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We are pleased to welcome the following organisation who has joined the network :-

Name : Hong Kong Centre for the Development of Educational Leadership
Contact : Allan Walker
Web : http://www.fed.cuhk.edu.hk/leaders/

The National Training Center for Secondary Head teachers Ministry of Education has announced plans to host the 1st Forum for Chinese and International Secondary Head teachers. Organised by the National Training Center for Secondary Headteachers Ministry of Education and sponsored by the Ministry of Education China, this training center is based in Shanghai.

This forum will be divided into two sessions. Session one will take place in Hunan Province starting from May 4 to 6. Afterwards, the National Training Centre will organise a 3 day cultural tour in China. The theme of the conference is “Secondary Education in the Process of Globalization”

Session two will be in Shanghai starting from August 1 to 3^rd. Again the conference will be followed by a 3 day cultural tour around Shanghai. The theme for this second event is “The Promotion and Development of School Leadership”.

The purpose of the two events is to provide an opportunity for head teachers and educational researchers from all over the world to get together and share their experiences and research in education in general and educational leadership, management in particular.

No registration charge is required. Should you be able to participate, we could like to cover all the costs in China such as food, accommodation and domestic flights. All you need to pay is your own international flight.

Proposals are now invited for papers, plenary sessions, symposiums, round table or poster exhibition.

For all queries, please contact:

Dr. Zhang, JunHua
junhuazhang@hotmail.com
Assistant Dean(International Affairs)
National Training Centre for Secondary School Principals
Ministry of Education
3663 Zhongshan Rd( North)
Shanghai 200062
P.R.China.

Office Tel/Fax:0086 21 62232774
Mobile:0086 13122823906
Home: 0086 21 52500495
 

The network has continued to grow in recent months and the following organisations have joined or committed to joining the network :-

Name : Dutch Principals Academy
Contact : Berend Redder,Director
Web : http://www.nsa.nl

Name : Unitec New Zealand
Contact : Tanya Fitzgerald
Web : http://www.unitec.ac.nz/
  

The Center for Educational Leadership at the University of Washington exists to support leaders who embrace a mission of social justice and equity for all students - those leaders who are committed to the elimination of the achievement gap by changing the policies, practices and structures in schools and school systems that perpetuate inequities so often based on race, poverty and class.

The Center brings leaders together to develop their capacities through a variety of programs.  Center staff in partnership with faculty in the College of Education have developed a powerful leadership continuum that connects pre-service training of school principals with the pre-service of district level leaders. The continuum includes a year-long seminar series which is designed to provide a forum - among nationally recognized practitioners and scholars- where leaders can test their assumptions and leadership strategies for closing the achievement gap.

On October 28^th, the Center for Educational Leadership embarked on its third annual District Leaders Seminar Series by hosting a candid discussion with Adam Urbanski, President of the Rochester (N.Y.) Teachers Association. Mr. Urbanski is known not only for his long time tenure as the leader of over 1,000 teachers in the Rochester public schools system, but also for his role at the national level as a Vice President of the American Federal of Teachers. His topic- the role of teacher unions in impacting the achievement of all children- was of great interest to the superintendent teams, principals and education association members attending the seminar. This year’s scheduled presenters include: John Simpson, former Norfolk, VA Superintendent; Charlotte Danielson, author of Enhancing Student Achievement;  Rick Lear, Director of the Small Schools Project-University of Washington; Lucy West, Deputy Regional Superintendent, Region #9 (N.Y. City) and researcher and author, Mike Schmoker.

More information about the Center for Educational Leadership and its work can be found at www.k-12leadership.org.
  

International Leadership Institute: New Zealand
04/04/04 - Extracted from December Newsletter

The Educational Leadership Centre of the University of Waikato in New Zealand and the National College for School Leadership jointly hosted an International Leadership Institute (ILI) in New Zealand. The focus of the ILI was learning-centred leadership.

This initiative fell broadly under the umbrella of the International Network, established by the NCSL in 2002. The ILI was the first major international collaborative project of this nature, outside of England, intended to serve the interests of professional educational leaders as well as give shape and form to the International Leadership Network.

