Momentum and capacity: A story and a proposition for school improvement support
Leading schools is exhausting and never more so when rapid changes are needed and the external climate is uncertain. In this post, I want to share a very personal experience of the challenges this very situation presented for me as a headteacher between 2019 and 2023.
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An outline of the case method approach for SSAT’s Head Cases programme
This is the third and final of a trilogy of blogposts about SSAT’s Head Cases programme, which uses case studies and case methods to explore typical challenges facing headteachers.
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Making the case for effective headteacher preparation: SSAT’s Head Cases programme
Contemplating headship? Concerned that the NPQH, for all its benefits, hasn’t quite given you the experiences that you know you will face in taking up the role? Considering how you might bridge the experiential gap between being a deputy and being the person with their name on the signage? If so, you are crucial to the future of the education system. This post is for you.
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Headteacher Case Conferences: A ‘signature pedagogy’ for school leadership?
At the end of the 2023-24 academic year, we published the findings of our survey of 236 headteachers in our ‘Labouring to Love Headship’ report. The picture presented was gloomy around preparation, induction, training and support for those taking up headship.
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Going, Going, Gone: Correlating improvement needs and overall grades in 2023-24
Overall grades from inspections are on their way out in 2024-25 and, by 2025-26 we will see more changes as the much-heralded ‘report card’ system takes effect (possibly seeing the end of the four-tier grading system, but who knows with any certainty). As we step forward into this new and slightly uncertain future around inspection outcomes, I thought it would be of interest to school leaders to have another delve into the weeds of SSAT’s inspection tracker.
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Minding the Gaps: How inspections in 2023-24 differed by region
In the past week, I have been looking at the regional variations in the 2023-24 inspection data with some interest and so I wanted to share them with you. Hopefully you will find them fascinating too.
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Chicken or Egg – The Big Listen Outcomes and SSAT’s Inspection Tracker
My previous blog queried whether the data about ‘need to improve’ comments from inspection reports since January might be pointing towards an ‘Oliver effect’.
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The Oliver Effect? Trends and microtrends in inspections in 2023/24
As mentioned in a previous blog on attendance, we have been tracking every ‘need to improve’ comment written by inspection teams during their visits to schools and colleges in 2023/24. At the time of writing, there were almost 4,000 such comments.
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Labouring to Love Headship?
On Thursday 18 July 2024, SSAT will be publishing the findings from a survey of 236 serving and former headteachers who, between them have almost 2,000 years of headship experience. The survey questions drew from 26 reports into headteacher retention published since 2017.
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Part II: Bringing on the Ewoks
My colleague Dan Belcher’s first blog on leadership development in the UK education system discusses the past history and present predicaments faced by our sector. In this post, I will outline, based upon our upcoming ‘Labouring to Love Headship’ report, what a better future might offer in this area.
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