Contact

Head of Achievement - Strategic Partnerships (interim) Marina Breeze Standards and School Effectiveness Tel:01438 844234 Email: marina.breeze@ hertscc.gov.uk

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Updates

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Leadership & Management Courses

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News Archive

Leadership News Archive

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Leadership News and Events

Last updated 8 February, 2012

See also Transformation News for Schools - transformation and school improvement, including academies.

Director's Annual Report - Standards and Wellbeing in Hertfordshire Schools 2011 New

The annual report presents evidence from inspections, visits, test and examination results and other assessments, as well as a range of activities across wider wellbeing outcomes. It is an opportunity to celebrate success and to highlight the challenges ahead in working together to continue to improve educational and other outcomes for all children and young people in Hertfordshire, particularly the most vulnerable.

• Director's Annual Report 2011

Headteacher Update - 21st February 2012 New

Please be reminded that Headteachers' Updates for the spring term will be on Tuesday 21st February 2012, at 1.30pm to 3.00pm, at Hertfordshire Development Centre, Six Hills Way, Stevenage SG1 2FQ.  Please park in the delegates car park and report to Robertson House reception. 

The agenda will be as follows:-

• Herts Learning Trust
• HICs costs for next year/Curriculum Changes in ICT/ Support Options for technical
• Teaching Schools/Update on support staff performance management
• Foreign Language Assistants
• Lessons learned from Ofsted Inspection this term
• Single Equalities Duty in schools
• Raising the Achievement of Traveller Pupils

Ofsted Inspection Framework 2012 New

A new section is available on the Grid on the Ofsted Inspection Framework now in place which includes a summary of what's changed, links to key Ofsted documentation and links to training and support available from SSE:

• Ofsted Inspection Framework 2012

NPQH No Longer a Mandatory Qualification for First Time Headteachers

In November 2010, the White Paper announced a review of the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH). Following this review it has been decided that NPQH will no longer be a mandatory qualification for first-time headteachers and there will be new essential and elective modules with longer placements, and closer links to Master's and other postgraduate qualifications. The revised NPQH programme will have a more rigorous entry process and final assessment. More information.....

Standards and School Effectiveness New Head of Achievement - Secondary

Standards and School Effectiveness are delighted to welcome David Kilgallon to the post of Head of Secondary – Achievement, from 31st October 2011.

With recent experience as a headteacher and as the Head of Secondary School Improvement in Bolton, and more recently as their Transformation Lead on the Building Schools for the Future and Academies programmes, David brings with him a broad range of educational experience and knowledge.  During his time in Bolton, David was responsible for leading the local authority’s work with schools and external partners to raise standards across Bolton's Secondary and Special school sectors.

David said of his new appointment “I am very pleased to be joining Hertfordshire’s Standards and School Effectiveness team.  SSE is well-respected as a highly successful school improvement service which has positively embraced the new context and agenda, whilst keeping attainment and achievement of children and young people at the heart of everything it does.”

“I am looking forward to working together with schools and academies on the wider school improvement agenda in this rapidly changing educational landscape.”

You can contact David directly by telephone: 01438 844881 or email: david.kilgallon@hertscc.gov.uk

The Education Bill Update

DfE 15 November 2011: Education Bill receives Royal Assent

The Education Bill was introduced into the House of Commons on Wednesday 26 January 2011 and received Royal Assent on 15 November 2011. Provisions in the Act include:

• a power for schools to search pupils without consent for any dangerous or banned items
• the removal of restrictions that prevent schools from issuing detentions to pupils without providing 24 hours' written notice
• new pre-charge reporting restrictions on allegations of criminal offences made by pupils against teachers at their school
• a power to create an entitlement to free early years provision for disadvantaged two-year-olds
• reforms to the procedure for the establishment of new schools, to give preference to Academies and Free Schools
• a re-focusing of Ofsted routine school inspections on four key areas that matter most to parents
• a power to exempt schools from routine Ofsted inspections
• new powers to tackle underperforming schools, including extended powers for the Secretary of State to close them
• the abolition of five existing arms-length bodies, with some of their functions transferring to more efficient new executive agencies, which are directly accountable to the Secretary of State.
• www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/inthenews/a00200186/education-bill-receives-royal-assent

Education Act - Summary for Schools New

Justin Donovan, Director of Education and Early Intervention, has produced a brief summary of key points of The Education Bill (as of November 2011) which headteachers may find useful:

• Word 2003, 73kb/4 pages, 09/01/2012, education_bill_summary_nov11.doc

Hertfordshire Improvement Partner Handbook - Secondary 2011-12

The HIP Secondary and Middle Schools Handbook and proformas for 2011-12 have been published. More...

