What's new for autumn 2008: register for a Leadership Network event near you.
Designed to enable you to share in the latest thinking and practice of school leaders nationwide, the Leadership Network offers members opportunities to participate in its innovative national and regional development and policy informing initiatives including:
Are you passionate about narrowing the gap in outcomes for children and young people?
During 2008-09, NCSL’s Leadership Network is undertaking a national initiative entitled Leadership for narrowing the gap.
This will be an opportunity for groups of leaders to improve their leadership for narrowing the gap by increasing their capacity and confidence to act, and by deepening their understanding and knowledge of successful practice.
By narrowing the gap we mean reducing the difference between outcomes for specific groups and for all children and young people, against a background of improvement for all. The outcomes referred to are the five outcomes of Every Child Matters including attainment within Enjoy and Achieve (the third ECM outcome).
Find out more information about our Leadership for narrowing the gap initiative.
Leadership Network initiatives are designed to enable you to share in the latest thinking and practice of school leaders nationwide. In previous years initiatives have included projects such as within-school variation (WSV), personalisation and growing future leaders.
Further down this page are links to related publications that aim to share what leaders working in regional networks have learnt through some specific initiatives.
From September 2008-09 there is a single national focus on Leadership for Narrowing the gap. The Leadership Network is undertaking this national initiative for three main reasons:
Participants will be working with other leaders on a nationally coordinated programme facilitated and supported regionally. In groups within their regions, leaders will carry out an initial self assessment, explore the challenges for narrowing the gap in their context and identify and work together on a single aspect of leading to narrow the gap.
We will be sharing what is learnt by participants individually and collectively.
If you are interested in hearing more about this initiative and how to register, look out for further details posted here soon, or as a member you will receive communications via email.
Ten NCSL research associates from the Leadership Network have examined the Department for Children, Schools and Families' (DCSF) five components of personalised learning. Professional learning has emerged as key, with schools positioning themselves as learning organisations in which workforce development is seen as an integral part of raising standards.
During 2007–08 personalising learning will be a component of the Leadership Network programme of partnership events and activities. This includes a number of supra-regional events focused on leading personalised learning, developed in partnership with NCSL's Research and Policy team, and a series of regional primary leadership events specifically designed for primary school leaders. A focus on personalising learning will also be explored through other partnership events scheduled for 2007–08 including those on the themes of the leadership of ICT and the leadership of the new secondary curriculum.
Within-school variation has been pinpointed as a significant barrier to children's progress. Variation in performance within British schools is four times greater than variation between schools, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The within-school variation project has been widely praised, with many schools managing to reduce the differences in how pupils perform in different subjects in a short time.
More than 50 Leadership Network schools have been involved since 2003 and this initiative is set to continue during 2007–2008.
Working in partnership with NCSL and the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), over 50 Leadership Network schools from a range of phases and contexts have been involved in exploring ways to revise the curriculum with fresh approaches to the leadership of learning, the organisation and delivery of the curriculum and measuring success in learning. Following the Developing a 21st century curriculum national conference held in October 2006, NCSL, in partnership with QCA, have produced a number of Leading curriculum innovation publications which provide a toolkit of resources designed to explore innovative approaches to developing a 21st century curriculum.
Building on the OECD scenarios for the future of schooling and FutureSight, this major NCSL initiative to support futures thinking in schools involved members of the Leadership Network from the East Midlands region working in partnership with EMLC. The aims of the initiative are to stimulate debate; give local leaders a voice in shaping education for the future; and provide materials and processes to help schools think about and plan for the challenges of the future. A key outcome of the work has been the generation of a series of Futures thinking and curriculum think pieces designed to support the development of futures thinking. The first series has been developed by headteachers in dialogue with senior business leaders. In the future, it is intended to undertake similar work with moral, political, community and cultural leaders.
In this initiative school leaders and others involved in leadership roles within and beyond the school are looking to widen understanding of what system leadership looks like in practice. Building upon the outcomes of NCSL's Leadership Network annual conference in 2006 (see resources below) this initiative is set to continue during 2007–2008. School leaders and leaders from other community and multi-agency settings will look at practical approaches to system leadership through a series of events and activities, developed in partnership with NCSL's Research and Policy team, on the theme of the leadership of Every Child Matters, standards and extended schools and a series of primary leadership events focused on leading in a multi-agency context.
During 2006–2007 this initiative focused on supporting the work of NCSL in examining the issue of succession planning. Network members were involved in developing and testing out approaches to identifying and growing future leaders through a range of regional initiatives. These included a range of locally-based programmes designed to build leadership capacity and support and encourage progression to headship including internships, secondments, leadership coaching, and school visits and exchanges.
Focused on developing local solutions to an issue of national importance, this work involved Leadership Network members in drawing upon the expertise which exists regionally amongst the teaching profession and beyond. By continuing to bring the issue of succession planning into local, regional and national debate during 2007–08, the Network aims to provide an opportunity for school leaders and others interested in contributing to the development of national policy in this area to have a voice in future developments.
For more information on Leadership Network regional succession planning initiatives in your area, contact your regional leader.
Following the Leadership Network annual conference held in 2007, NCSL has produced a number of Stepping up, stepping out: learning about leadership publications which provide a toolkit of resources designed to explore emerging ideas about the practicalities of stepping up and stepping out to leadership in the 21st century.
NCSL's International Leadership Learning Programme (ILLP) offers a unique opportunity to reflect on leadership in an international context. It is open to senior school leaders, school business managers and headteachers and enables you to explore a variety of themes pertinent to schools and system-wide development.
More information on this exciting and subsidised opportunity is available in our information leaflet 
(60kb, 6 pages) or from your regional leader.
During 2006-07, as part of the former International Placement for Headteachers (IPH) programme, a group of headteachers from NCSL's Leadership Network visited Shanghai and Heifei in China. The learning from their international placement is shared in the publication Made in China: a creative dilemma.
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