Into Headship

This professional programme is designed for aspiring school principals and school leaders in Scotland to enable them to attain the Standard for Headship (GTCS, 2012). Through professional pedagogies, it focuses specifically on enabling you to develop a strategic approach to educational change.

WHY THIS PROGRAMME
- Accredited by the General Teaching Council Scotland, the programme aligns with the Framework for Educational Leadership and is part of the national programme for the specialist qualification for headship in Scotland.

- The programme is designed to enable you to develop your personal capacity and capability to lead change for improvement and work with your school and its community to realise its strategic vision.

- You will have opportunities to engage directly with policy makers through guest lectures by expert practitioners and leading researchers.

- There is emphasis on the interrelationship between professional and academic perspectives, practice and theory, and between the different sites of learning/practice, in order that individual professional learning is interconnected with collective school improvement.

PROGRAMME STRUCTURE
You will take two courses which are delivered via blended learning combining face-to-face sessions (day schools, taking place on Wednesdays) with online sessions.

Core courses
- Developing as a strategic leader in school (Three day schools)

- Leading strategic change in school (Five day schools).

The model of learning embedded within the programme is the development of theory in practice. You will learn through:

- Reflection on/in practice: through professional learning, becoming curious about and critically exploring professional practice.

- Experiential learning: learning through structured activities to question, try out and enhance practice.

- Cognitive development: developing ideas to challenge assumptions and deepen understanding of practice.

- Collaborative learning: learning with and through others to enhance practice.