Roger Eagle – Senior Adviser

BCS/RE/ep (01603) 433276 Extn. 192

28^th June 2000

To: Headteachers of all Norfolk LEA Nursery, Infant, First, Primary, Middle, Junior,

First & Middle and Special Schools

Dear Headteacher

Leadership and management development and training

The importance of good leadership and management has long been recognised as central to improvement in our schools. Strong and effective leadership lies at the heart of our approach to raising standards and we aim to provide the support for headteachers and other senior managers which will lead to sustainable improvement.

You will be aware of the many national initiatives which are aimed at developing the leadership skills of headteachers and establishing common management systems in all schools. At a more local level, there is a need to ensure that these national developments are integrated successfully into the work of our schools. However, we believe there is also a need to provide a complementary programme of support which promotes the leadership skills of school leaders and which includes:

opportunities for learning from leading practitioners;
opportunities for reflection and discussion with colleagues.

We believe this is best achieved by working together with headteachers to decide the kind of support which is needed and how this can be provided most effectively. The attached paper sets out our plans for developing this partnership and includes details of some additional leadership and management training opportunities for the coming school year. In this way, we aim to strengthen our links with school leaders and successfully meet your professional development needs.

Yours sincerely

Dr Bryan Slater

Director of Education