The International Network was a substantial opportunity for the international educational leadership community to meet at various times and places to further their work and levels of collaboration. It was always hoped that this might extend to school-based practitioners too. When the Network was first established there was a will for it to work to create closer and more collaborative ties between members. It was also agreed that there would be a benefit in having the Leadership Centres take the initiative rather than expecting the National College to remain responsible for initiating the contacts, collaboration and activities.

The March 2005 Institute was an opportunity for the Network members to meet and share ideas and initiatives. The ILI had a truly international perspective. It was an Institute, not a conference. The 80 participants came from at least eight countries so the potential to share their thinking was assured. The ILI had a number of speakers. They included John West-Burnham (UK) who will be the key speaker throughout the ILI, Jane Doughty (UK), Jeremy Kedian (NZ), Jan Robertson (NZ) and Robyn Ewing (Australia). The participants came from England, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, Pacific Island nations, South Africa and China.
 

In November, NCSL launched its Distributed leadership pack - a suite of materials to help schools share leadership effectively across the school community.

The materials are based on an exploration of how distributed leadership supports leadership teams and how larger numbers of leaders can be developed. This exploration has seen NCSL commission new work and undertake school based research into distributed and learning centred leadership.

This pack contains a set of tools devised to help schools evaluate and develop their own distributed leadership. These tools are designed for leaders in primary and secondary schools, and can be used collectively or as free standing pieces. They include:

• An introduction to distributed leadership and the contents of this pack. 
• What we know about middle leaders, including a report on what we can learn about middle leadership from Ofsted data and how middle leaders contributed to the school improvement process
• What the research says: five pillars of distributed leadership in schools
• An overview of Learning-centred leadership and implications for distributed leadership
• Practical guides: the heart of the matter and a matter of trust, designed to help middle leaders in primary and secondary schools identify steps they can take to improve learning
• Planning for the future, which summarises the outcome of a NCSL research project, ‘Growing tomorrow’s leaders’, and of a number of seminars about succession planning.
• CDs and action pack of practical self diagnostic tools to help review and plan a leadership strategy. This includes an audio recording addressing the implications that distributed leadership has for school leaders and its connection to teaching and learning. And a collection of research reports and summaries addressing the topic of distributed leadership.

The materials have been launched in conjunction with a new section of the College’s website (www.ncsl.org.uk/distributedleadership) are available from NCSL, priced £30.
 

FutureSight is part of international project undertaken with the OECD, the DfES Innovation Unit and Demos. It explores the nature of schools and their response to the challenges of the 21st century.

FutureSight considers a set of six scenarios for schooling in the future, initially developed by the OECD in 2001. These scenarios are based around the three themes of de-schooling, re-schooling and status quo.

The toolkit builds school leaders’ abilities to explore the complexity of the future through a series of structured activities. The toolkit costs £35 and includes a facilitator's guide, 10 participant workbooks, various games and a set of flipcharts that can be used with groups of up to 10 people.

http://www.ncsl.org.uk/index.cfm?pageID=randd-future-index#toolkit
 

We have recently worked with more than thirty schools on how creativity can be an integral part of the curriculum, contributing to raising standards in all subjects. The results of this work have been collated to produce Developing creativity for learning in the primary curriculum, launched in October 2004.

This is a practical guide on encouraging creative learning through curriculum change so that schools can gain the confidence to review and develop their own practice (copies are available from http://www.ncsl.org.uk/mediastore/image2/randd-creativity-for-learning.pdf ).

We are also working on a small-scale project with school leaders looking at creative approaches to day-to-day leadership issues. For example, how do leaders develop creative solutions and extend their own creative repertoire? This work will be ongoing throughout 2004-05.
 

Annual Review of Research
01/12/04 - Extracted from December Newsletter

The College’s second annual review of research has recently been published. This pulls together the research we have conducted and completed during 2003-04 and offers a thematic presentation of the findings and issues.

Copies can be downloaded from http://www.ncsl.org.uk/research/publications