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Taking the wider view is a practical resource designed to support you in planning and developing services and activities with your whole community.

Our priorities

NCSL consults widely with school leaders about the challenges they face and the support that they need. This has a direct impact on the goals we set ourselves as an organisation and the work that we do. This page outlines some of our current priorities.

You can also find out more about our goals in our corporate plan.

Goal 1: develop excellent school leadership to transform children's achievement and well-being

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Making a positive difference to children's lives through excellent school leadership:

providing a flexible range of programmes, e-learning resources, conferences and publications to support and develop school leaders at every stage of their careers
working with school leaders and others to make Every Child Matters a reality in their schools and communities
supporting the needs of different types of leaders by providing training for multi-agency working (NPQICL), support for diversity programmes (Aiming High), and development for school business managers
providing recruitment training for headteachers and school governors to ensure the safety of our children
supporting school leaders in delivering the 14–19 reforms
providing support for primary school leaders

Goal 2: develop leadership within and beyond the school

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Developing leaders who think and act beyond their school:

identifying outstanding school leaders as National Leaders of Education to so that they can provide support and leadership for schools in special measures
working with National Strategies to train, assess and accredit school improvement partners
promoting innovation in schools through our Next Practice programme
developing all aspects of leadership capacity in London secondary schools through the London Leadership Strategy

Goal 3: identify and grow tomorrow's leaders

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Growing tomorrow's leaders:

working with schools and others to support the development of local solutions for succession planning
developing the skills, knowledge and experience of future headteachers through the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH)
providing Fast Track leadership development for teachers in the early years of their careers
increasing the number of qualified and experienced urban leaders through our Future Leaders pilot programme
providing on-the-job development for future leaders through our trainee headteacher programmes

Goal 4: create a fit-for-purpose, national College

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A national College working for you:

listening and responding to the needs and views of school leaders through our series of regional conferences
developing a Leadership Network for all schools so that they can connect with the College and with others regionally and nationally
pioneering online collaboration through our online communities, conferences and hotseats

Past initiatives

NCSL has also been involved in the following initiatives:

Networked learning - Over 134 school networks took part to develop, support and learn together in this four year project.
National remodelling team - providing good practice guidance and support on implementing change in schools

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