Continuing Professional Development for Headteachers in Haringey

Research commissioned by Workforce Development,Haringey CYPS

Summer Term 2010

James Lane

Abstract

Continuing professional development (CPD) plays a key role in school improvement. InThe Logical ChainOfsted reported that“…schools which had designed their CPD effectively and integrated it with their improvement plans found that teaching and learning improved and standards rose”.

In addition, recent developments, such as the Every Child Matters agenda, place a greater emphasis on:

  • personalised learning and self-evaluation
  • new teacher professionalism
  • revised performance management and review arrangements
  • new professional standards for teachers and support staff
  • the national agreement, and
  • workforce remodelling

Consequently, much has changed over recent years and headteachers have had to introduce new developments and ensure CPD that takes into account the new professional standards for teachers and support staff.Agencies such as the TDA, the NationalCollege, teacher unions and local authorities (LAs) have produced documentation and guidance to support this process of change, but the wealth of literature and the sometimes conflicting guidance has often only helped to confuse the process of implementation.

Unsurprisingly, due to the obvious importance of CPD, headteachers have worked hard to implement the expected changes, but this research has shown where key gaps seem to have limited the effectiveness of CPD for schools – especially in relation to how the headteacher’s own CPD is carried out.

The report then goes on to make a number of recommendations about how the LA could support headteachers to better implement structures that would support not only the quality of their own CPD, but would also improve the quality of CPD across the school. The ultimate impact of this would be to improve the quality of school improvement in schools in the LA.

1. Remit:

The initial remit included the following areas of focus…

  1. What are the CPD needs of headteachers?
  2. How best can these needs be met?
  3. What is the most effective role for the LA in identifying and / or meeting these needs?

2. Methodology:

This research was carried out through the use of headteacher interviews. A range of headteachers were consulted including…

  • Heads with different amounts of experience (Experienced – in headship more than 5 years, Recently appointed – from 3 to 5 years, and new to headship – appointed within the last two years)
  • BAME school heads
  • Federated school heads
  • Faith school heads
  • Heads of one form entry schools
  • Heads of special schools
  • Heads of infant schools
  • Heads of junior schools
  • Heads who share leadership

3. Definition

3.1Traditionally, it could be said that the notion of CPD for teaching staff involved attending courses offered by the LA or some other provider or through taking part in the 5 TAD / INSET sessions that make up part of the school year. However, as mentioned above, over the last decade, there has been a move to reconceptualise CPD so that it takes into account the increasing demands that have been placed on the teaching profession.

3.2Consequently a new definition of CPD is required. A more recent definition is provided by Christopher Day in his work on encouraging teachers to keep their practice up to date through becoming life long learners…

“Professional development consists of all natural learning experiences and those conscious and planned activities which are intended to be of direct or indirect benefit to the individual, group or school and which contribute through these to the quality of education in the classroom. It is the process by which, alone and with others, teachers review, renew and extend their commitment as change agents to the moral purpose of teaching; and by which they acquire and develop critically the knowledge, skills and emotional intelligence essential to good professional thinking, planning and practice with children, young people and colleagues through each phase of their teaching lives” (Day 1999, p. 4).

3.3Similarly, Michael Barber argues that professional development should not be founded on ‘narrowly conceived ideas about INSET but the idea of the teacher as a life long learner who is a member of a research-based profession.’ (Barber 1996)

3.4This is the notion of CPD in its broadest terms. It is not just a training course or an INSET session to be attended. This takes the understanding of CPD to a vastly different level than the traditional view outlined above. In this broad view of CPD it is:

  • A dynamic process that must be with engaged continually.
  • Aimed at developing overall professional practice.
  • Not undertaken just for the benefit of the individual – it must benefit the school as a whole.
  • Linked to the ‘moral purpose’ of teaching.

4. Literature Review

4.1 There has been much written in recent years about CPD in education. Consequently, it would be remiss of me not to make reference to the key findings of previous studies where they hold particular relevance to the scope of this research. Due to the size of this report, there is not the opportunity for an extensive review of CPD literature – therefore, I will only refer to some key documents produced very recently.

4.2The vast majority of the literature available in relation to CPD in schools focuses on classroom practice and improving the quality of teaching and learning. Having said that, in many cases there are some clear points that relate directly to the CPD of headteachers. Recently, there has been a renewed focus on the importance of CPD for school leadership. Much of this, quite rightly, focuses on middle leadership and leadership pathways into headship. However, there is a growing amount of research into and literature relating to professional development for headteachers in particular. It is for this reason that I have divided the review of the literature into two parts:

  • Part one relates to the general CPD literature, but pulls out key elements that have particular relevance for headteachers.
  • Part two includes literature in relation to headteacher and leadership CPD in particular.

