Dr Chris Howard, headteacher of Lewis School Pengam, Caerphilly and new President of NAHT, used his speech at the annual conference to call on government to stop making the job of school leadership impossible. He will also call for an end to excessive and time-consuming bureaucracy in schools.
Speaking before the conference, Dr Howard said: ‘There are too many people minding forms and still not enough forming minds.’
The OECD has recently completed a major international study aimed at defining what good education systems will need to look like if they are to succeed. It found that school leadership is a key factor in improving school outcomes because it influences the motivations and capacities of teachers as well as the school climate and environment.
Dr Howard argues that Government’s determination to micro-manage what happens in schools is damaging school leaders’ capacity to respond to the OECD challenge. Dr Howard cites the development of the National Curriculum to illustrate the problem:
‘It’s always been over-laden with content. Now it’s now been nipped, tucked, stretched, squeezed and rebuilt more often than an aging rock star as government seeks to micro-manage each social matter of the moment by inventing another nationally prescribed learning programme to cure a perceived problem.’
‘School leaders don’t mind being accountable. But they must also be allowed to lead in determining the shape of the curriculum and the focus of young people’s learning. They also need to be free from the confusion created by over-complicated accountabilities.’
He makes a plea that Government and education professionals change the way they talk to each other and aim for common agreement on a set of values that will ensure that schools can meet the future with confidence and commitment.
Video montage shown by Chris Howard during his speech at NAHT Annual Conference 2009, in support of Unicef
Page Published: 06/05/2009
