Subject Leadership in the Primary School

A Practical Guide for Curriculum Coordinators

Joan Dean

• Publisher: David Fulton Publishers
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781136600975
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

First Published in 2004. Need help coping with the demands of working as a subject teacher? Use this book to unravel the requirements of the subject leader/coordinator's role, improve your leadership skills, access expertise through examples of current practice, feel more confident working with senior staff, meet the challenges posed by inclusion and managing Teaching Assistants. Based on up-to-date TTA standards this is an ideal companion for both NQTs and more experienced teachers. It can also be used to support INSET training.

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

In today’s primary schools almost every teacher is likely to be in a leadership role. Teachers are leaders in their own classrooms in any case, and in larger schools there may be teachers with responsibility for coordinating the work of a Key Stage or a year group but the demand for subject coordination or leadership means that almost everyone will be a subject leader for at least one subject, and in a small school subject leaders may be responsible for two or even more subjects. You may therefore find yourself advising colleagues with far more teaching experience than you have. You may also not be a trained specialist in the subject you have been asked to lead and will need to attend courses in order to learn about the job. It is also the case that there is little allowance for non-contact time in primary schools and this makes the task even more difficult. Being a subject leader is not an easy task, but it is a very rewarding one in which you can really make a difference to what is happening in your school.

Those in subject leadership posts are often called ‘subject coordinator’. Bell and Ritchie suggest that:

The term subject leader suggests a more proactive approach that anticipates events, plans for improvement and creates opportunities to increase the effectiveness of teaching in the subject and pupils’ learning across the whole school. The term coordinator tends to imply a position that is passive and reactive to the responsibilities and opportunities that present themselves. (1999:10)

The role has changed over recent years and the term ‘subject leader’ now seems to be the more appropriate one. The National Standards for Subject Leaders describe the core purpose of the subject leader as being:

To provide professional leadership and management for a subject to secure high quality teaching, effective use of resources and improved standards of learning and achievement for all pupils. (Teacher Training Agency 1998:4)

It goes on to note that ‘a subject leader plays a key role in supporting, guiding and motivating teachers of the subject and other adults’.

A good school with a good head teacher tries to empower its staff. Starratt suggests that a school which is empowering its members manages three things:

1. each person finds a personally fulfilling way of exercising his or her unique talents in the pursuit of common ideas and ideals;

2. members of the community are able to achieve things that they could not achieve on their own; and

3. the power of the ideas and ideals raises people’s abilities to a new level and gives a focus and an intensity to their activities that they would not have without those ideas and ideals. (1995:39)

He also suggests that:

Leadership emerges out of a vision of what the leader and the colleagues can accomplish. The vision embraces an ideal, a dream that is grounded in those fundamental meanings and values that feed a sense of human fulfilment. The compelling power of leadership flows from a shared vision. (1995:14)

As a subject leader you have to be both a leader and a manager. Leaders are concerned with developing and communicating vision, inspiration and the direction which results from these. Managers are concerned with making and implementing plans, setting up systems, managing resources, and are accountable for getting things done. Both aspects of the role require you to work effectively with people.

A number of writers speak of transactional and transformational leadership. Terrell describes transformational leaders:

Leaders who ‘transform’ are good at establishing and communicating values and beliefs. They communicate aims and directions and have a strong sense of vision. These form the basis of setting long-term goals, which are reduced down to specific and individual short-term goals. (1997:103)

Transformational leadership is leadership which works with and through other people, helping them to develop their values, achieve goals and fulfil a vision. It should help to empower them to develop their own skills of leadership in the classroom. Transactional leadership is leadership in which colleagues negotiate their individual interests with their leader as opposed to group interests. Both types of leadership may be needed.

The role of the subject leader

Bell and Ritchie suggest that:

1. the aim of effective curriculum leadership and coordination, regardless of subject area, is to provide the best possible learning opportunities for children in the school at any given time;

2. the post of coordinator is a rapidly evolving and complex one which requires extending professional and personal development into new areas, particularly those of leadership and management. (1999:2)

Schools make use of subject expertise in various ways. OFSTED surveys, not very surprisingly, suggest that the teaching of specialists in a subject is better than that of other teachers. With this in view some schools work on the basis that subject specialists teach their subject to more than one class. This is not easy to do, particularly in a small school which is staffed on the basis of one teacher per class, but some schools arrange specialist teaching, often in Years 5 and 6, by teachers exchanging classes. Another kind of organisation is one in which the specialist teaches a block of work with a particular class over a short period of time each term, either by the exchange of classes or because the head teacher or a supply teacher covers for the specialist. This sort of arrangement is unlikely to cover all the teaching of the subject, except perhaps in music where a specialist part-time teacher may be employed.

In most schools, at least some of the subject leader’s task will be that of supporting and helping colleagues with their teaching of the subject. Once again, time for this may be made available by some employment of supply cover or by the head teacher covering for your class while you help a colleague. This is likely to be very limited since every subject leader needs this kind of opportunity. Much of your influence is likely to be through discussion with colleagues and advice and suggestions to help them with their teaching.

