The Two Faces of Micropolitics

Twenty six primary school headteachers in the Midlands of England were interviewed about headteacher appraisal at a point when all of them had been appraised at least once and when in most cases they had been involved in the appraisal of other heads. One set of questions related to the benefits heads perceived that they had received from the headteacher appraisal process. The majority of heads did perceive such benefits and this article explores the nature of these claimed benefits. They included the opportunity to reflect on one or two longer term developmental issues, as opposed to the normal headteacher routine of crisis management on a number of fronts simultaneously; the chance to have a second opinion on their managerial practice; the feeling that someone was observing their work with care and could give praise when due; the possibility of making comparisons with the practice of other heads. Some heads felt they gained more benefits from being an appraiser of other heads than from being appraised themselves. Some of the arrangements for headteacher appraisal had involved more mutuality than the government had originally envisaged, but it is argued that this may have also brought about some unanticipated benefits.     

Whole School Management: Turning an Illusion into Practice

Richard Aird, headteacher, and Sue Bainbridge, deputy headteacher, of Baginton Fields Special School, Coventry describe a system of audit model which takes as its starting point curriculum issues. Although it drives an authority funding formula, its educational importance is at a school level and the work of an individual school is described to illustrate how it facilitates decision making by all involved in the school.     

First Years at Warleigh School

Developing an environment in which to teach emotionally disturbed children is the theme of John Dwyfor Davies, headteacher at Warleigh School, an independent school for maladjusted boys, near Bath     

Hospital Schools and Parents

Hospital teachers have a unique opportunity to involve parents in their children's education, writes Eva Noble, headteacher, in consultation with her teaching staff at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital School, Stanmore, Middlesex     

School Leadership and School Development: reflections from research

This article examines what two school‐based qualitative research projects have highlighted about primary school leadership and development. After discussing findings from the Primary School Staff Relationships and Whole School Curriculum Development Projects, the author reflects upon these insights in terms of: the complexity of leadership; instrumental and expressive leadership; the pace of school development; headteacher motivation; vision, ownership and community. The author concludes that primary school leadership needs to be more carefully researched and rethought.     

Teaching Children about Industry: A Report of One School's Work

Barsetshire is a pseudonym for an English county. In the county there are a large number of Church Aided Schools. This paper investigates the appointment of headteachers to posts in the county's primary schools. The presence of the Aided Schools may have the unintended effect of reducing the field of applicants for headteacher posts in large County schools. Evidence was obtained from the county's official lists, advertisements for headteacher posts and person specifications prepared by selection committees. It was found that Aided Schools in the county tended to have smaller rolls than County or Controlled schools. Governors of larger schools were seeking to appoint people with previous school management experience. In Barsetshire this was most likely to have been obtained by having being a headteacher in a smaller Aided School.     

Screens for Earliest Skills

The National Curriculum will soon be in force for children who have profound and multiple learning difficulties, and it will have to be modified to meet their needs. The work at Kinder School in Worksop, described by Trevor Watts, headteacher, is pre-National Curriculum in chararcter and level but much of it relates to skills in the new curriculum.     

Linking Home and Residential School

Dean Colledge headteacher, Town Thorns School, and Cecilia Wood, Rathbone home/school worker, describe a pioneering project designed to improve home/school links in this residential ESN(M) school in Easenhall, Rugby     

A New Role for Gorton Brook

Taking special education into the mainstream is the aim of the staff at Gorton Brook School for children with moderate learning difficulties in Manchester. Peter Stevens, headteacher, records progress so far     

Aims, Objectives and ESN(S) Children

A step by step approach to the teaching of ESN(S) children is described by John Presland, principal educational psychologist and senior adviser for special education, Wiltshire, and Gareth Roberts, headteacher, Exeter House School, Salisbury     

Reversing a Sentence for Life

How selected children are returned stage by stage to mainstream education from the Castle School for ESN(M) children in Walsall, is described by Janet Bond, headteacher, and Ann Lewis, deputy head at the school     

A Special Education Service Centre

Heltwate School, Peterborough, is developing towards meeting the needs of children in the surrounding community and ordinary schools as well as its own pupils' needs. Neville Hallmark, headteacher, and Tony Dessent, area psychologist, Cambridgeshire, report     

A New Role for the Psychologist?

