Conferences and articles

Since 'moving on' from successful headship career last March, now set up as freelance consultant and trainer offering wide range of experience and expertise in school improvement.  Having led two schools out of seriously negative situations, I believe that I have a lot to offer around leadership development, capacity building, curriculum development, policies and procedures, morale and motivation , communications etc. etc. Have built some links and very keen to use my experience to continue working on school improvement.

Great experience recently working in Florida (Lesson Evaluation project) and North Carolina (School Reviews) - really challenging and very steep learning curve but enjoyed it overall.  As the NCSL programmes I've been working on (LFTM, Lead Pathways) are changing direction other opportunities are starting to appear - hopefully more chances to go to the US as well - we'll see.

Thought that my education conference days were over but went to one a few weeks ago - all about characteristics of high performing schools.  Really enjoyed it - and it wasn't just about 'outstanding' schools in favourable circumstances.  Covered a range of successful, improving schools which have several characteristics in common.  Quite a lot of it resonated with me as there were key elements which I worked on when leading schools in challenging circumstances. For example, the importance of vision and clarity of purpose to name but one.

One element, which I firmly believe is crucial but doesn't seem to be overtly mentioned a lot is the importance of quality professional relationships (QPR!!).  Perhaps it runs through a lot of successful school improvement leadership but I haven't heard much about how important effective professional relationships are nor how leaders should go about developing them.  Perhaps I've missed the range of books and articles on the subject! Talking of articles - I've been writing one about exactly this - the importance of relationships and how they can be developed.  Even though I'm quite passionate about this, it's been hard going - I'm finding trying to write in 'article' style difficult.  I would welcome any thoughts/observations on the general theme - importance of quality professional relationships (QPR!).  Over the last few months, I've also been developing some materials about the key elements of relationship building and the leadership skills needed - a school improvement/leadership development package focusing on this theme. 

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