4.3 Part 1: General CPD

a)The Logical Chain (OFSTED 2010)

This very recently published document clearly displays the link between CPD and school improvement...

  • The most distinctive feature in the schools visited was the commitment of leaders at all levels to using professional development as the main vehicle for bringing about improvement (p. 7).

It also comments on the importance of the headteacher’s own CPD to the improvement of the school…

  • Monitoring visits to schools in a category of concern during 2009 showed that those making the slowest progress were held back by failings in leadership (p. 29).
  • Their inability to analyse their own performance and deal robustly with any shortcomings meant that they did not target relevant professional development where it was most needed (p. 29).

Obviously, in order to lead school improvement, headteachers need to be involved in CPD of the highest quality themselves – otherwise the lack of development for the headteacher impacts negatively on the school as a whole.

b) Teacher Perceptions of CPD (IOE 2003)

While it may be now slightly dated, there are some key points that can be takes from this research. The first of these is the indication that school leaders sometimes feel reluctant to engage in CPD opportunities…

  • Headteachers are reluctant to take part in CPD as they consider their presence in school to be more important (p. 73)
  • More experienced staff felt inhibited in their access to CPD due to their workload(p. 73)

4.4 There is also a feeling among school leaders that there has not traditionally been enough CPD offered that has a focus on developing leadership skills…

  • CPD offered had less impact on leadership skills and was more focused on teaching strategies and developing pupil learning outcomes (p. 116)

When asked how CPD could be improved, it was generally considered that there was a lack of time spent to ‘follow up’ on development opportunities…

  • Time to reflect, follow up and implement was a resource seen to be in short supply and/or in need of systematic attention as part of any CPD experience (p. 129)

4.5 Part 2: Leadership CPD:

Creating a Self Improving School System (Hargreaves 2010)

Over the years, attempts at to bring about school improvements have moved from a centrally initiated approach to a collaborative ‘co-construction’ approach that is based at a local level.

4.6This approach is still in its early days and with the election of the coalition government earlier this year, there is still much that needs to ‘bed down’ in terms of government policy and initiatives. However, the new approach to school improvement seems to have collaborative at its heart and ‘system leadership’ as one of the main drivers. Hargreaves makes the following point:

Recent and rapid changes in leadership development, including the National College’s projects on succession planning and middle leadership, indicate that the numbers of system leaders at headteacher level need to be increased and an understanding of system leadership needs to be extended to staff at every level. We need also to go beyond the need for some very good schools to intervene in failing schools to a position where good schools can learn with and from one another so that they become great schools. (p. 11)

4.7System leadership needs headteachers that can work together, share knowledge and resources and have the ability to learn from and support one another. This is the new challenge for headteacher CPD.

4.8 ‘Tears, laughter, camaraderie': professional development for headteachers(Woods et al 2007)

This research, focused purely on headteachers, reinforces some of the findings of the other studies above. In particular, how many headteachers felt that there was a lack of time and ‘thinking space’…

  • A need for more time and opportunities for reflection is a theme that pervaded the responses of headteachers, with reflection including cognitive and technical, as well as affective, ethical and spiritual aspects.

4.9In addition, this report acknowledged that different support is required at different stages of headship. New heads need a different type of support than do more experienced head – in terms both of content and approach…

  • New headteachers emphasised the technical challenges of the post, enhancing knowledge and understanding of leadership, sustaining/rebuilding confidence, and improved support and information.
  • Established headteachers, whilst also highlighting knowledge and understanding of leadership, particularly emphasised the value of sabbaticals, secondments and time for reflection. They also emphasised the importance of learning through 'disturbance' of taken-for-granted assumptions, of a holistic approach to professional development, and of thinking and acting systemically.

5. Discussion and Findings

I will break the findings down into the sections outlined in the initial remit

6. What are the CPD needs of headteachers?

6.1Headteachers found it difficult to answer this question with any real clarity. They could refer to their PM targets, but it was clear that many heads had not been through a supported process of reflection and analysis to clearly identify their development needs.

6.2This question also revealed that, in the majority of cases, headteachers still had a very narrow view of what constituted CPD. They mostly referred to the training and courses that arose from their own performance management. It was rare for heads to refer to collaborative work or networking opportunities with other schools to be part of their development. When prompted on this, many heads expressed an interest in working with other, more experienced headteachers – often referring to ‘coaching and mentoring’ as something they would see as developmentally beneficial. Another, more experienced headteacher pointed out the benefits of secondments in leadership positions outside of teaching.

