This article reports on a study of 40 primary school leaders from ten very successful primary schools who were interviewed in order to find out the skills, processes and practices that are required for the leadership of successful curriculum innovation in primary schools. Findings suggest that school leaders need to create an "ethos for change" if…

Recent years have seen a greatly enhanced focus on the learning needs of schools leaders. This paper examines the perceptions of such leaders about the best ways of enhancing leadership skills. Data were collected by semi-structured interviews with 34 headteacher respondents in 18 schools. Findings reveal that most respondents expressed a…

Over the last three decades schools have been subject to increasing and more varied sets of regulatory frameworks. In order to maintain creativity teachers need a clear educational perspective from which they can mediate, prioritise and lead change and one that enables them to develop and act upon their beliefs about education. The extent to which…

This article reports on outcomes from a study funded by the National College for School Leadership designed to explore leadership talent identification, development, succession and retention in contextually different primary and secondary schools in England. It draws upon this larger project and offers evidence not seen before elsewhere. It deals…

The profile, status and funding of leadership development has risen dramatically both in the UK and internationally over the last decade. In England this has been denoted by the rise of national programmes of leadership development and the creation of the National College for School Leadership (NCSL). Although the original inception of such…

The National College for School Leadership (NCSL) Programme, Leading from the Middle (LftM), was introduced in 2003 and was designed to help improve leadership at middle levels in schools and to impact on the effectiveness of teams of teachers in improving pupil progress. This article is a report on an evaluative study of how the program has…

Education Action Zones (EAZs) have formed one of the key elements of government policy in trying to drive up standards and disseminate best practice. However, the initiative has been subject to a sustained critique and questions have remained as to the efficacy of such networks of schools. This article offers a brief report on an evaluative study…

The development of educational leadership programs and qualifications has become an international phenomenon in recent years. This article is one of a series that springs out of a British Council sponsored conference held in the Czech Republic in 2003, organized jointly by the Educational Management Centre of the Faculty of Education at Charles…

It has been argued that "leadership" is seen as being centrally synonymous with school effectiveness and yet there is comparatively little evidence of the effects of leadership on school outcomes. More specifically, studies of principalship in Hong Kong have tended to be conducted in the quantitative tradition. The study described in this article…

The accession of new senior leaders and middle leaders are significant events and may bring a desired continuity of current improvement efforts, or herald a new direction for the school. Although attention has been paid to building leadership capacity in schools, perhaps via the distribution of leadership, little attention has been paid to…

In many European countries, external as well as internal social, economic and political changes have brought about a marked need for professional training of managerial staff in education. This article is one in a series that springs out of a British Council sponsored conference held in the Czech Republic in 2003, organized jointly by the…