Leadership and Policy




How to write an effective SEF for your school

Are you about to tackle the school self-evaluation form? Ciara Lamb shares some tips for writing your SEF, so you can be confident it is set up to effectively support your school's development



Seven starting points for interrogating your curriculum

What are the seven starting points that will ensure you have a healthy, open conversation about your school’s curriculum? John Tomsett, co-author of a new book on curriculum conversations, discusses some of the key questions we should be asking…


Are your pupils ready for Ofsted’s deep dives?

Deep dives are intended to give Ofsted insight into how subjects are taught and are now a key tool for inspectors. But how well can pupils contribute to the discussion? Suzanne O'Connell spoke to one school about its recent experience...





Safeguarding: Getting the basics right – every time

The basics of safeguarding revolve around identifying children at risk of harm and we can never take this work for granted. Elizabeth Rose recaps the four main types of abuse, the principles of effective staff training, and the basics of keeping children safe from serious harm


Wrap-around provision as part of Covid recovery

Before and after-school clubs have been hit hard – first to be cut, the last to be reinstated. But they could be exactly what disadvantaged pupils and your Covid recovery plan need, says Suzanne O’Connell




Women in leadership: Smashing the glass ceiling

Despite teaching being female dominated, men remain twice as likely to hold leadership positions. Headteacher Erika Eisele considers why this is and reflects on her own experiences as a school leader



Five lessons of primary leadership

After 10 years as a headteacher in east London, Tom Panagiotopoulos has written a book chronicling his experiences. We asked him to give us five lessons for successful primary school leadership


SONAR leadership and a pedagogy of connection

School leaders should ‘seek first to understand, then to be understood’ if they are to build relationships – and that requires active listening. John Dabell explains the principles of SONAR leadership


How can we support pupils who have Long Covid?

How does Long Covid affect children and young people in the classroom and what can teaching staff do to help them? In the second of two articles on the impact of Long Covid on the young, Dr Sue Peters offers some practical advice


A culture of ethical leadership: Five approaches

As we emerge from the pandemic, ethical leadership has never been more important. But what does it look like? Primary school head Jim Mepham looks at five main approaches and the principles of ethical decision-making





Designing whole-school CPD: Three streams, one cycle

With so many high-quality materials available to schools, the challenge these days is not the what of CPD, but the how. Applying recent EEF research into the mechanisms of effective CPD, Robbie Burns advises on designing a whole-school CPD cycle


Safeguarding: What does a culture of safety look like?

Safer working practice in schools is crucial to establishing safe cultures and ensuring effective safeguarding. In this article, Elizabeth Rose explains how schools can minimise opportunity for harm perpetrated by those working with children

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Headteacher Update is a magazine, website, podcast and regular ebulletin dedicated to the primary school leadership team. We tackle a wide range of leadership issues, offering best practice, case studies and in-depth information, advice and guidance. Headteacher Update magazine is distributed free to approximately 20,000 primary school headteachers.

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