Starter for 10: Subject Leadership

Whether you're new to your subject leadership role or have had the position for a while, it's true that what is expected of subject leaders these days can feel like quite a lot!

Not only are there high expectations of you, there can often be very little guidance in how to do the job.

Although I work with schools and their subject leaders in various ways, I also like to share what I've learned for free via my blog. Here are a few starting points for subject leaders as they really get their teeth into the role:

Subject Leadership Podcast

First off, if reading's not your thing, and you like to listen to podcasts, then check out my Subject Leaders podcast episodes which feature real subject leaders describing what they do. Although each one is a subject specialist there is always content in each episode that is relevant to subject leaders regardless of the subject they lead: https://linktr.ee/subjectleaderspodcast

2. Team Leadership

One of the most important aspects of subject leadership is actually team leadership, specifically leading a team of teachers as they teach your subject. That's what this blog post is all about: Subject Leadership: Leading a Team, Not a Subject

3. Subject Knowledge

Part of that team leadership role is ensuring that your team know their stuff. Good subject knowledge is crucial to good teaching so you're going to want to think about how you develop teacher subject knowledge. You can read about that here: Developing Teacher Subject Knowledge

4. Monitoring and Evaluation

At some point you'll want to know how things are going so you'll to have to carry out some monitoring and evaluation. It's actually one of the most difficult aspects of school leadership and no-one tells you how to do it - you usually just end up copying what has been done to you (which isn't always a good thing). This one is a cheat on my behalf as it signposts you to further blog posts, but it'll be worth it: Starter for 5: Monitoring and Evaluation

5. Priorities, Goals and Actions

Once you've seen what's going on, there are several things you will want to do with that information. One such thing is identifying priorities so that you know what to spend your precious release time doing as the year progresses. Here are 3 Ways To Identify Your Subject's Improvement Priorities and an important blog post about discerning between goals and actions: Subject Leadership: Goals And Actions (lots of people really struggle with this and don't realise it so it's worth a read)

6. Identifying the Positive

In the clamour to identify next steps for improvement its very easy to lose sight of all the good stuff that's happening. I wrote this because you need to celebrate achievements and blow your own trumpet sometimes: Viewing Your Impact Through a Positive Lens

7. Communicating to Others

Another thing you'll need to do is communicate to others what you've found out (maybe governers, maybe inspectors, maybe the headteacher). I like to think of this as telling your subject's story, and you can read more about that here: School Leadership: Telling The Story Of Your Area of Responsibility

8. Curriculum Development

You'll probably get involved in some sort of curriculum work too. This is one of my most visited blog posts so I think it must be useful to lots of people in your position: What Are All The Different Types Of Knowledge? (part 1). However, I've put together a whole different starter for 10 post about curriculum development so if you're doing that, you'll want to check it out: Starter for 10: Curriculum Development

9. SEND

Lastly, and absolutely not leastly, you must lead the charge on ensuring that the needs of pupils with SEND are met in your subject - I don't need to tell you why. So, without further ado: Subject Leadership and Support for Pupils With SEND and a cheeky bonus handy resource to help you analyse things in this arena: Questions for Subject Leaders: SEND.

10. Subject Leadership Training

This one's for those in charge of CPD! Making impactful change as a subject leader in a school can be overwhelming, especially when training hasn't been given. I know - I've been there myself and have worked with lots of subject leaders who initially weren't sure where to start. I can help you to give your subject leaders what the need and deserve.

Your 3-step subject leadership training plan:

Drop me an email
Have a phone call with me to talk about your school
We'll work together to empower you and your staff to enhance teaching and to enrich your pupils' lives