Tim Crookall MHK will present primary school teachers who have completed the Department’s primary leadership and management programme with certificates at a ceremony at the Isle of Man College of Further and Higher Education.
Fifteen teachers completed level 2 of the programme, for staff with at least four years’ classroom experience who want to learn more about leading a subject or an aspect of school life.
Eighteen teachers completed level 3 of the programme, for staff with at least six years’ teaching experience who want to learn more about strategic leadership and management and aspire to roles up to and including deputy headships.
LM2 was run throughout the last academic year and involved four days’ training, assignments and an assessed task, based on work the teachers carried out in their schools. LM3 took participants a year longer and involved eight days’ training as well as assignments and school-based tasks.
Most of the teachers also completed a further 4,000-word (LM2) or 8,000-word (LM3) assignment. This aspect of the course was delivered by the College, will be validated by the University of Chester and will gain participants a Post Graduate Certificate in School Leadership and Management, which is equivalent to a third of a Masters degree.
Simon Jones, the Headteacher of Peel Clothworkers’ Primary School, is in charge of the leadership and management programme. He said:
‘It’s vital to ensure succession planning by training teachers to be effective leaders and managers. The programme is a cost-effective way of ensuring quality training benefits schools and children, being entirely in-house, as the nine tutors are local headteachers and DEC advisers.
‘Teachers and tutors have worked hard again this year, as the 100% pass rate and many individual high marks indicate.’
Minister Crookall said:
‘The Department began the programme in 2005, partly to sustain continuous improvement in schools but also in response to the need to plan for succession in leadership, as it was aware a significant numbers of heads and deputies would retire in the 10 years to follow.
‘The programme has gone from strength to strength. More than half of primary schools’ deputies have completed it and some have moved on to headships. In any organisation, the quality of leadership is key to its success and this programme, which is now validated by the University of Chester, plays a key role in developing high quality leadership in our primary schools.
‘I’d like to congratulate teachers who have worked hard to gain this qualification and headteachers who have given up their time to pass on their experience.’
