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Developing People

Leadership Toolkit

The Leadership Toolkit is a framework to support school leaders' professional growth and development. Highly effective leadership requires a deep understanding of context, community and the people within the school, alongside expertise in key areas. Leaders must also master the approaches that drive school improvement, including fostering the school culture, professional development and effective implementation. This framework outlines the essential knowledge, skills and behaviours school leaders need to succeed. It is aligned with the Teachers' and Headteachers' Standards to ensure coherence and professionalism. The aim of the framework is to develop flexible, context-responsive leadership expertise that enables leaders to address persistent challenges, contribute to a thriving school culture and build a shared professional language and network. It should be used as a self-reflection tool to provide a starting point for Growing Great People goal setting. Overall, it supports the continuous development of all colleagues to ensure every child receives a world-class education.

The Leadership Toolkit is divided into four domains with subdomains to support personal reflection, which include further components. These components are the detail that is required for a concise focus on improving leadership effectiveness and its impact.

 The domains are:

  1.    Professional Knowledge and Understanding
  2.    Shaping and Nurturing the Culture
  3.    Delivering Continuous Improvement
  4.    Leading People

The domains in the framework can be evaluated against three points of proficiency:

 

Some impact

High impact

Highest impact

Leaders at this level will be developing their leadership practice and beginning to contribute to school improvement.

A leader’s impact will:

  • positively influence their immediate team or area of responsibility.
  • implement initiatives with guidance and growing confidence.
  • start to build professional relationships and contribute to team effectiveness.
  • develop an understanding of whole-school priorities and how their role fits within them.

Leaders at this level will be consistently effective and drive improvement across a wider area of the school.

 

A leader’s impact will:

  • identify significant areas of school development with measurable outcomes.
  • collaborate effectively across teams, influencing practice and empowering colleagues beyond their own area.
  • use evidence to inform decisions, monitor progress and adapt strategies.
  • shape professional learning and contribute to a positive, improvement-focused culture.

 

Leaders at this level will have deep expertise and shape strategic direction, culture and system-wide improvement.

 

A leader’s impact will:

  • drive whole school or multi-school improvement with sustainable outcomes.
  • exemplify behaviours that inspire colleagues through modelling, coaching, mentoring and strategic delegation.
  • influence the broader educational landscape through networks, innovation and strategic leadership.
  • embed a culture of excellence and continuous learning that enables pupils and colleagues to thrive.

 

 

*Where in this document the term ’Support staff’ is used, it is inclusive of teaching assistants and other classroom practitioners.

 

  1. Community Trust Leaders Toolkit September 25
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