Appleyards has developed the HeadLine programme of leadership development as a response to a perceived need for high quality support and development options for primary school leaders. The focus is on developing school self evaluation capacity which enables a long term confidence in planning and delivering improvements for teaching and learning.

Considerable care and expertise was focussed on producing extensive materials including a DVD of lessons and lesson evaluations. Children’s work has also been reproduced so that an effective analysis of learning can be made by participants and then considered in relation to their own schools. It is a unique set of materials.

Appleyards sees the investment in HeadLine as a commitment to offering high quality school improvement services to schools, federations, trusts and Local Authorities. This represents a new dimension to the work of Appleyards and will enable us to utilise the wide range of skills and experience available through our consultancy and core education teams while making the sort of worthwhile contribution to education that Appleyards seeks.

The first challenge was to design and produce materials which could enable the course to operate as we wished. In that, Appleyards have been aided by some excellent work by our consultants and video technicians and in particular by the professionalism of the teachers and headteachers who agreed to participate so openly in this work. It is not common for any professionals to be prepared to be closely observed and ‘critiqued’ at their work...but that is what this programme provides.

During the programme’s development and trial, the New Ofsted Framework was produced and published. All the HeadLine materials were swiftly updated during August 2009, so that the cohorts starting in the autumn were able to use completely appropriate materials and make their judgements in the context of the new inspection framework.

Coventry LA offered to trial HeadLine; the success has led to a second cohort. The National College for School Leadership is sponsoring a cohort across the Black Country Challenge area of the Midlands. As the programme has developed we have been delighted to find that it is having the direct impact that we sought, enabling in-depth analysis of teaching and learning  to happen  outside of an inspection framework . The programme is now being started in two other areas and several more are showing interest in committing to this important professional development programme.