Best Practice

Leaders like us: Building a diverse school leadership pipeline

Diversity & Equality Senior leadership Middle leadership CPD
All ethnic groups except white are under-represented at all career stages of the teaching profession, especially leadership roles. The Leaders Like Us programme is changing this with its mission to develop future school leaders. Laura McPhee explains
Leadership diversity: Leaders Like Us develops the pipeline of leaders from global majority heritage backgrounds. Pictured are (l-r) Emily Norman, head of curriculum & inclusion Church of England Education Office; Liz Agbettoh, school effectiveness officer at the Blackburn Diocesan Board of Education; Bola-Alysia Ayonrinde & Elizabeth Olulari, national education leads for racial justice at Church of England Education Office; Allana Gay, co-founder of the BAMEed network & a headteacher (image: supplied) -

“We need diversity of thought in the world to face new challenges.” Tim Berners-Lee

Racial inequality continues to be a challenge for schools nationally. While we have seen a small increase in the proportion of teaching staff from global majority heritage backgrounds (DfE, 2023a; 2023b), there is still much work to be done.

The NFER’s recent report on racial equality (Worth et al, 2022) challenged traditional thinking on the recruitment and retention crisis and brought into sharp focus the urgent need to address racial disparity in the workforce. It concluded: “All ethnic groups except white are under-represented at all career stages of the teaching profession, except for initial teacher training.”

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