Developing your middle leaders

Developing middle leaders is not a straightforward job, especially with the changeability and fluidity that we often find in education.

With challenges around retention, schools need to think carefully about how they can support, encourage and develop their middle leaders.

Strong middle leadership is vital for the success of a school – less experienced staff are well led and senior staff are supported from below. Getting middle leadership training right takes time and money, two things that schools are quite often short of.

Middle leadership can be a grey area in some teachers’ careers. The concept of management at a departmental level or a pastoral level is something that takes time to master. Quite often, middle leaders are burdened with relatively high teaching loads too and this can make the concept of professional development somewhat daunting, especially with the level of day-to-day tasks that can quickly accumulate.