6.3In addition to requests for coaching and mentoring, to support the CPD of headteachers, a number of ‘operational areas’ emerged as common themes that required more training and development for heads – irrespective of experience in many cases…

  • Finance
  • Capability procedures
  • Disciplinary procedures
  • Grievance procedures
  • Sickness monitoring
  • Workplace restructuring

6.4In all, interviews clearly indicated that most of the heads consulted within the terms of this research rarely afforded themselves the opportunity to reflect on, and subsequently identify, their own development needs. By contrast however, they were acutely aware of the wider development needs of the school and the staff, but almost without exception this level of evaluation and perception was not reflected in the way they addressed their own CPD requirements.

6.5Almost without exception, headteachers had to ensure that their own PM procedures were in place. For example, one head’s PM had not been carried out this year as he had decided to see what would happen if he did not take responsibility for the process.

6.6Another pointed out that “The odds are stacked against head’s CPD – workload and time are barriers that are very difficult to overcome.” Still another said, “I spend a great deal of time putting high quality CPD in place for everyone else, but there is no-one doing the same for me.”

6.7So there can be seen to be a number of reasons for headteachers neglecting their own CPD…

a)The majority of their efforts in relation to CPD had been spent arranging the structure and process for school staff – they had not spent the same time reflecting on their own level of need.

b)Spending time out of school attending training, courses or visiting other schools was not the best use of their time – workload pressures were often stated as the main reason.

c)Overarching all of this was the view that the CPD of the headteacher was not really robustly and rigorously managed by the governing body via the performance management procedures. Heads usually managed the process themselves, involving the governors at the appropriate points. It was generally felt that there was not enough support or challenge in this area.

7. How best can these needs be met?

7.1 The headteachers consulted were almost unanimous in their view that there was a complete lack of development opportunities at the ‘right level’ for them. Many heads of a few years experience (more than three) had taken advantage of the Early Headship Provision, but had not been involved in anything similar since. In fact many lamented the fact that nearly all the support for leadership development disappeared after the first year of being in post – many felt something more structured needed to be provided on an ongoing basis.

7.2 As mentioned above, the desire for such support to take place via a process of ‘coaching and mentoring’ was a common request. Heads wanted an opportunity to work with another school leader with a level of experience and credibility that could support them to deal with the day to day challenges of the role.

7.3 Linked to this notion of coaching and mentoring is the idea of collaborative reading groups. A number of headteachers involved in the research had taken part in a reading group offered by the LA in association with the IOE. This had been very well received by the heads involved and the process of ‘word of mouth’ meant that there was an amount of interest among other heads should such an offering be repeated.

7.4It must be said that the headteachers interviewed were critical of theLA's attempts to meet their CPD requirements through more standard systems of training and courses. The half termly offering labelled as ‘Heads’ CPD’ was felt to be more a national strategy briefing session rather than anything useful on a leadership level for heads. It was generally felt that there was a lack of capacity at LA level for delivering the type of CPD that heads needed.

8. What is the most effective role for the LA in identifying and / or meeting these needs?

8.1In response to this question, the majority of headteachers were sceptical about the level of support the LA was going to be able to provide in the future. The election of a new Conservative/Liberal Democrat government and the prospect of significant public sector budget cuts led most headteachers to believe that the LA would continue to be ‘wound back’ to a very limited service within a short space of time.

8.2Consequently, headteachers attempted to be realistic in their expectation of what the LA could provide in terms of support for identifying and meeting the CPD needs of headteachers.

8.3 Many headteachers felt that the governors needed to be trained and supported so that they could more effectively put PM and CPD procedures in place. The role of the SIP was also questioned here – with many headteachers being unclear what the SIP role should be. In fact, headteacher PM and related CPD was considered to be an area that required much more training, development and overall clarity for all involved.

8.4In terms of meeting the CPD needs of headteachers, it was generally felt that an appropriate role for the LA was to act as a signposting and facilitating service and, when appropriate, identifying and bringing in high quality outside speakers and presenters.

8.5In addition to this was the view that there should be much more offered in the field of high quality networking opportunities, such as the headteacher reading groups discussed above. Again, the issue of ‘credibility’ was raised here as being vitally important to the success of such initiatives. The pressures of headship meant that any time spent out of school needed to be measured in terms of relevance to their role and impact on school improvement. Headteachers pointed out that they may attend something once, but any lack of credibility, relevance and impact would limit any future involvement.