Accountability for Middle Leaders

Starter What do you feel you are accountable for in your role? – Write this onto a Post-it note.

Training Outcomes By the end of this session you will have: Explained the key aspects of your role Suggested which aspects are the most important in raising pupil progress Considered how you can change your practice to become more efficient

Task 1: What is the Role of a Middle Leader? Complete the middle leader’s job description.

Task 2: School View on the Role of the Middle Leader Compare the job description you have just written with the school version. What are the key differences?

Task 3: What are the Most Challenging Aspects of the Role? Work with a partner and discuss which elements of middle leadership you find the most challenging.

Task 4: Challenging and Supporting Mrs Jones is an experienced teacher in your subject area who is having increasing difficulty in the classroom. Very low residual scores are documented for her GCSE and A level groups last year. Concerns have been raised by a TA in her lessons and as her Head of Department you have concerns too regarding health and safety and poor student behaviour. A formal observation judged her lesson to be 3 – requires improvement. She has had some extended time off already this year and has told you in the return to work conversation that she feels stressed when she thinks about school work. She is keen to make progress and has expressed a wish since her targets were set to observe other teachers delivering good or outstanding lessons. Each week she sends a growing number of pupils to work with you. She works long hours at home as well as at school. Despite this, concerns were flagged in the whole-school work scrutiny that, even though work was marked, comments made didn’t really support students to make further progress. You have observed her once formally this term and senior staff have made two drop-in observations during an Ofsted preparation ‘learning walk’. Two lessons were deemed ‘requires improvement’ and one ‘good’.

Task 4: (continued) Write a support/action plan for Mrs Jones. Date Deadlines this week Time needed Monitoring

Plenary What do you feel is the difference between leadership and management? Write a positive comment about another member of the group’s leadership style.