The introduction is designed to set participants’ expectations for the programme, discuss the learning outcomes and what they need to do to achieve the qualification, if appropriate. The delegates will establish how they will work as a learning community. It might be useful here to look at Hargreaves re: collaborative professionalism and collaborative leadership.

This session will introduce the delegates to the role of the manager and will explore the differences between strategic and operational management. The group will analyse the changing expectations placed on them in their role and what they can do to meet these. The session will focus on key management behaviours and the impact they have on organisational success.

Building on the management expectations, the delegates will have the opportunity to explore the role of leadership at their level. The group will diagnose the leadership behaviours and analyse their own performance against these. The session will be underpinned by recognised and current theories relating to leadership including the critique of different models and approaches. The session will encourage delegates to apply different leadership styles to their practice, such as coaching and story-telling.

Personal insight is a key area for leaders at any level and the delegates will be introduced to tools and techniques to help them to consider their own impact and how they work with others. The session will support them to get feedback from others, develop themselves as reflective practitioners and practise key inter and intra-personal skills.

Every organisation has its own distinct culture. This can be felt in every interaction- both internally and externally. Using different approaches to consider the culture of each delegate’s organisation will allow the group to reflect on their own area of responsibility. A key element of this will be to support each delegate to complete a cultural diagnostic of their organisation.

Using power as a starting point, this session will allow the delegates to consider their levels of power and the different ways this can be used. Building on influencing, and using different method of self-analysis, the delegates will reflect on their own approach to influencing, using different strategies to use in different situations. They will also analyse the challenges and risks associated with their own position and their own levels of impact.

Delegates will analyse the key concepts of collective and distributed leadership in the context of their teams. Using different methods of analysis, the delegates will assess the climate for team-based working within both the teams they lead and are a member of, building on techniques to collaborate across the system.

The final session will focus on the challenges that are present when working in the strategic environment. Acting with sensitivity and having an awareness of the political world that happens in both the internal and external environment. Delegates will assess the nature of these relationships and how best to make these a success. A key factor is to gain insight into the changing political environment that exists at senior level.

As organisations become more complex, the relationship between systems, processes and boundaries are more and more prevalent. This session will give the support delegates need to deconstruct their organisation and to use systems thinking as a technique to manage the complexity. This goes further into the relationships between organisations and there will be the opportunity to analyse the relationships between comparable organisations with similar goals.

Without a clear strategy, organisations fail. Using the key components of successful business planning processes, the delegates will develop a strategy for their own area that fits into the wider priorities of their organisation. The session will analyse the challenges of transferring strategy into operations and will help create a plan where there is clarity about the direction of their areas of responsibility.

Closely linked to the strategy is your own vision for your organisation. Using appreciative techniques and transformational approaches to planning, delegates will be supported to produce a vision that is linked to the strategy and can be communicated through their organisation.

If organisations had clarity about the knowledge within it, the performance would improve dramatically. Knowledge management links to an understanding of expertise but goes deeper by considering systems, processes and practises that take place every day. By understanding the in their organisation, the delegates will be better placed to use it more effectively.

The final day will focus on developing and improving services. In order for services to develop, there needs to be insight into the current and future drivers facing organisations and construction more widely. This session will support the delegates to analyse the internal and external factors facing their organisation. Using practical service improvement tools and techniques to apply to work-based problems, delegates will plan real life improvements that they can evaluate.

This session builds on the improvement techniques. All too often organisation and leaders within it follow similar thought processes for improvement and, as a consequence, get similar results. This session builds on different creative techniques, for example using de Bono’s methodology, to challenge the delegates to think in a different way.

This session will support the delegates to instil a culture of high performance in their areas. Using the principles of marginal gains to act as incremental to performance can have as much impact as delivering large scale change. The delegates will apply these principles to their own areas of responsibility.

Using our leadership behaviours can only go so far when delivering change. This session will give the delegates the chance to analyse different models and approaches to change management. This will allow them to select an approach that best suits them in the implementation of their project. Having awareness of any preferred methodology from their organisation, they will reflect on how well it is used and how they can use it to deliver their projects.

The Senior Education Leadership Programme programme consists of 4 core elements delivered over 5 days:

• Self as Leader in Education
• Working in the Strategic Environment
• Business Planning and Building a Strategy in Education
• Improvement Methodology and Delivering Excellence in Education

*The agenda is for a guide only and is subject to change

** The delivery of this programme via the virtual classroom may differ to ensure the optimum learning experience within this environment. However, the learning outcomes will remain the same.

The virtual course would be 4 x 90 minute sessions per day, with breakouts and tasks leading to the next session. The course is highly interactive and fully recorded for future reference.

*** If government restrictions, advice or social distancing prevent us from running any scheduled face to face course dates, the scheduled course date may be delivered via Virtual Classroom.