SYSTEM LEADERSHIP

PREPARED BY:
HENG YEE XIAN
TAN BEE QI
TANG LIH THIEN
THIRUCHELVY MARIMUTHU

DEFINITION
System leaders care about and work for the
success of other schools as well as their own. They
measure their success in terms of improving
student learning and increasing achievement, and
strive to both raise the bar and narrow the gap(s).
Crucially they are willing to shoulder system
leadership roles in the belief that in order to
change the larger system you have to engage
with it in a meaningful way. (David Hopkins, 2007)

CONTINUES..

Systems Leadership Theory provides a set of

coherent models to assist in understanding
culture and behaviour in organisations.

It provides insights into how leaders can,

through an understanding of the tools of
leadership (systems, symbols and behaviour),
build cohesive organisations that can achieve
success and help the individuals within it
realise their own potential.

KNOWLEDGE
o

A range of leadership models that will impact

on system change

Strategies which bring about system

transformational, change and improvement

How culture and context influence system

leadership

The

current

political,

social

,economic

infrastructure and educations place within it.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHANGE,

REFORM AND INNOVATION
CHANGE

REFORM

INNOVATION

TOWARDS LARGE SCALE SUSTAINABLE

REFORM
Building Capacity
Professionalism
Prescription
National Prescription
Every School a
Great School
Schools Leading Reform

System Leadership

SYSTEM LEADERSHIP ROLES

A range of emerging roles, including:
o

Executive Headship or partnering another school facing

difficulties i.e. run two or more schools (or softer
partnership)

Lead

in

extremely

challenging

circumstances

or

become an Academy Principal.

o

Civic leadership to broker and shape partnerships

across local communities to support welfare and
potential.

Change agent or school leader able to identify best

practice and then transfer and refine it to support
improvement elsewhere.

SYSTEM LEADERSHIP IN
PRACTICE
Five striking characteristics of system leaders are:
1.

Measure success when working with other schools

in terms of improving student learning and
increasing achievement, in terms of both raising
the bar and narrowing the gap(s).

2.

Are fundamentally committed to the improvement

of teaching and learning. They engage deeply
with

the

organisation

of

teaching,

learning,

curriculum and assessment in order to ensure that

learning is increasingly personalised for students.

3. Develop schools as personal and professional learning

communities, with relationships built across and beyond
each school to provide a range of learning experiences and
professional development opportunities.
4. Strive for equity and inclusion through acting on context
and culture. This is not just about eradicating poverty, as
important as that is. It is also about giving communities a
sense of worth and empowerment.
5. Realise in a deep way that the classroom, school and
system levels all impact on each other. Crucially they
understand that in order to change the larger system you
have to engage with it in a meaningful way.

FOUR KEY DRIVERS TO RAISE

ACHIEVEMENT AND BUILD CAPACITY
FOR THE NEXT STAGE OF REFORM
Personalised learning

Professional teaching

System
leadership

Intelligent accountability

Networks and
collaboration

(I) PERSONALISING LEARNING

JOINED UP LEARNING AND TEACHING
Learning to Learn
Curriculum choice & entitlement
Assessment for learning
Co-production

My Tutor Interactive
web-based learning
resource enabling
students to tailor
support and challenge
to their needs and
interests.

(II) PROFESSIONALISING TEACHING

TEACHERS AS RESEARCHERS, SCHOOLS
AS LEARNING COMMUNITIES
Enhanced repertoire of learning & teaching
strategies
Time for collective inquiry
Evidence based practice
Collegial & coaching relationships

Action research and

peer learning in school
to improve practice

(III)BUILDING INTELLIGENT
ACCOUNTABILITY
BALANCING INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL
ACCOUNTABILITY AND ASSESSMENT
Moderated teacher assessment
Targets for every child and use of pupil
performance data
Value added data to help identify strengths /
weaknesses
Rigorous self-evaluation to demonstrate good
management

Professional
Learning
Community (PLC)
Program

(IV) NETWORKING AND COLLABORATION

DISCIPLINED INNOVATION,
COLLABORATION AND BUILDING SOCIAL
CAPITAL
Best

practice captured and

highly specified
Capacity built to transfer
and sustain innovation
across system
Greater responsibility taken
for neighbouring schools
Link between central and
local policy initiatives

Case study SISC+

A MODEL OF SYSTEM LEADERSHIP PRACTICE

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT
E.G. SERGIOVANNI S MODEL

Technical

derived

from

sound

management

techniques

Human derived from harnessing available social

and interpersonal resources

Educational derived from expert knowledge about

matters of education and schooling

Symbolic derived from focusing the attention on

matters of importance to the school

Cultural derived from building a unique school

culture

MANAGING TEACHING & LEARNING

PROCESS: MODELS OF LEARNING TOOLS
FOR TEACHING
Our toolbox is the models of teaching, actually models for learning,
that simultaneously define the nature of the content, the learning
strategies, and the arrangements for social interaction that create
the learning contexts of our students.
For example, in powerful classrooms students learn models for:

