TL Schools programme
About Teaching Leaders
How does it work?
Teaching Leaders (TL) addresses educational disadvantage by
growing a movement of outstanding middle leaders in schools in
challenging contexts across England. We do this by offering our
schools three leadership development programmes: TL Fellows
and TL Primary (our selective, two year programmes) and our new
TL Schools programme.
About the TL Schools programme
The TL Schools programme is designed to develop the entire
middle leadership team of a school in strategic partnership with
Teaching Leaders. The programme also works effectively for
middle leaders across groups of schools within an alliance or
cluster. Every school participating in the programme will have key
annual meetings to diagnose, monitor and evaluate impact. The
content of the training programme for your middle leaders will then
be tailored to reflect and support the school improvement plan,
whilst building on the strengths and development areas of your
middle leadership team.
With the support of Teaching Leaders, the school will set ambitious
targets for the development of the middle leadership team and
for improving pupil outcomes. Throughout the duration of the
programme, these targets will be closely monitored by your senior
leadership team and through discussions with Teaching Leaders,
in order to ensure that they are achieved.
TL Schools can be delivered within primary, secondary or crossphase/all-through schools.
The programme is a partnership with Teaching Leaders
that can start at any point in the school calendar and
moves in a yearly cycle for up to three years. Within
each cycle, there will be key interactions with Teaching
Leaders that cover the following:
Initial planning
• SLT completes an assessment of the school’s
current middle leadership, supported by TL’s
diagnostic tools
• Teaching Leaders discusses the initial assessment
outcomes and works with the senior leadership to
map them against the school’s improvement plan,
enabling TL to recommend the most appropriate
programme elements
• School then sets targets for the development of its
middle leadership team, and pupil attainment
Mid-cycle review
• TL and the school/s assess the progress against
towards programme goals for middle leaders and
pupil attainment
• Senior leadership feed back on the quality and
impact of individual training sessions and any
additional elements of the TL Schools programme
Evaluation
• Both TL and the school/s evaluate progress made
in the first year
• Diagnostic tools help to identify priorities and inform
plans for the next cycle
The Bradford Partnership and Teaching Leaders have devised and delivered
a bespoke middle leadership programme that has been carefully tailored to
meet the demands of school leaders in a challenging context. The programme
has resulted in a group of middle leaders who have grown in confidence and
understanding with regards to their role, specifically their accountability for
improving the quality of teaching and driving up achievement. They have been
challenged to evaluate and reflect upon their current practice. We are already
excited about next year’s collaboration.
Nicki Flynn, Assistant Partnership Operational Director, Bradford Partnership
Standard programme Eligibility
and additional elements
Schools will have access to all of the
following as part of the standard TL
Schools programme offer:
• discussion and planning sessions with
Teaching Leaders at key points in each
cycle
• six training sessions (on topics chosen
from the TL training menu)
• 15 copies of ‘What Makes a Great
Middle Leader?’ and a further 10
copies of our new publication for
senior leadership ‘What Makes a Great
Middle Leadership Team’
• access to the following Teaching
Leaders tools:
• whole-school Middle Leadership
Competency Framework (MLCF)
• individual Leadership Competency
Framework 360 (LCF)
• TL Delivery Plan
We focus our work on schools in challenging
contexts based on the percentage of
disadvantaged pupils and attainment data.
For full details of our eligibility for primary
schools visit
teachingleaders.org.uk/primaryeligibility
Costs
The standard programme costs £12,000,
although each programme is designed to
be tailored to individual school needs. To
discuss the cost of your school’s specific
requirements, please contact our School
Relations team on the details below.
The school also has the opportunity to top
up its training to further tailor the programme
to its needs. There are over thirty options to
choose from including: additional middle
leadership skills training,
performance
coaching, facilitation skills training and
coaching training. TL can also arrange an
optional one-to-one viva discussion with
an external assessor, for up to 15 middle
leaders. The viva presents the opportunity
for middle leaders to have their impact
in each of the identified areas validated
against a structured TL Viva framework.
Most of the training sessions have been
differentiated to work at three levels; they
progress from Rapid Change through to
Core and, the most advanced level, Core
Plus. This differentiation provides targeted
intervention for the middle leadership
team based on its identified strengths and
development areas.
Next steps
If you would like to find out more about establishing an ongoing partnership
with Teaching Leaders through the Schools programme, please contact
joe.treacy@teachingleaders.org.uk
0770 710 6229
teachingleaders.org.uk
Charity number 1146924