What is a Specialist Leader of
Education?
Outstanding middle and senior leaders who have the
skills to support individuals or teams in similar positions
in other schools.
They understand what outstanding leadership practice
in their area of expertise looks like and are skilled in
helping other leaders to achieve it in their own context.
The purpose of SLEs
• Improving outcomes for children
• Leaders supporting leaders
• Drawing on specialist knowledge and areas of expertise
• Being flexible, to meet the needs of supported schools
• Sustainability – helping schools to improve their own
leadership capacity.
SLE
LLE
NLE
Teaching School
Alliance
Training
•
All SLEs have to attend one day of Mandatory Core Training (held at Harton Technology College, South
Shields)
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An introduction to school-to-school support
to equip SLEs with the tools and techniques for effective school-to-school support
to enable SLEs to support change and ensure impact when supporting others
Plus entitlement to two optional enrichment sessions from the menu:
•
Leading Teaching and learning (one enrichment session)
– To equip SLEs with a toolkit of strategies to support and improve the quality of teaching and learning
in client schools
•
Developing your leadership potential (one enrichment session)
– To enable SLEs to choose the right leadership style in supporting others and effectively deal with
resistance
•
Developing others, including coaching (two enrichment sessions)
– To enable leaders to develop a culture of coaching across the school and give strategies for getting the
best out of a team
•
Leading and Managing organisations (one enrichment session)
– To raise awareness of key elements of how schools operate successfully
Eligibility
SLEs can come from any school, not just outstanding schools
The eligibility criteria focus on:
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•
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Experience
Track record
Capacity and commitment
Skills
References
Teaching schools will also set their own prioritisation criteria,
according to need/demand in a given area
The designation process
•
national application round – download an application form from
the National College website and apply online
•
applicants indicate which teaching school alliance they wish to
consider their application
•
applications will be passed to the indicated teaching school
alliance for sifting and assessment by a panel
•
teaching schools will invite successful applicants to an assessment
exercise
•
teaching schools will notify applicants of their outcome
What are the benefits for the SLE?
• Opportunities to work independently, to be creative and
try out new ideas
• Developing coaching and facilitation skills
• The opportunity to network with peers
• Gaining experience of different school environments
• The chance to learn from ideas and approaches used in
other schools
• Developing skills and knowledge which can benefit their
own school
• The knowledge they are helping others to improve and are
having a positive impact on outcomes for children.
How will SLEs be deployed?
Commissioning
•
Support could be commissioned (and potentially funded) by schools, local authorities, diocesan
bodies, academy trusts, the Department for Education…
Brokerage
•
Teaching schools are responsible for brokering SLE support within their alliance or area. They
will receive requests for SLE expertise, and allocate the right SLEs to the schools needing
support.
Deployment will vary depending on need, e.g.:
•
a two-day diagnostic exercise
•
half a day of support each week for two terms
•
a three-month full-time support role
Quality assurance and impact monitoring
•
Teaching schools are responsible for quality assurance
and need to demonstrate impact on outcomes for
children.
•
For each deployment, the SLE’s school, the supported
school and the teaching school will agree the scope of
the work, objectives and impact measures, which will
be reviewed and monitored at the end.
•
Ultimately the SLE’s designation may be reviewed if
there is a lack of evidence to demonstrate the impact of
their work.
Application Process and Key Dates
1. General information and guidance.
www.education.gov.uk/nationalcollege/sle:
2. Two part application process.
Part 1 - Online Registration (triggers e-mail and instructions to head-teacher)
Part 2 - Application Form (section 1) and Headteacher Reference (section 2)
Section 1 must be completed and e-mailed to Headteacher to complete
reference and to upload application to National College.
3. Closing date 30th September 2012 for the last round. The next round will open in May 2013
4. Interviews
5. Notification of designations