Blog posts by: Daniel Belcher

So why write another blog on middle leadership? Well, in one way the answer is simple. I would like you to ensure that you take up your three member places on our new Middle leaders’ programme which begins on 30 January 2025 or consider becoming a delivery partner for our National Award for Middle Leadership (NAML) programme.

As a senior education lead at SSAT, it continues to be a great privilege to work with inspiring, and aspiring, school leaders. They share a commitment to improving the life chances of our young people, often working in very challenging contexts.

Autumn can be a difficult time of year. As clocks go back and the dark nights get longer, we increasingly look forward to Christmas lights. Similarly, in a world darkened by inequity we need places of light and hope. We also need to be those people of hope.

Peter Drucker, the management consultant, author and educator, is quoted as saying “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”. You may have heard this phrase before, but culture can be difficult to pin down.

We know how important strong leadership at all levels is to school improvement. Just as ‘teachers change lives’, ‘leaders set the weather’. We want to inspire and equip more leaders than ever before.

Let’s dive straight in and ask: What is it that makes someone a leader? And how do you identify leadership potential?

Schools, or more accurately the people who work in them, have done an incredible job in providing stability and continuity for pupils at a time of great uncertainty.  The pandemic has highlighted how the school is much more than a place of learning, it is at the heart of the community.   

I started teaching at the turn of the millennium. Reflecting on my early years, I am massively grateful for the many opportunities I was given to grow in a supportive culture that trusted me to take on leadership responsibility, even while I still had so much to learn.

Dan Belcher, Senior Education Lead at SSAT explains why investing in professional development and your staff, creates a culture that becomes the norm.

In conversation with Teach Secondary, Dan Belcher, Senior Education Lead at SSAT, who oversees the design and delivery of our leadership development programmes, explains how SSAT can help you to unlock your school’s latent leadership talent