The governing bodies of publicly funded schools in England are currently facing a number of substantive challenges of various kinds. Many of the challenges are long-standing, while others relate to the current context for governing wrought by recent education policy developments initiated by central government. A number of the challenges are…

This paper draws on emerging findings from a CfBT Education Trust funded research project, "From self-evaluation to school improvement--the importance of effective professional development (Sef2Si)." On the journey from self-evaluation to school improvement, the authors wanted to identify what schools do that works, how people help each other, how…

Small schools have always been valued for keeping close community links, for providing a family ethos and for minimizing pupil travel time--especially for the youngest children. At the same time, critics have raised concerns about the limited opportunities for large peer group socialization and about the limited range of teacher expertise and…

Headteachers, like the leaders of most organisations, operate in a climate of accelerating but discontinuous change. Their responsibilities and accountabilities increase constantly with little sign of reprieve. Yet, many headteachers take on more than one headship in the course of their careers, prompting questions such as: (1) What are…