What helps and hinders emerging leaders in schools?

SSAT’s Leadership Legacy Project has been a core part of our membership offer for several years now. It is designed to support teachers who are in the early stages of their career and showing clear leadership potential. As schools start to nominate their candidates for next year’s cohort, we asked the current group for their reflections on their development journey to date.

When I first started on this course, I didn’t have any extra responsibility, at the end of last year an opportunity came up to be a pastoral leader and I applied, and successfully began my role in January 2023. The support given for my new role during SSAT meetings from other professionals was fantastic and really helped me to get an insight of what I was about to face different ways to tackle it. It was discussed from the get-go in the LLP that every person in a school is a leader, and this really helped my confidence to grow. When considering potential hindrances, for me it has to be starting a new role alongside this and finding the time to complete everything however, the support from Steven and the team has been fantastic and has really helped me along with this process.

Key reflections have been that anyone in a school can be a leader, and when discussing the strengths we all have to make us a successful leader really helped me to progress professionally and also helped my confidence to grow. The support provided throughout the project helps it to be so successful, the guest speakers really give an insight in how you can improve and the advice they give is fantastic. Jodie Snowling, Sandbach High School

One of the main things that has helped my own development journey in school has been trying to get involved in different events and opportunities. What this has allowed for is that I have been able to gain a lot of experience, particularly in organisation and leadership. The Leadership Legacy Project was also really important because it allowed me to work outside the realms of my department and opened the opportunity for whole school roles. One of the challenges I have found is that having a vision for a project is the easy part but putting that into action can be much harder. Ensuring that all stakeholders view your work in the same way and with the same value that you do can be hard. The main thing that helped me with this is ensuring that rationale is supported with research that proves why the project is needed. Further to this, having supportive school leaders also helps.

The Leadership Legacy Project initially offered me the opportunity to gain leadership experience in my school and work in a more whole school position. It allowed me the chance to spend more time looking at research and widening my understanding beyond my own school. However, whilst the think piece has been really beneficial, the most significant impact has been the opportunity to visit other schools and network with other staff. I have loved the opportunity to get out into other schools, something that we don’t often get the opportunity to. I learnt a lot from visiting my mentor’s school as well as taking the opportunity for a shadowing day. It has really helped because it exposed me to parts of the school that I had not previously seen and the people that I met were incredibly generous with their time, resources and advice. Since taking part of the project, I have been given additional responsibilities in school and have been given the opportunity to further my leadership through this. Helena Pickerill, Chase Terrace Academy

Having supportive colleagues has definitely helped me in my career so far. I am lucky to be working at a school where my colleagues, head of department and SLT all look out for me; they are approachable when I need to talk to someone, and they give me opportunities to develop as a teacher and as an individual. We are also lucky to have a wide range of CPD sessions in school, which are useful when it comes to reflecting on your own work and ways to improve. With the school I am at being so large, sometimes it feels as though you do lots of things to help out within the department/school but you still find yourself being stagnant and perhaps not progressing the way you’d like. Something that helped me with this was speaking directly to people. Rather than sitting and wondering if opportunities will arise, simply go and ask people, put yourself out there and often this confidence will pay off.

I am incredibly grateful to have been part of the Leadership Legacy Project this year. I have met some brilliant teachers from all over the country, all of whom have given me ideas to help my further development. Something which I will cherish is the opportunity to go to visit different school settings. It can often feel like your school is the extent of the education sector, but the LLP has given me the chance to explore different places and types of school, which you wouldn’t always get to do otherwise. Furthermore, through taking part in the project I have put myself into situations that would otherwise not have happened; I have liaised with heads of department and a number of new students to gather information on my project, and I am lucky to have been met with willingness and interest. Harriet Ward, Wright Robinson College

Having a mentor to guide and advise you when starting your journey as a teacher is incredibly instrumental. You are able to observe and learn from an experienced individual while developing your own teacher philosophy. The Leadership Legacy Programme has helped me to reflect and develop on my vision of leadership and cement my understanding about the qualities of an outstanding leader. Meeting and interacting with professionals who have the same goals has been extremely beneficial as it has given me to opportunity to learn from experts from a range of different school, who have experience in all areas of teaching and leadership. Lubna Hussain, Trinity Academy Bradford

What has helped with my journey so far is the vast wealth of experience and knowledge experts within the field are keen to share at many times. Having the opportunity to take advice and guidance from those with years of expertise, has helped me to understand that this is an ever-developing field to consistently reflect upon.

The downside to this is the difficulties of imposter syndrome, I even feel unworthy of saying that I could possibly suffer with this, that I am not even worthy of being good enough for this self-doubt. But the kindness and the co-operative nature of the profession shows to me that we build on each other’s successes, there is no need or time for hostilities or unhealthy competition as this simply means that the key role we play in society is diminished.

My key reflection on  the project this year is to appreciate the wealth and depth of knowledge out there. The opportunity to take the time to just pause and  have  deep, meaningful, and sometimes vulnerable conversations with others across the profession has been profound to my own development. It has confirmed and solidified in my mind that education was the correct path for me to take in life in order to give back to society. I have been inspired on many occasions and I now aspire to perform my own research projects alongside teaching. I endeavour to be like those to have influenced me to get this far with a hope to give back and empower those after me. Dr Jacob Ward, Townley Grammar School

My development journey as a teacher of four years has been enhanced through the experiences set out by the Leadership Legacy Project. The in-school visit at Riverside School particularly helped shape my development journey as we strategically began to consider a project that would prepare us for the challenges that came about with being a leader. The obstacles that hindered my development journey came through revising a developed think piece that made sense and has a purpose to it. Considering the educational visions and principles behind my think piece helped overcome the obstacles and difficulties as I was able to recognise the purpose for why I had taken the project on.

My key reflections on the Leadership Legacy Project this year have been being able to implement a project in my school and see how it develops/grows whilst keeping up with ensuring that the purpose is being met despite any obstacles. Participating in the project has impacted my development as I am able to step up as a leader and use the skills to delegate/manage the basis of my project.

The weekly SSAT publications have been insightful to read as they have developed my skills as a teacher as I learn and enhance knowledge on different pedagogical practices. The blog post that I found most inspiring was the case study on ‘Women in Leadership and Education’ this is especially because I work in a school where the female students are a minority because of the population of male students in the area, therefore I understand that female students need to see and experience hearing from female leaders. Hennah Ahmed, Stratford School Academy