Do School Leaders Have a Shelf Life? Career Stages and Headteacher Performance

This paper explores several issues about school leaders, career stages and performance. It draws upon various pieces of research, including the longitudinal study of secondary heads which began in the early 1980s at the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), to raise some key issues about headteachers’ careers, the various stages of headship, and the relationship between length of tenure and school leader performance. The paper concludes with some thoughts regarding the future of headship and what needs to be done to ensure that the quality of leadership remains as good as it should be. If leadership at the apex of organisations is as crucial as all the research and inspection evidence suggests, then what needs to be done to ensure a longer ‘shelf life’ for school leaders and is the notion of a limited or fixed-term contract worth revisiting

Consultant leadership - a new role for head teachers?

Most school heads in England, especially secondary heads, once appointed remain in their schools until retirement. However, recent years have seen a considerable increase in opportunities for head teachers to undertake other forms of education-related work. The range of these new opportunities is examined with particular attention given to 'consultant leaders' and the growing role they are playing or will play in implementing government strategies, such as the New Relationship with Schools, the leadership strategy of the London Challenge and the National Primary Strategy. Drawing on a recent evaluation of the London Leadership Strategy directed by the authors, the paper examines what is known about consultant leaders and raises a number of issues that need consideration. As the importance of consultant leaders is likely to grow in the near future, there is a clear need for further research in this area