Welcome to the latest issue of Leadership Focus.
I hope you are enjoying your well-deserved summer break, and if you’re looking for something to read, we have some great features inside this special digital-only issue of the magazine.
Ofsted and school inspection have barely been out of the news since the tragic death of head teacher Ruth Perry, and NAHT has been at the forefront of calling for radical and immediate change in this area. We have produced a new feature on the state of inspection where we outline the problems with the current regime and, true to NAHT’s values, point out what actions need to be taken and how the system can be improved for everyone.
We also take an in-depth look at NAHT’s recent campaigning activity on industrial action in an effort to secure concrete improvements in the areas of pay, funding, inspection and workload. This feature focuses on the activity in Wales, Northern Ireland and Jersey in particular. We had also planned to bring you a feature focusing on the situation in England, but major developments relating to the campaign meant we now plan to bring you a special updated feature on this later in the summer.
In June, NAHT held its flagship summer event, Inspiring Leadership, and we sent Leadership Focus’s very own Nic Paton to Birmingham so he could share with us why the conference continues to capture the imaginations of school leaders throughout the country.
Finally, we’ve given some space over to a project we always love to talk about, Primary Futures, the highly regarded school programme that allows pupils to connect with people working in industries they may one day wish to work in themselves. The initiative has had an astonishing 80,000 professionals sign up as volunteers since it began. And it does wonderful things to help erode damaging stereotypes about who can and can’t do certain jobs and raise our pupils’ ambitions while helping them see how the skills they’re learning at school might be equipping them for their chosen future careers.
It’s a bumper issue with something for everyone. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed making it.
We wish you a relaxing and fulfilling summer break.
David Gilmore
NAHT head of communications
Ps NAHT’s School Leadership podcast series explores the challenges and demands that affect leaders in schools. In a special edition, the podcast joined Inspiring Leadership delegates in June to capture the ideas, reflections and spirit of the 2023 conference. You can hear the full podcast at www.naht.org.uk/podcasts, and you can subscribe, rate and review the School Leadership podcast on your preferred podcast app.
First published 27 July 2023