This book considers the developing nature of school leadership and the impact of new roles for headteachers inside and outside school and system leadership. School leadership is undergoing significant change as headteachers respond to new opportunities and challenges offered to or imposed on them as a result of government policy. There have been increasing calls for transformational change to redesign the school system to provide a suitable workforce for the knowledge economy and to manage the anticipated shortage of future school leaders. Sue Robinson combines her professional experience as a practising primary headteacher and National Leader of Education with recent research into the impact of government policy on the roles of primary heads to offer an analysis of the shifting nature of school leadership. Headteachers have taken advantage of roles available including consultancy, leadership of academies and federations and children's centres. Including interview material with 27 'outstanding' primary headteachers, this is the first book combining research and practitioner insight to show how: heads have managed the educational agenda; how they have built capacity in school to sustain their new internal and external roles; their motivations, insights and experiences; and the implications for government educational policy and leadership development.

Author Biography

Sue Robinson is headteacher of a large multi ethnic primary school and children's centre in Birmingham, UK. She was appointed as a National Leader of Education in 2007. Sue is a member of council for BELMAS and has lectured at Warwick University, UK, on educational leadership as part of its MA programme and facilitated for the National College on its Associate Headteacher programme. She has published articles in several journals, newspapers and websites including a regular blog for the National Education Trust, UK.