Forging closer school-to-school links

System leaders – school leaders who work beyond their own school to support other schools – have been a growing presence in the last few years.

They have developed from small pockets of heads and senior leaders creating informal alliances with each other a decade ago to the hundreds of Teaching School Alliances, trusts and partnerships containing thousands of national leaders of education (NLEs), specialist leaders of education (SLEs) and the like that exist today.

System leadership can take many forms. For example, heads of outstanding schools can become NLEs, who support schools in challenging circumstances. Experienced middle or senior leaders interested in supporting their opposites in other schools in areas such as subject leadership, assessment for learning or behaviour can become SLEs, while governors have the chance to become national leaders of governance (NLGs).