Mel Ainscow, headteacher of Castle School, a day ESN(M) school in Walsall, and David Tweddle, educational psychologist in Walsall's Psychological Services, discuss the educational psychologist's role in the ESN(M) school     

The Diary of Henry

Henry was 'hyperactive, unresponsive and yet very demanding' when he arrived at Linden Bridge School, Worcester Park, Surrey. Barbara Furneaux, headteacher, describes the progress he made during his 3 1/2 years at the school     

A New Role for the Special School?

Mel Ainscow and Janet Bond, headteacher and deputy head respectively at Castle ESN(M) School, Walsall, Jill Gardner, educational psychologist, Walsall, and David A. Tweddle, senior educational psychologist, Birmingham, discuss area resource centres     

Castle School Lends Support

How a school for children with moderate learning difficulties can develop as a resource base for teachers in mainstream primary and secondary schools is explained by Janet Bond, headteacher, and Christine Sharrock, deputy head, Castle School, Walsall     

Busy yet passive: (non-)decision-making in school governing bodies

School governing bodies in England have considerable powers and duties, and their formal role positions them as decision-makers. This article draws on qualitative research in the governing bodies of four maintained schools. Using deliberative democracy as a sensitising concept, the article considers some processes by which decisions are made (or not made) in governing bodies. Without claiming that governors never make decisions, it explores constraints and limitations on their ability to do so. Governors exhibit a paradoxical combination of busy-ness and passivity. On the one hand, governing bodies are constituted and structured around activity and technically decisions were made. On the other, decisions could rarely be attributed to active choices by governors. Rather, their more passive agreement with actions and positions was presented as almost unavoidable ‘common sense’, either due to the national policy context or the headteacher’s presentation of the available options.     

Planning De-segregation

Much has been written about integration, almost invariably focusing on the process - how to maintain and support children, their teachers and parents - once pupils are in the mainstream. The process whereby children are 'de-segregated' has been neglected by comparison. Charles Gibb, educational psychologist, School Psychological Service, Beverley, and Paul Donkersloot, headteacher, Frederick Holmes School, Hull, argue that carefully considered de-segregation is the cornerstone of successful integration and describe the school's practices.     

Writing with Symbols – The Meldreth Suite

A partnership between Widgit Software and Meldreth Manor School, a residential school for pupils with severe or profound and multiple learning difficulties, is aiming to produce a new suite of software programmes. These programmes enable pupils to use an extensive vocabulary of Rebus symbols for extending language and communication skills, as well as providing access to a broad and balanced curriculum. David Banes, senior teacher, Meldreth Manor School, Caroline Coles, headteacher, Meldreth Manor School, Mike Dethridge, Widgit Software, and Wendy Newton, senior speech therapist, Meldreth Manor School, Royston, near Cambridge, describe the programmes.     

Headteacher performance management: an investigation of the role of the external adviser

The performance management scheme that has been operating in English schools since 2000 gives considerable responsibilities to the school's governing body. These include responsibility for appraisal of the headteacher's overall performance as a school leader and manager. Governing bodies are assisted in this task by government appointed external advisers. Drawing on research, this article outlines the role of the external adviser in headteacher appraisal and what we know about how it is working in practice. Some of the key issues are explored and questions raised for further research. External advisers were very clear that their primary role was as advisers and supporters to the governors, but they also put considerable emphasis on the support that they provided for headteachers. They understood, however, that the ultimate responsibility for the performance management of the head lay with the governing body. They also saw themselves as counsellors, facilitators, mentors, honest brokers, coaches and governor trainers. The key to their role was the fact that they were outsiders, with no axe to grind and with no connection to either the LEA or to the national inspection agency (OfSTED).