The Role of the Subject Leader of Education
Teaching schools are responsible for the designation, brokering, deploying and quality assuring SLEs. SLEs will be outstanding senior or middle leaders for a minimum of two years and will have a particular area or areas of expertise. SLEs will have a successful track record of school improvement and will be expected to provide school-to-school support within their own and other schools.
SLEs will:
- have excellent interpersonal skills
- be able to work sensitively and collaboratively with others
- have a commitment to outreach work
- understand what outstanding learning and teaching is
- understand what outstanding leadership practice in their own area of specialism(s) looks like
- have the ability to help other leaders to achieve it in their own context
SLEs may be commissioned to work in the following areas:
- continuing professional development: e.g. INSET, twilights, training days
- initial teacher training/NQT year
- school-based research and development work
- school improvement work
Support may be provided in the form of:
- Undertaking learning walks/observations
- Leading subject/departmental audits
- Coaching and mentoring
- One-to-one peer coaching
- Facilitated group support/training
- Data analysis
- Joint action planning
Impact of SLEs:
In their own school:
- an excellent form of continuing professional development for senior and middle leaders
- enhancing knowledge, skills and abilities to further improve their current role and influence others
- supporting schools’ internal succession planning strategies by enabling individuals to demonstrate that they are ready to step up to the next leadership level
- further developing skills such as coaching and mentoring to support colleagues in their own school
- re-energising and motivating both the SLE and, through dissemination of learning, other staff
- opportunity to share outstanding practice with colleagues
- learning about how different systems and contexts from the schools they support helps to develop practice back at their own setting.
To schools receiving support:
- peer-to-peer support and building leadership capacity delivered in a collaborative way
- partnership approach to developing local solutions, taking into account individual schools’ own circumstances
- embedding coaching and mentoring approaches that support sustainable change and improvement
- engaging with an outstanding expert with leadership skills in a particular field of practice who also understands current challenges, policy, best practice and local needs
- ensuring that staff feel empowered and have the skills, knowledge and understanding required to improve practice and in turn outcomes
- improved practice/systems are sustainable.