Best Practice

Headteachers: Are you having an impact? How do you know?

Everyone talks about impact, but how do we know that we are having an impact as a school leader? Robbie Burns offers advice on professional reflection using Nick Hart’s five-part Impact model
Image: Adobe Stock

The idea of impact is often discussed in leadership team meetings. Some even present “impact” reports to governors and others. We long to get beneath the skin of a concept like this because we want to align our desire to make a difference with effective strategy, actions, and decisions. Time is too scarce a commodity in the life of a busy school to waste a moment doing something that won’t improve outcomes for the young people we serve.

And so impact, properly understood, is very important to school leaders and teachers. However, I have often wondered what it actually means to have “impact” as a school leader and how well we can truly measure the difference we are making. Given the level of complexity of a school, can we ever truly measure the impact we are having accurately?

Register now, read forever

Thank you for visiting Headteacher Update and reading some of our content for professionals in primary education. Register now for free to get unlimited access to all content.

What's included:

  • Unlimited access to news, best practice articles and podcasts

  • New content and e-bulletins delivered straight to your inbox every Monday

Register

Already have an account? Sign in here