As subject leader you must first of all get to know the subject well, be familiar with the major concepts it involves, the evidence used, the skills it requires and the way in which this knowledge and these skills can best be taught. You need to keep up to date with developments both in the subject itself and in knowledge of ways of teaching it. You will then be in a position to advise colleagues about it. You also need to be knowledgeable about ways of using ICT to support your subject teaching. Your responsibilities are likely to include the following:

• auditing the current state of the subject;

• developing with colleagues a vision of what the school might achieve in the subject in the future;

• the development of policies and schemes of work in consultation with colleagues;

• planning with colleagues for the development of work in the subject and contributing to the school development plan;

• identifying aims and setting objectives for work in the subject;

• providing guidance on learning and teaching methods in the subject;

• supporting colleagues in their work in the classroom with advice and guidance and sometimes working alongside them;

• leading discussion about work in the subject;

• providing for the professional development of colleagues in their work in your subject and feeding back to them what you have learned in courses you have attended;

• helping colleagues with the differentiation of work to provide for children of different abilities and different backgrounds;

• taking responsibility for resources for the subject and ensuring that there are satisfactory systems for their use;

• helping colleagues to develop literacy, numeracy and ICT skills through the subject;

• ensuring a safe working and learning environment;

• evaluating what is happening in work in the subject at regular intervals;

• encouraging colleagues to engage in action research to develop their work and providing opportunities for teachers to share good practice;

• supporting newly qualified teachers as they develop work in your subject;

• working with relevant classroom assistants to enable them to contribute to work in the subject;

• undertaking relevant administrative tasks as they affect work in the subject;

• keeping the head teacher, governors and parents informed about work in the subject;

• liaising where appropriate with teachers in neighbouring primary schools, subject specialists in secondary schools and specialist advisers and inspectors.

Leaders have to manage both tasks and people, and both elements of the job are equally important. If you emphasise the importance of the task without taking into account the way people may be feeling about it, you are unlikely to be successful. Equally, if you are so concerned with the way people are feeling that the task does not get done, you will not succeed.

Good leaders need to be concerned with the motivation of those they lead and use that motivation to achieve good teaching. Frase and Conley suggest that ‘motivated teachers are enthusiastic, skilled, happy to share knowledge and wisdom with their learners, and happy to share their success with their fellow teachers’ (1994:16). Teachers are likely to be motivated by the following:

• Children developing and learning. Most teachers gain satisfaction from seeing that a child has learned something or acquired a new skill as a result of the teacher’s efforts. There is also the longer-term satisfaction of seeing a child develop.

• Enthusiasm for subject matter. The teacher who really cares about the material he or she is teaching will be stimulated to maintain skill and knowledge and is more likely to inspire children.

• Recognition, interest, encouragement, praise. Providing these is an important part of the leadership role.

• A chance to contribute and to shine. People enjoy gaining recognition for the contribution they make to the group.

• A chance to take responsibility. Opportunities for this should be widely distributed.

• A challenge to professional skill. Problem-solving in situations which demand skills which you possess is very satisfying. Many teachers will rise to the challenge posed by a difficult pupil or a request to work at some new task.

• The inspiration of others. One of the main benefits of working collaboratively as a team is the opportunity for people to inspire each other.

To be a good leader you need to be positive and enthusiastic and convey this enthusiasm to others. You need to be clear about where you see the work in the subject going and how you might get there with the support of colleagues, but realistic about what can be achieved. You need to make others feel valued, thanking them for their contributions, praising and celebrating their achievements. You need to be a good listener, sensitive to other people, encouraging others to voice their ideas and drawing together the ideas which are put forward. Good leaders are not afraid of differences of opinion, recognising that they can be profitable when good new ways forward come out of this kind of discussion. You need to be ready to take decisions but involve other people in putting their views forward before arriving at a conclusion. You need to be honest, not afraid to admit mistakes, ready to take advice and ready to support other people.

You will need a range of leadership and management skills as a subject leader. You will need to be a good communicator, both in person and in writing. You need administrative and organisational skills both in dealing with colleagues and in managing resources. You will, from time to time, need to be decisive and make wise judgements, but able to do this sensitively and fairly. You need to be a good problem-solver. You need to be able to lead group discussion, handling conflict in the group constructively and leading it to conclusions which are workable. You will need the skills of motivating, counselling, advising, encouraging, mentoring, coaching, monitoring. You also need to be good at managing your own time and dealing with a measure of stress, able to give and receive criticism in a constructive way. In particular, you need a sense of humour.

One particular set of skills which will be important in making the job manageable involves assertiveness – the ability to say what you want in a clear and confident manner but without upsetting other people. Subject leaders may have to deal with other people being aggressive or trying to get their own way without regard for others, or passive in letting other people do what they want regardless. As a leader you need to encourage assertive behaviour in colleagues, recognising that people who suppress what they feel may at a later stage become aggressive. It is better to express clearly one’s feelings and beliefs in a direct and honest way. A person acting assertively will make clear statements, distinguish between fact and opinion, seek the opinions of others and look for ways of resolving problems.

As a leader you will probably work in different styles according to the circumstances. Occasionally you will need to use a directive approach, but more often your approach will be open and democratic. This is especially important since effective leadership is dependent on carrying people with you. You need to be supportive, to involve people and bring together the best ideas, building strong bonds between you and using these for the benefit of the school. This kind of leadership is kno...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Assessing the situation
• 3 Culture and vision
• 4 Policies and schemes of work
• 5 Development planning
• 6 Leading the team
• 7 Providing for professional development
• 8 Supporting colleagues
• 9 Managing resources
• 10 Monitoring the work of other teachers
• 11 Managing change
• 12 Evaluation and record-keeping
• 13 Providing for all children
• 14 Getting organised
• 15 Working with support staff
• 16 Action research
• 17 Dealing with problems
• 18 Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index