Prelims

Half Title Page

Making Sense of Problems in Primary Headship

Title Page

Making Sense of Problems in Primary Headship

By

Gerald Dunning

And

Tony Elliott

United Kingdom – North America – Japan India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2019

© Gerald Dunning and Tony Elliott, 2019. Published under exclusive licence

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-78973-904-6 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-78973-903-9 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-78973-905-3 (Epub)

Dedication

This book is dedicated with affection to the memory of our friend and colleague, Professor Ray Bolam, who exemplified all the very best qualities of leadership and management.

Contents

About the Authors

In writing this book, the authors draw not only on empirical research but also on personal experience. Both are former primary headteachers who, in subsequent university careers, led post-graduate and in-service school leadership development programmes in the UK and overseas. Gerald Dunning taught at Swansea University and, subsequently, the University of Glamorgan (now South Wales) where he was Head of the Department of Education and Deputy Head of the School of Psychology. Tony Elliott taught at Bangor University where he was Senior Lecturer in the School of Education and Dean of the Faculty of Education. Both were members of the consortium that delivered the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH) for the Welsh Government for more than a decade (Tony Elliott as a former Chair) and worked on secondment to Ofsted (Gerald Dunning) and Estyn (Tony Elliott) as Lead Inspectors of primary schools. Gerald Dunning is a previous Chair of ENIRDELM.¹ These diverse roles have made the problems of headship part of their professional DNA and enable them to apply almost 60 years of combined experience and knowledge to the study presented in this book.

Acknowledgements

While they have been promised anonymity, we record our sincere gratitude to all the headteachers who gave their time to participate in our interviews and share their problematic experiences.

We also acknowledge our appreciation of the help of other colleagues who facilitated access to subjects or offered comments on drafts of the book. Thank you, Jean Carter, Mel Hall, Jacqui Harrett, Richard Jones, Selwyn Jones, Mike Keating, Maggie McNorton, Val Miller, Ieuan Richards, Dilys Roberts, Jacquie Turnbull and David Turner.

Last, but not least, warm thanks to Kimberly Chadwick and Anna Scaife, our editorial team at Emerald, for their good-humoured support and guidance and the wonderfully positive reassurance that there would be no problem publishing a book about problems!

You suddenly realise you don’t have enough knowledge, you don’t have the skills, but you often have to act very carefully and very quickly. You can make a lot of mistakes as a head by accidentally wandering into a minefield.Val: primary head Leading this school has been like walking through a minefield at times. You tread carefully but all the time, at the back of your mind, you wonder whether the next step is going to set off the big bang. Lou: primary head The legal framework that affects headship is all a real minefield at the moment. Lloyd: primary head I think a large part of the head’s role is being the chief problem solver in the school. Judith: primary head