Resilient Leadership Programme - New Dates

This programme provides practical, solution focused skills to ensure that leaders can deal more effectively with setbacks and maximise opportunities. The emphasis is on personal resilience, but in the context of leadership. As individuals explore and develop their own resilience they will develop a deeper understanding of the impact they have on those around them, and in particular those that they lead.  More...

Specialist Leaders of Education

The National College will open the first application round for Specialist Leaders in Education (SLEs) on October 17th 2011.

To be an SLE you need to be an outstanding middle or senior school leader with a particular area of expertise and the capacity, skills and commitment to support others in similar positions in other schools.

For further information, including selection criteria, please visit the address below.

• www.nationalcollege.org.uk/index/professional-development/specialist-leaders-of-education-programme.htm

Headteacher Briefings - Terms and Conditions of Employment Review

The presentation and FAQs from the Headteacher briefings on the changes to the Hertfordshire Employment package are available to download.

Hertfordshire Improvement Partner Handbook - Primary 2011-12

The HIP Primary Handbook and proformas for 2011-12 have been published. More...

Heads and Governor Briefings - New Arrangements

The new arrangements for briefings are detailed in the letter below. Briefings will be planned, organised and their details communicated by the Hertfordshire Association of School Governors. More...

Dates for Your Diaries - Headteacher Conferences 2012

Secondary Headteachers' Conference 2012 - Keeping Ahead - Child of our Time
1st-2nd March 2012 - Book online ref: 11MAN/1415

Federated Schools

Some recent reports on Federated schools from Ofsted:

Federated schools see improved outcomes
In a survey of federations where schools have joined together to raise standards, improvements have been seen in the three key areas of teaching and learning, behaviour and pupils’ achievement, according to a report launched by Ofsted today.

• www.ofsted.gov.uk/news/federated-schools-see-improved-outcomes-ofsted

Leadership of more than one school

This survey evaluates the impact on provision and outcomes for pupils where leadership responsibility is shared between federated schools. It looks in particular at a sample of schools that are in federations which have one governing body and in the majority of cases, share a headteacher or an executive headteacher. It also considers the path taken by schools that make the decision to federate and to share leadership in this way.

• www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/leadership-of-more-one-school

Headteacher Updates 2012

The dates for Headteacher Updates for 2012 are ready to note in your diary:

• Headteacher Updates

The Education Bill

Justin Donovan, Director of Education and Early Intervention, has produced a brief summary of key points of The Education Bill (as of September 2011) which headteachers may find useful:

• Word 2003, 73kb/4 pages, 09/09/2011, education_bill_summary_sep11.doc

New Headteacher Induction

The Hertfordshire induction programme for new headteachers is designed to assist the process of initiation to headship, introduce colleagues (where appropriate) to Hertfordshire County Council Children's Services, and support colleagues in balancing the practical demands of their new role with personal leadership development.

• Details of the induction programme for headteachers starting September 2011

DfE 19 July: Michael Gove Announcement on Education Funding

The Secretary of State for Education has today set out how the Government will ensure that education funding is better targeted in the future. A copy of the statement is available to download. (pdf). The key announcements are:

Schools Capital

• The Government will provide £500 million to help local authorities provide extra school places – meeting the extra pressures caused by increased birth rates.
• A new school rebuilding programme has been launched. It will be targeted at those schools in the worst condition. Information will be available shortly from Partnerships for Schools.
• School Building regulations will be pared down significantly – cutting red tape and costs.
• The Government is minded not to fund the BSF projects which were the subject of a judicial review earlier this year, subject to further representations from the authorities involved.
• The recommendations of Sebastian James’s review on school building will be broadly accepted subject to a thorough consultation process on details and implementation. This consultation is being launched today. We will carry out a condition survey of all school buildings so that funding can be better targeted. We will revise school building regulations to reduce unnecessary burdens and bureaucracy. We will also improve the design of schools to achieve better buildings and better value.

Schools Funding

• A new consultation has been launched seeking views on proposals for a new, fairer and more transparent school funding system.
• The current funding system for maintained schools will continue in 2012-13.
• A consultation has been launched with Local Authorities only about LACSEG academy funding, to ensure that the rapid growth in academy numbers is funded fairly and to ensure that local authorities are not double funded for services they no longer provide.
• www.education.gov.uk/a00192488/michael-gove-announcement-on-education-funding

First Teaching Schools - £19m Funding for First Schools in the New National Network

The first 100 teaching schools, which will lead the training and professional development for staff to help raise standards, have been designated by the National College for School Leadership.
These outstanding schools - all of which have a clear track record of substantial initial teacher training, leadership development and school improvement - will be formally awarded teaching school status when they start in September. The 100 teaching schools are made up of 36 primary, 57 secondary and 7 special schools from across the country.  

