Reflections on school leadership

A quick scan reveals at least two multi-academy trust (MAT) CEOs and four executive heads on the Queen's birthday honours list . The past decade has seen a huge increase in such roles, though executive headships aren't counted in the annual workforce survey , so it's difficult to quantify. But what is an executive head and what makes a successful one? Earlier this week, I attended a National Education Trust-hosted event in London on the Headteacher Standards .  The Standards are being reviewed for the first time in ten years and the consultation closes on 16 June.  There was broad agreement on the need for the Standards to be aspirational (rather than a tick-list). There was consensus too that they should reflect the moral imperatives of headship and the key competencies required, as well as broad skill areas.  There was less agreement on whether the Standards should seek to cover executive heads. There were two sticking points.   The first was the variety in executi

First published in New Statesman  on 28 February 2014. As director of headship at the Future Leaders Trust, a charity that coaches and supports teachers so  that they can become more effective leaders and make a difference in challenging schools, I know the challenges our women teachers face when seeking to become school heads, particularly in secondary school. The under-representation of women in leadership generally is sadly a well-known issue. And it is not a new issue in education. But I have been surprised by the too-frequent stories of “casual” sexism among headship recruiters – almost 40 years after the Sex Discrimination Act. For example, one teacher on our Future Leaders programme recently got down to the last two candidates for a headship in the north-east but was rejected because the governing body wanted a man who could “deal better with the local ex-mining community”. Another participant in London was rejected for being a woman and too young – despite the man who was a