Rethinking Headship: Launch Conferences

At a time of huge uncertainty, experienced headteachers have never been more important to our school system. Recent evidence suggests that headteacher retention benefits staff, students and communities but that more are leaving the profession.

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SSAT’s Rethinking Headship Conferences are an opportunity for experienced headteachers to think together:

• About how to positively influence change within and beyond school communities.
• About what headteachers want from the next phase of headship.
• About how the school system needs to change to better value its headteachers.

If you are an experienced headteacher, you matter a lot. Taking time to think about your headship and what it means to yourself, and others, is important. This is what Rethinking Headship is all about: supporting headteachers and their school communities for the benefit of the wider school system.

The evidence base is clear: good headteachers make a big difference to pupil outcomes, community cohesion, and teacher retention, amongst other key metrics. This impact increases with the level of experience of the headteacher, especially when they are retained in the same school. Consequently, the costs of headteachers leaving their schools and the profession before retirement is high.

In the UK, though, headteacher retention rates are falling alarmingly under the twin pressures of system accountability and the complex responsibility for supporting increasingly fragmented communities. The need to rethink headship has never been more necessary. Our aim is both to support experienced practitioners in rethinking their own next phase of headship and to harness their collective wisdom to put pressure on policymakers to rethink the demands placed on headteachers.

The conferences are a culmination of a period in which we have woven together research evidence and your professional experience and expertise to produce a ‘manifesto’ for rethinking headship. The Rethinking Headship Conferences will enable us to:

• Share our findings with you and hearing your insights about these findings.
• Stimulate the rethinking process for individuals considering their next phase of headship.
• Harness the collective wisdom of experienced headteachers to reflect on systemic rethinking.
• Create headteacher practitioner communities for future support in rethinking headship.

At the conferences we will formally launch our new programme specifically designed to meet the needs of headteachers and to help them remain and continue to thrive in their roles. This Rethinking Headship programme will systematically address the gaps in professional learning for serving headteachers.

These Rethinking Headship Conferences will include:

• Keynote presentation on the challenges of rethinking professional identity in complex times.
• Outline of our research underpinning our Rethinking Headship Manifesto and programme.
• Presentations from headteachers about their experience of rethinking their headship.
• Workshops to discuss your own professional learning needs in rethinking your headship.
• Roundtables on our Rethinking Headship Manifesto and its implications for the profession.

Host information

Dr Keven Bartle, Senior Education Lead, SSAT

Keven has been a teacher for almost three decades and was headteacher at a richly diverse secondary school in London for nine years. Through his career, Keven has been committed to the power of education for social justice and transformation, working in schools where staff make a difference to the lives of children, families and communities.

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