect that commentators have written that the hero head, that is one who rules All school leaders can find inter-
but also to give yourself that space to switch off your mind.
this will have on the school. in the 1980s we may have been by the authority of hierarchical school collaboration a challenge
None of us, no matter how good, can be at our brilliant
It is probably unlikely that a attracted by the notion of heroic, status, “can no longer be part of the because of the tension between
best, our most creative or innovative, 24/7. If we are tired, candidate would say that their charismatic, larger-than-life style educational leadership world”. a collaborative approach and the
or have fallen into a rut because of the relentless nature of
leadership style is heroic. Yet leaders. Author of Leading in a Culture competitive environment, and they
what we do, then our performance will suffer, full stop.
probably all of us at sometime in Educationalists have also of Change, Michael Fullan, agrees, have to find a way of dealing with
our career will have worked for a begun to share such opinion and claiming that “charismatic leaders this pressure.
The holidays are a vital part of being a teacher, and you,
Heroic Headteacher and some of us use caricatures to illustrate such often do more harm than good Increasingly though, there is
as teaching professionals, have a duty to embrace them may have enjoyed the experience; behaviours. Gerald Haigh, a former because at best they provide episodic a view which suggests that the
and get away from your passion and vocation of the last 10
our career paths may even have headteacher, memorably wrote of improvement followed by frustrated situation where headteachers place
months. So bring on the end of year. Congratulate yourself
been inspired by such a leader. a hero head “roaring in, soliciting or despondent dependency”. their own school first is a view
for what you have done well this year, and, of course,
approval like a colonel”. However, that can no longer be articulated in
The hero head
as time moved on in that school
Demise of the hero head
polite company.
identify your priorities for September. But most of all, relax
Probably the easiest way of defining “cracks appeared”, and eventually If the hero head is seen as a dinosaur In collaborations of school
and feel proud of what you have achieved. a heroic headteacher is where the no lasting improvement was made in today’s educational world, they leaders, there do not tend to be
head leads by charismatic example. as middle leaders began to lose are not extinct. Yet there is maybe hierarchical structures, as all the
...looking forward
We can all think of examples of confidence in their own ideas and an asteroid on the horizon which headteachers are seen as equals and
headteachers who could stand in an initiatives. could see their final demise, and that a very different style of leadership
assembly hall and lead the entire In the field of educational is the current trend for collaboration is required. Whereas the hero heads
school, both pupils and staff, with research, some writers are harsher, among schools. tend to depend on such pecking
Having told you all to switch off for the summer, I must the power of their oration. referring to the male-dominated and Hero heads can exist in their orders so they can command others
admit that it might be myself who has the biggest battle of
They could take command of the ultimately self-indulgent style of own schools and whatever the to follow. If the hero head cannot
all to leave work behind during my week or so holiday at
school and expect instant obedience. the heroic leader, who relies on researchers say, there are many change their leadership style, they
Such a character in full flow could personal charisma to lead a school teachers who enjoy working for may find their effectiveness is
the end of July.
be an inspiring experience. It can be and whose style is unsustainable in hero heads, providing they have considerably reduced.
While I may be heading off to the country for a long(ish)
easy to attribute such a style to only the world of collaborative working. excellent judgement and that Those young leaders who are
break, my thoughts will, I have no doubt, remain firmly male leaders, but I have worked for Amanda Sinclair, an Australian teachers feel respected and valued currently developing their own
fixed on September, as we launch our new sister magazine,
two “hero heads” and the first of leadership researcher, argues that: in the school. styles will observe the negativity
Delivering Diplomas, on September 24.
these was the charismatic female “Our conceptions of leadership are However, in the world of of heroic leadership in such a
head of an independent school. locked in a time-warp, constrained collaboration, where headteachers circumstance. The result could
It is very exciting to be involved in this new publication
They both dominated the by lingering archetypes of heroic meet together and try to develop be that the hero head becomes an
(you can sign up now for free – see page 2 or www. assembly hall or staffroom by the warriors and wise but distant joint initiatives to pursue the extinct breed.
deliveringdiplomas.com) and the enthusiasm with which
force of the personality alone. The fathers.” shared curricula required by the This begs the question: if heroic
it has been met is astonishing – from employers, further
female head though seemed far leadership is not effective at the
education, and our existing secondary audience.
more approachable and easier for beginning of collaborations, what
both staff and pupils to talk to,
We also have our next Delivering Diplomas conference,
but at the same time you were
the fourth we have hosted, and are warming up for the always aware of the steel beneath
SecEd PA of the Year Awards and the inaugural Delivering
her feminine exterior.
Diplomas National Awards. On top of this, we have SecEd
Most headteachers believe that
‘
However, as time moved on
style of leadership is? This is a
question I hope to return next term.
in that school ‘cracks appeared’,
• Paul Ainsworth is deputy
headteacher at Belvoir High School
returning as usual on Thursday, September 3, and our
they take ultimate responsibility for
their school and as a result we can
and eventually no lasting
in Leicestershire.
annual all-Scottish edition on Thursday, August 27.
see where the heroic headteacher
Further information
So there is a lot to be excited about. However, I know style evolves from.
improvement was made as This article draws upon Paul’s
that what I need right now is a break, to recharge, and to hit
With such a responsibility on work as a research associate for
the ground running again when I get back. I hope you’re
their shoulders, some headteachers
middle leaders began to lose
the National College for School
will believe that if they know how Leadership. You can download
with me and do the same – have a truly fantastic summer.
to move their school forward and
if they have such a charismatic
confidence in their own ideas
his study, No More Heroes: Does
Collaboration Mean the Demise
• Pete Henshaw is the editor of SecEd and Delivering personality, it can be very tempting
Diplomas. Email him at editor@sec-ed.co.uk
to command staff and pupils so that
and initiatives
of the Heroic Leader?, at www.
they follow.
’
ncsl.org.uk/publications-index/
publications-display.htm?id=32480
6 SecEd • July 9 2009
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24