Hertfordshire schools on the list are:

• The Bishops Stortford High School and The Hertfordshire and Essex High School and Science College (job-share agreement)
• The Hammond Primary School & Bovingdon primary School (job-share agreement)
• The Wroxham School
• www.nationalcollege.org.uk

The prospectus details the role of teaching schools and the different agreements:

• www.nationalcollege.org.uk (PDF)

Aspiring Hertfordshire Headteachers' Programme

We are now recruiting for the September 2011 cohort of the Aspiring Hertfordshire Headteachers’ Programme.

The programme is designed to support strong candidates who are committed to applying for headship in the near future or who have been identified as being potential headteachers and need a boost of confidence to apply. The initiative reflects national and local priorities by being specifically targeted at the primary and special school phases. For more information and application forms:

• Aspiring Headteachers

New Ofsted Inspection Framework 2012

The resources from recent briefings for Hertfordshire headteachers are available to download at:

• New Ofsted Inspection Framework 2012

National College: Resonant Leadership

Seizing Success 2011; Annual Leadership Conference, Chief Executive Steve Munby's speech
Steve Munby's keynote speech at the College's 7th Annual Leadership Conference focused on the idea of 'resonant leadership', and how this is needed if we are to succeed in the challenging times ahead. Includes: collaboration and school improvement partnerships, the future of the organization etc. View the speach at

• www.nationalcollege.org.uk/

DfE 17 June: New Teaching Agency from April 2012

The Teaching Agency is a new executive agency that will be responsible for ensuring the supply of high quality teachers and training, and for teacher regulation. It will open in April 2012 and take on some key functions currently carried out by the Training and Development Agency for Schools, General Teaching Council for England, Children’s Workforce Development Council and the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency subject to the necessary parliamentary approvals.

The agency will support teachers, instructors, early years’ workers, classroom-based support staff, SENCOs, educational psychologists and examination officers. Subject to parliamentary approval of related legislation, the Teaching Agency will be responsible for three key areas of delivery 

• supply and retention of the workforce
• the quality of the workforce
• regulation of teacher conduct
  

Headteacher and Governor Briefings - Summer 2011

The presentation for the Summer 2011 briefings held in April and May can be downloaded here.

New Headteacher Induction Programme

Heads Who Start Summer 2011

The programme is designed around ‘The National Standards for Headteachers’. It is a comprehensive and cost effective package which we believe will support you as you start your headship and it represents good value for money. Dates and booking form...

National College: Creating a Self-improving School System

Professor David H Hargreaves has written a thinkpiece for the National College, 'Creating a self-improving school system'.

As education professionals are increasingly trusted to drive their own improvement, the thinkpiece explores the implications of this and seeks to define the key features of a successful self-improving system as well as the steps needed to shape it. Professor Hargreaves says that higher calibre school leadership and an increase in the number of partnerships between schools presents an opportunity for a new vision of school improvement. The College's local solutions approach to succession planning – with activity taking place across networks of schools in the local authority or dioceses – is identified as being responsive to local circumstances while our school leadership provision is making leadership development a largely self-generating enterprise, grounded in networks of schools.

• www.nationalcollege.org.uk/

Secondary School Leadership Newsletter - March 2011

This publication is aimed at school leaders in Hertfordshire and beyond. We intend to publish the newsletter termly, with three key aims:

1. To support you by providing information about changes that may affect secondary schools.

2. To spread good practice from our schools and beyond

3. To give you information about ways in which we can support you to help improve the effectiveness of your
school

• Find out more and download the newsletter

Ofsted: Leading Schools to Improve Teaching (December 2010)

The best leadership in schools focuses on improving teaching and learning with headteachers seeing this as their core business. Common characteristics of the best leadership include honest self-evaluation and leadership shared across the school. For the report Developing leadership inspectors visited 24 high-performing primary and secondary National Support Schools, led by National Leaders of Education.

The report calls on the National College for Leadership of Schools and Children's Services to do more to encourage partnerships between schools in terms of management training.

• www.ofsted.gov.uk/Ofsted-home/News/Leading-schools-to-improve-teaching

Education Performance Target Setting 2012

This DfE guidance provides support for local authorities and schools in setting education performance targets for summer 2012 designed to show the best possible outcomes for all pupils. It includes important changes to the role of local authorities and schools in the 2012 statutory target setting round:

• Adobe pdf, 1.76MB/5 pages, 05/11/2010, 2012 _target _setting_guidance.pdf

Performance Management Resources: A Practical Guide to Performance Management Review

Some changes have been made to PRS Resources in light of the School Teachers' Pay and Conditions Document (2007) and the official launch of the professional standards for teachers in September.

• PRS Resource

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