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Jim Keegans from the National CPD Team plots the road offered by the Flexible Route to Headship.

One successful participant from the Flexible Route to Headship (FRH) programme commented:

"The programme significantly changed the way I operate as a leader and now as headteacher".

The independent evaluation team from the University of Glasgow in their report to the Scottish Government (December '08) said: "the programme (FRH) has a significant contribution to make to the formation and development of school leaders".

This positive evaluation of FRH focused on the unique feature of the support and challenge provided for each participant by a Professional Development Coach. The uniqueness of FRH is in coaching as the centrepiece, the model developed and the impact of coaching in terms of the potential for personal transformation of the participant and their impact on colleagues in school. The impact of coaching is evidenced through the experience of another participant now a headteacher: "I learned as much about myself as I did about headship".

"The programme significantly changed the way I operate as a leader and now as headteacher".

The Scottish Government rationale for FRH is to provide choice for those aspiring to headship. Following extensive consultation, FRH is offered as an additional pathway to achieving the Standard for Headship, which recognises the need to provide choice and flexibility to address the anticipated shortfall of headteachers over the next ten years. FRH recognises that individuals learn in different ways and that some aspiring headteachers prefer a programme offering coaching to support their learning.

The programme requires individuals to self-evaluate against the Standard for Headship and construct a Professional Learning Plan (PLP). This critical reflection involves an emotional competence inventory with the participant focusing on an awareness and deeper understanding of their own emotions, attitude and behaviours in their leadership and management practices. An individual PLP is addressed by a variety of CPD opportunities designed to meet both individual and school needs. The participant is supported by the coach in the construction and implementation of the PLP. An important role for the headteacher relates to being the third person in a triad of participant, coach and headteacher, providing support for the participant in their progress towards achieving the Standard for Headship and commented on by one successful participant as: "Giving me the opportunity to think at a far deeper level...far more strategically".

The coach role involves that of coach, mentor, tutor, facilitator and assessor, a sophisticated role offering a unique professional development opportunity for the coach. The evaluation team refer to the coaching model as one of supporting participants in their professional development and as: "The centrepiece of FRH, a significant mechanism for forming leaders".

As well as offering choice and flexibility, FRH will:

• be predominantly practice-based with a focus on impact on learners, learning and teaching
• through the PLP, have a clear link to Curriculum for Excellence
• capitalise on experiential learning
• take account of different learning styles of participants
• focus on promoting personal and potentially transformational development
• recognise and explore the importance of personal qualities and interpersonal skills in successful leadership• promote the coaching relationship as instrumental in influencing behaviour and attitude
• enhance the coaching capacity within schools and the Authority
• encourage reflection on interaction with colleagues in leadership development
• promote critical reflection on and analysis of all aspects of leadership and management
• acknowledge and utilise, as a key methodology, the power of coaching in developing self confidence, competence and expertise in leadership and management
• promote critical reading of relevant literature to inform practice
• be subject to assessment through a framework of formative and summative processes against the Standard for Headship and in which the GTCS assumes a prominent role.

Following on the success of the pilot programme involving five Education Authorities and 27 successful participants, a second cohort of four Education Authorities (Fife, Dundee, Highland and Dumfries & Galloway) with 35 participants are currently engaged with FRH. A third cohort will be launched in April 2009 following the decision by the Scottish Government to roll out the programme on a national scale with support from the National CPD Team. Through the network of CPD Coordinators, the CPD Team know that FRH builds on existing good practice in leadership development programmes within these participating Authorities.

The overall vision of FRH is, through coaching, to develop the leadership potential of aspiring headteachers with the purpose of bringing forward more high quality teachers who are willing and prepared to undertake the headteacher role in Scotland. The evaluation team have confirmed this in their report by indicating: "We (the evaluation team) believe that this, the FRH programme, deserves a place in the landscape of Scottish school leader development".

they do feel that fostering a sense of global citizenship in the classroom can have a long-term, positive effect on the wider world?

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Latest comment...

would like to knowthe GTCS view on this scenario. I agree with Steve its a last option!

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