Extracting information and ideas from lectures and presentations

Memorising information

Building hypotheses and theories

Attaining concepts and how to invent them

Using metaphors to think creatively

Working effectively with other to initiate and carry out co-operative

tasks

DEVELOPING PEOPLE:
STRUCTURING STAFF DEVELOPMENT

Workshop
1. Understanding of Key Ideas and Principles
2. Modelling and Demonstration
3. Practice in Non-threatening Situations

Workplace
1. Immediate and Sustained Practice
2. Collaboration and Peer
3. Reflection and Action Research

DEVELOPING THE ORGANISATION:

THE SIX STEPS TO SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT
A school sets itself a clear and unifying focus for its improvement

1.

work.
Collect

2.

data

on

performance

as

precursor

to

initiating

an

improvement strategy.
3.

At an early stage identify a school improvement group.

4.

The SIG subsequently receive specific training in the classroom

practices most crucial to achieving the schools developmental
goals.
The range of staff development activities involved includes:

5.

workshops run inside the school on teaching strategies

whole staff in-service days and curriculum tours

inter-departmental meetings to discuss teaching strategies

partnership teaching and peer coaching.

EVERY SCHOOL A GREAT SCHOOL

FRAMEWORK

THE LOGIC OF SCHOOL

IMPROVEMENT

Type of school

Key strategies responsive to

context and need

Leading schools

Become leading practitioners

Formal federation with lower
performing schools

Succeeding, self-improving
schools

Regular local networking for school

leaders
Between-school curriculum
development

Succeeding schools with

internal variations

Consistency interventions: such as

assessment for learning
Subject specialist support to
particular departments

Underperforming schools

Linked school support for

underperforming departments
Underperforming pupil
programmes: catch-up

Low attaining schools

Formal support in federation

structure
Consultancy in core subjects and
best practice

Failing schools

Intensive support programme

SYSTEM LEADERS ROLE

Developing and leading a successful educational
improvement partnership between several
schools.
2. Choosing to lead and improve a school in
extremely challenging circumstances.
3. Partnering another school facing difficulties and
improve it
4. Community leader.
5. Change agent or expert leader within the system.
1.

MORAL PURPOSE OF SCHOOLING

I know what my
learning objectives
are and feel in control
of my learning

I get to learn lots of

interesting and
different subjects

I can get a level 4 in

English and Maths
before I go to secondary
school

I know what good

work looks like and
can help myself to
learn

I know if I need extra

help or to be challenged
to do better I will get the
right support

My parents are
involved with the
school and I feel I
belong here

I can work well with and

learn from many others
as well as my teacher

I enjoy using ICT and

know how it can help
my learning

I know how I am being

assessed and what I need
to do to improve my work

I can get the job that I

want

All these . whatever my background, whatever my abilities,

wherever I start from

WHY THE SYSTEM LEADERSHIP

PROCESS IS GOOD
o

Raising leaders awareness & changing leaders

perceptions

Saving money

Distributing leadership

Identifying strategic leadership priorities

Considering what is in the schools environment

Enabling to discuss things

Revealing the source of most problems

BENEFITS OF SYSTEM
LEADERSHIP
o

Developing leadership capacity

Rationalising resources

Increased co-operation

Distributed leadership

Improving school outcomes

Sustainability

BENEFITS OF CO-OPERATION
THROUGH COMMUNITIES OF SCHOOLS
o

creation of an internal market

creating

better

student

orientation

and

guidance systems
o

creating community-wide curricula

creation of an internal labour market for

teachers

reduced bureaucratic workload for principals

and new possibilities for pedagogical leadership

THE CONSTRAINTS
o

communities cannot offer training or do not have

capacity and resources

communities do not have significant budgetary control

several boards within one community can create tensions

and may disagree as to vision, direction and strategy

the

decision

problematic

making

power

of

communities

is

THE CHALLENGES
Sustainability
School

leadership

co-operation

in

environment of choice and competition

Recognising
Identifying

and recruiting system leaders

Professional
How

and supporting system leaders

development of system leaders

to move system leadership to scale

an

CONCLUSION
System leaders are those head teachers
who are willing to shoulder system leadership
roles: who care about and work for the
success of other schools as well as their own.
Reforming is important to make changes and
improvements.

REFERENCE
David Welbourn, Deborah Ghate, Jane Lewis, 2013, Systems
Leadership: Exceptional leadership for exceptional times Synthesis
Paper: The Virtual Staff College
Hopkins, D, 2007, Every School a Great School, Maidenhead,
McGrawHill/Open University Press

Hopkins, D & Higham R, 2007, System Leadership: Mapping the

Landscape. In School Leadership and Management, Vol. 27, 2,
pp.147166

Hopkins, D, 2009, The Emergence of System Leadership, National

College for School Leadership.
Timmins Nicholas, 2015, The Practice of System Leadership:
Being comfortable with chaos: The Kings Fund