Leadership for Tomorrow: Beyond the School Improvement Horizon

2017 | Education

Aimed at school leaders, those preparing for leadership and those with an interest in leadership development and policy.Leadership for Tomorrow considers what needs to change if schools are to really equip children and young people to thrive in a changing world. Instead of continually adding improvements to existing models of schooling, we need a more radical reconceptualisation of the function and purpose of schools. Such a change involves inhabiting the worlds of today and tomorrow simultaneously. Leadership for Tomorrow explores, in both practical and theoretical terms, the nature of the change leadership which can make this happen. Schools of Tomorrow (SoTo) was formed in 2011 by a group of school leaders who wondered how they could work together to shape a better future for their schools. Their experience and practice has directly informed the development of this book.

Leadership for Tomorrow draws on unpublished doctoral research by Dr Malcolm Groves, a founding member of the SoTo group, which examines the interconnectedness of trust, stakeholder engagement, leadership and educational outcomes in English secondary schools and research carried out by Andrew Hobbs, also a SoTo founder, which investigated how pupils and staff in five English secondary schools viewed themselves as learners. Rooted in the direct experience of innovative and successful school leaders, Leadership for Tomorrow offers strategies to enable leaders to take their approach to school improvement to the next level. Leadership is not confined simply to responding to the short-term demands of today. It has to combine this with a clear vision of tomorrow's needs and a determination to find practical and effective ways to plan to meet these needs within today's constraints. Some leaders are already successfully using this tension to fashion better futures for the children and young people in their care.

By sharing their experiences, Groves, Hobbs and West-Burnham hope to encourage leaders to go further in building their own and their school's capacity to live and grow successfully. Suitable for all school leaders.

Malcolm Groves (Author)

Andrew Hobbs (Author)

John West-Burnham (Author)