In 2003 primary schools in every LEA are being invited to take part in the Leadership Programme funded by the Literacy and Numeracy Strategies, and developed with the support of the National College for School Leadership (NCSL). The programme seeks to support schools in improving leadership of the teaching and learning of English and mathematics, helping to ensure continued rates of progress of children within the school. The programme is focused on strengthening collaborative leadership and responsibility for the teaching and learning of English and mathematics in primary schools.

The implementation of the programme within the school will be directed and managed by a small team of staff. For most schools this would typically be the headteacher, deputy and literacy and mathematics coordinators. In small schools this might be the headteacher and one other colleague who holds management responsibility that includes English and mathematics.

The programme itself will run over the school year beginning in September 2003, although some preparatory meetings will need to take place in the summer term of 2003.

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Q2: What are the aims, objectives and outcomes of the programme?

A2:

Aims

To strengthen collaborative leadership and responsibility for teaching and learning in primary schools.
To equip leadership teams with a greater understanding of expectations and standards in English and mathematics and the expertise needed both to identify where improvements should be made and to take appropriate steps towards bringing about those improvements.
To develop and extend the use of management tools to inform effective leadership and to contribute towards improvements in the teaching and learning of English and mathematics.
For participating schools to make significant improvements in key stage 2 results in English and mathematics over the period 2004 to 2006.

Objectives

To promote a collaborative leadership approach to the development and improvement of teaching and learning.
To establish a shared understanding of effective teaching and learning in English and mathematics which informs professional development and school improvement.
To acknowledge and develop further high quality teaching and learning that will improve standards in English and mathematics.
To improve procedures for monitoring and observing teaching, for feeding back to staff and targeting support where it is needed most in order to support teachers in initiating improvements.
To develop the more effective use of performance data at whole-school and classroom level to include the tracking of individual children’s progress and the identification of learning targets.
To identify within the school’s improvement programme targeted support for staff to develop their subject knowledge and teaching practices in English and mathematics in order to raise attainment.
To enable schools to become more analytic and to develop their own accountability structures and monitoring and review systems for sustained self-improvement.

Outcomes

As a result of participating in the programme, the school’s leadership team will:

have a secure platform of knowledge, skills and understanding of the teaching and learning with which to direct, implement and manage school improvement, and to continue to raise children’s attainment in English and mathematics
have established robust systems for observing teaching and learning in English and mathematics lessons and providing feedback to the teachers observed which result in clear programmes for action drawing upon expertise both within and beyond the school;
use teacher’s day to day assessments, attainment and progress data to monitor standards and set learning targets in English and mathematics; at the whole-school level, for year groups, for identified groups of children, setting in place clear procedures for reviewing the progress children are making in English and mathematics;
regularly discuss with all staff the scope and progress of the programme and those aspects of teaching and learning in English and mathematics that the school is seeking to develop;
set out a programme, agreed within the leadership team, of what is to be achieved, of the steps to be taken to achieve it and the success criteria against which improvements are to be monitored and evaluated;
review the school’s use of its teaching and learning resources, particularly the deployment of teaching and support staff in the daily teaching and learning of English and mathematics and in the provision of intervention programmes, and ensure they are managed efficiently and effectively;
sustain and embed leadership and management procedures which the school can apply to effect improvement in other areas of teaching and learning.

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Q3: How will the leadership programme support schools?

A3:

The leadership programme will support those staff in the school who carry explicit leadership and management responsibility for raising standards of teaching and attainment in English and mathematics. The programme will provide the school’s leadership team with opportunities for out-of-school training, visits and collaboration and the help of an experienced colleague, a consultant leader, to support in-school developments. Access to other experienced consultants will also be built into the programme. The school will also have the opportunity to share good practice with other schools within the LEA and possibly beyond.

The focus of the support programme is on equipping members of the school’s leadership team with the skills of observation, feedback and analysis within the teaching and learning of English and mathematics. They will be supported in identifying where improvements should be made and the action that should be taken to improve and sustain standards.

The consultant leader will help staff to identify, initiate and sustain action, to target support for improvement and to develop success criteria in order to bring about improvements in the quality of teaching and in standards achieved in English and mathematics.

Using the expertise acquired by the leadership team, the school will be in a better position to implement improvements that can be further developed, sustained and embedded across the primary curriculum.

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Q4: What is expected of the school's leadership team?

A4:

Each member of the school’s leadership team will be expected to devote the equivalent of:

3 half days to attend out-of-school support programmes;
1 day for visiting one or more primary schools;
2 and a half days on school-based activities including attending meetings with the consultant leader, planning, observing teaching and learning and feeding back to teachers.

The three half day out-of-school support programmes will be linked to school-based activity and the specific school-focused consultancy to be provided by consultant leaders and the LEA.

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Q5: How will the consultant leader support the school?

A5:

Consultant leaders will be fellow professionals with recent experience as a primary head, and a proven track record in improving standards within their own school. Training and support for their role in the programme will be provided jointly by the National College for School Leadership and the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies. Each consultant leader will work in collaboration with an allocated group of schools to:

support the leadership team in developing the skills needed to meet the outcomes of the programme;
determine the support that should be given to the school leadership team so that they have the expertise needed to analyse provision, implement change, and direct individual team members towards appropriate support when needed;
facilitate liaison between schools within the group to share and benchmark practices and learn from each other’s approaches;
support the development of structures within the school to ensure that improvements can be sustained when consultant support is no longer available.

The consultant leader will give up to the equivalent of four days support to the school. Support will also be available from literacy and numeracy consultants to address any subject specific needs.

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Q6: What are the themes of the training?

A6:

Throughout the programme there will be an emphasis on the leadership team’s collaborative role in:

establishing high expectations; promoting high quality teaching and learning;
developing day-to-day assessments and use of attainment data;
directing action towards raising standards across both English and mathematics;
engaging all staff in the school improvement agenda;
developing systematic and effective monitoring and evaluation;
identifying roles and responsibilities and shared accountability;
sharing ideas and learning from others;
encouraging reflection and self-review;
embedding and sustaining change.

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Q7: Who will be responsible for the leadership programme in the LEA?

A7: The Primary Strategy Manager will have overall responsibility for the leadership programme in the LEA. The Primary Strategy Manager will direct and support the work of consultant leaders and work closely with other LEA staff to help to coordinate appropriate support for the school from literacy and numeracy consultants.

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Q8: What funding is available to participating schools?

A8: Schools with more than 120 pupils will receive the equivalent of five days of supply cover for each of the deputy headteacher, literacy coordinator and mathematics coordinator, on the understanding that the headteacher will take part for five days too. Schools with 120 pupils or less will receive the equivalent of five days of supply cover for each of the headteacher and another key teacher in the school. A consultant leader will provide four school-based support days for each school, a little of which will be needed for planning/preparation, organising additional support, liaison with the LEA Primary Strategy Manager and literacy and mathematics teams. Schools will receive £120 to contribute towards travel costs for visits to schools not in the school’s vicinity.

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Q9: What should be the involvement of governors?

A9: Governors will want to be acquainted fully with the aims, objectives and intended outcomes of the programme. They will want to receive regular reports on the progress of the programme, support and encourage their school’s participation and discuss with the leadership team the programme’s effectiveness in achieving the intended outcomes, particularly tracking this through to improvements in National Test results attainment over the period 2004 to 2006. They should also make provision to ensure that the funding provided is appropriately used to facilitate and further the objectives of the programme.

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