Leadership An ever changing world
Headteachers are having to cope with an ever changing educational landscape. Ros Fox looks at the challenges facing today’s school leaders and offers some advice on how to deal with them
T
he extent of the challenges facing those in key positions in education today is a hot topic, especially with a new government keen to establish itself as a leader in the education
field. According to the 2010 National College report, Making a Difference, as far back as 2007/08 headteachers in England already took more decisions and bore more responsibility than anywhere else in the world except The Netherlands. (Pont et al, OECD, 2008). The coalition’s four year business plan identifies a further six
priorities, each of which will affect every aspect of a headteacher’s work and will have huge implications for the way in which we run our schools. Standards must rise; new funding formulae will be introduced; headteachers will become even more accountable; the curriculum will be reformed and pupils prepared for a range of different qualifications. Teachers will need to be upskilled and children from every background supported. There will be ever more academies, free schools, studio schools and university technical colleges (UTCs) – all of which will operate independently of local authority control. Yet another approach to the teaching of reading will be launched and the qualifications system revised. New approaches to managing behaviour are already in place and the inspection regime is under review. There will be radical changes to
“We cannot keep preparing our
youngsters for a world that does not exist anymore.”
the ways in which teachers and social workers are recruited, trained and developed – all aimed at improving the educational standards and life chances of our children. It has been recognised for some time that improvements in
school effectiveness are very clearly linked to strong leadership and management, resulting in high quality teaching and curricular provision. With these new priorities it will be even more important to focus our efforts on the development and strengthening of that leadership. Government promoted change will not be the only challenge. What will the future hold for educational technology? Not only will school leaders require the change management skills required to cope with the uncertainties ahead, they will also need an understanding of new technologies and the growth of digital interactions which will have such a dramatic impact on the way we live in years to come. As early as 2007, the American Management Association posted a blog about “the Blackberry effect”: “There are three basic skills and talents that will be needed for the
modern world of business – beginning now and extending forward for the next 10 years. These are: adeptness at establishing contact and keeping in touch; serious skill in gaining and analysing information; and the ability to combine information and talent into something that adds value to society and to the world of business.”
Equipping pupils for the 21st century With current events nationwide, we are beginning to see just how powerful all three of these can be. The newspaper “i” reported recently that our children are entering a world that most of us find difficult to imagine, never mind comprehend. They drew on the words of Virginia Heffernan of The New York Times who says that we cannot keep preparing our youngsters for a world that does not exist anymore or ignoring the formidable cognitive skills that so many of them are developing entirely on their own. Above all, we must stop disparaging
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their digital prowess simply because many of us do not happen to possess it ourselves. Headteachers often say that they are heading for one immediate
challenge: the need to raise the standards of their pupils. Headteachers of the future will be aiming for performance beyond expectations at every age and level. A smaller group of school leaders, those who were unlucky enough not to get their new buildings through the Primary Capital Programme, are faced with upgrading and running their buildings within a greatly reduced funding envelope. To be able to surmount both of these challenges headteachers will
need oodles of confidence, insightfulness, commitment and commercial acumen. They will need not only to be able to manage change but also to understand the different types of change required and the options available to them. This will involve having an understanding of the world at large and an ability to deal with a range of providers and consultants to ensure they get best value in all that they do. Above all it will entail having the confidence to know, believe in, and articulate what they want for their children in a wide range of forums. This sort of ability to manage change, has, in fact, been the very basis
of the “sponsored” academies programme since its inception at the start of the millennium. This is a programme aimed at raising standards
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