The growth in the importance of school leadership has been accompanied by theory development, with new models emerging and established approaches being redefined and further developed. The purpose of this paper is to review current and recent writing on leadership models. The paper examines theoretical literature, to see how leadership is…

Heroic models of leadership based on the role of the principal have been supplemented by an emerging recognition of the value of "distributed leadership". The work of effective senior leadership teams (SLTs) is an important manifestation of distributed leadership, but there has been only limited research addressing the relationship between this…

There are concerns about the supply of head teachers in many countries. In England, this problem arises from demographic changes and the perceived difficulty of the job. The National College responded to this problem by initiating a Succession Planning programme. This article reports the main findings from the external evaluation of the programme…

Black and minority ethnic (BME) leaders are greatly under-represented in English schools compared with the number of BME pupils. This paper reports the findings from research with BME leaders in 2004-2005 and links them to insights from a systematic literature review. The paper shows that BME teachers experience many barriers in developing their…

This paper reports some of the findings from an evaluation of the New Visions programme, piloted by the National College for School Leadership in 2002-2003. The programme is targeted at school leaders in their first three years of headship and has a strong emphasis on experiential learning. The evaluation evidence is deployed against an earlier…

In 1988, the Labour Government abolished Grant Maintained schools and introduced three new categories of school: community, voluntary, and foundation. Reports findings of a study that gathered the perceptions of heads, governors, and senior staff about admission issues in 11 foundation schools after their first full term. (26 references)…

The Teacher Training Agency's National Professional Qualification for Headship is a (nearly mandatory) initiative leading to a threshold qualification for headship. This article examines NPQH, contrasting it with recent school management provision history in England and Wales and with international practice. With modifications, NPQH may contribute…