What I said at Bett

Interesting panel discussion at the leaders bit of Bett: Steve Mumby, Brian Lightman, Joan McVitie, Heath Monk, Caroline Zwyrgowska-Dob and me.  Just to re-iterate the two main points I made:

1.     School leaders are not going to have the support that they used to have.  Governing bodies are going to have to get stronger and have a bit of distance from the school leadership team in order to be objective.  Their role in challenging the executive will need to be turned up a bit.  Their responsibility for the success of the school is going to increase hugely.

2.     It's vital the the chief leader in any school remain the person who heads up teaching and learning.  Schools need to hire (in collaboration with other schools if they are small) staff not just to run admin but also to engage with the community, deal with social services/CAHMS etc.  Teachers must be able to deal almost exclusively with teaching and learning and not be distracted by broader welfare issues, which have to be the concern of non-teachers.  Everyone on the panel agreed.  Steve pointed out how different we are from hospitals in this regard - and must remain so.