Dick Weindling

Promoting Reflection on Headship through the Mentoring Mirror.

This article reports some findings from a national evaluation of the Department for Education pilot headteacher mentoring scheme in the UK. It suggests that the new headteachers involved reported having benefited from mentoring in a number of ways. First, it offered a means whereby they could raise matters of concern and receive appropriate advice. Second, it gave them an opportunity to reflect on the role of the headteacher, and thus to improve their understanding of it. Third, it enabled them to develop a broader and more balanced perspective on headship. Fourth, it constituted a form of personal support. Fifth, it served as an emotional relief. The mentors involved acknowledged the gains listed above and also identified other benefits both for themselves and for those they were mentoring.

Study support and the development of the self-regulated learner

This paper is based on a qualitative study of study support in 12 secondary schools. It presents evidence from interviews with students and staff about the six main factors attracting students to attend out-of-school activities and the benefits students derived. The paper ends by relating the conditions present in study support to the literature on self-regulated learning, and suggests that providing high-quality study support is beneficial, but requires commitment, investment and an understanding of its potential contribution to thework of the school.

The Process of School Improvement: Some Practical Messages from Research.

Abstract Schools are currently suffering from considerable ‘innovation overload’ with multiple changes being demanded by the Education Reform Act and other sources. Tom Peters (1988) has argued that a similar turbulent situation exists in US business and industry and suggests that the most successful companies are those which are able to ‘Thrive on Chaos’. LEAs and schools need knowledge and skills about school improvement and this article attempts to provide research‐based information to help them cope with innovation and improve teaching and learning. School improvement is seen as a combination of previous research on the management of change and school effectiveness. Eight factors which seem to be related to effective schools are listed and knowledge about the change process is used to consider how a school could be improved. In order to offer practical help to LEAs and schools a set of guidelines is provided and recent research findings are discussed under each heading. The article concludes with an o...

Future leaders: the way forward?

The recruitment and retention of senior school leaders is high on the UK Governments agenda with much attention currently being given to succession planning. Future Leaders and other fast track leadership development programmes are, in part, a response to this ‘crisis’ brought about by demographic change – many headteachers are due to retire in the next few years – and by the unappealing nature of headship as a career option. This paper considers the origins of the leadership development programme ‘Future Leaders’ against this policy backcloth before discussing the programme itself and its component parts, drawing on data collected for the NCSL-funded two-year evaluation. The experiences of the first two cohorts will be elaborated on with reference to the various components of the programme. Finally, the future of headship will be discussed with reference to issues of sustainability, well-being, recruitment and retention, and whether Future Leaders is the way forward.

The first years of headship ‐‐ towards better practice

Summary This article summarizes a recent NFER project (Weindling and Earley, 1986), which set out to document the demands made on heads in the first years of headship, describe the range of strategies employed to cope with them, identify the requisite skills and knowledge needed to carry out their new role and provide guidelines for in‐service agencies involved with senior management training. A brief review of previous research in the field is followed by a description of the studys design and sample. The remainder of the paper is devoted to drawing together the main points from the research and providing a set of recommendations for four different groups: deputies who wish to become heads; various INSET providers; new and experienced heads; and local education authorities.

Heading for the Top: The Career Paths of Secondary School Heads

What backgrounds do headteachers have before their appointment? NFER surveyed new heads, their qualifications and experience. It investigated differences of gender - women had more years in the profession before becoming heads.