Superheads
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Everyone loves a superhead, don't they? Governments love 'em. Why? The 'before-and-after' effect of taking a school with massive problems and making a difference is the sort of transformation politicians love to praise. But is the rise and rise of the superhead all good news?
Heads you win
Superheads are often appointed to schools designated as 'failing'. These are schools where Ofsted inspectors have found serious shortcomings, like:
- poor SATS and GCSE exam results
- high levels of truancy or 'unauthorised absence'
- low teaching standards
- weak management
- low teacher morale
- high turnover of staff resulting in lack of continuity.
Parents may have decided this is the last school they want their children to go to. The person appointed to change things needs to have the skills and the personality to ensure a rise from rock bottom.
If they achieve it, the change is highlighted in the press. The media appreciate an articulate, confident talker – and superheads are always good talkers.
Teachers – at least the ones who continue with the superhead at the helm – respond to good management and start to take pride in their school. Students, too, flourish in a school that's run well. And parents will usually back someone who aims to 'turn the school around'.
Keeping up standards
Superheads are often inspiring leaders. They relish challenge, having overcome obstacles themselves to get up the education ladder.
But recent research says that the 'rescue mission' carried out by a charismatic head may not have lasting results. A study carried out by researchers at Newcastle and Warwick Universities for the Department for Education and Skills has found that schools run a real risk of slipping back when the head moves on to another job.
Keeping up standards over time is enormously difficult once schools have been raised from the lowest level. Unfortunately, conditions outside the school usually remain unchanged. So it takes constant teamwork, with staff throughout the school offering mutual support, to maintain steady improvement.
Some heads are developing ideas of 'distributed leadership', empowering all teachers to play a role in creating short- and long-term changes in a school. And some educationists are speaking out against the whole idea of the 'superhead'. It may be significant that the very people said to be 'superheads' don't use the term themselves!
