Peer support for principals: a model for headteacher sustainability and development through peer support

 

Mr Alan Flintham Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom

 

Abstract: This article describes the genesis, uptake and evaluation of a recently developed headteacher peer support scheme, known as ‘Heads Count', within the Local Education Authority of Nottinghamshire, in the United Kingdom.

 

Mentoring has been defined as ‘a sustained one to one professional relationship in which the mentor actively supports the learner to build capacity to enhance effectiveness' (West-Burnham 2005). A mentor tends to be chosen or allocated from the ranks of more experienced colleagues and is seen as ‘someone very familiar with a particular culture and role, who has influence and can use their experience to help an individual analyse their situation in order to facilitate professional and career development' (Creasy and Paterson 2005).

Coaching, on the other hand, can be seen as the in-depth development of specific knowledge, skills and strategies, and does not necessarily depend on the coach being more senior in terms of experience, but as one who is able to ‘relate more specifically to an individual's job-specific skills, tasks or capabilities, such as feedback on performance' (Hobson 2003).

Both strategies may be located (after West-Burnham) on a continuum in terms of the extent to which the strategy is non-directive and personal. An initiative within Nottinghamshire Local Education Authority, in the United Kingdom, has sought to subsume best practice in headteacher mentoring and coaching within a wider and more accessible model of non-directive and highly personal headteacher sustainability and development, based on reflective peer support.

The Nottinghamshire peer support scheme for headteachers

This scheme, known within Nottinghamshire as ‘Heads Count', is based on a philosophy of ‘heads for heads', that is, the concept of headteachers supporting fellow headteachers through a 1:1 peer support mechanism, which is facilitated and supported, but not controlled, by the Education Authority. It is available to all 370 headteachers in the Education Authority workforce, irrespective of the length of their headship experience.

The genesis of the scheme arose out of an analysis of perceived headteacher pastoral support needs, through a consultation process participated in by almost half of the headteacher workforce within Nottinghamshire. It was collectively agreed that what was needed was an enabling structure that built upon existing resources and expertise within the Education Authority, to develop a self-sustaining system of heads supporting heads.

The structure therefore provides the opportunity for a facilitated 1:1 peer support relationship, with a colleague headteacher acting as ‘a professional listening and learning partner'. This term was deliberately chosen, rather than the term ‘mentor', because of the sense within the latter of a more experienced colleague supporting a more junior one. Peer support envisages a more symbiotic and mutually beneficial professional relationship, which provides significant and sustained support to both parties, irrespective of the relative levels of experience. ‘Heads Count' within Nottinghamshire was thus the mobilisation of headteachers willing and available to invest in other colleagues, and inter alia themselves, to achieve that end.

Access to peer support

In the 18 months since the inception of the scheme, some 87 headteachers, almost 25% of the workforce, have volunteered to receive basic one-day training in the mentoring, counselling and emotional intelligence skills of being a peer supporter and the theory underpinning them, together with the opportunity to practice those skills in small-group role play situations. Over 50% of this trained cadre of peer supporters have also gone on to engage in a further three days of more advanced training opportunities in Counselling Skills, Executive Coaching or the Investing in Excellence programme of the Pacific Institute.

The names of trained peer supporters are then placed on a register of available volunteers, maintained by the Continuing Professional Development team of the Education Authority. It should be noted that the maintenance of this register, and allocations from it to ensure balance and avoid overload of individual peer supporters, is the only front-line involvement of the Education Authority with the scheme, other than representation on its Advisory Group. There is a clear and agreed protocol of confidentiality between peer supporters and the colleagues they support to prevent any formal ‘reporting back' mechanism, unless there is a mutual agreement to seek access to an independent referral point for additional support on, for example, health and safety issues or legal concerns.

The operation of the scheme provides for any headteacher within Nottinghamshire, of whatever length of headship experience, to be paired with a fellow headteacher peer supporter. The location, timing and frequency of subsequent meetings is not centrally prescribed and it is made clear from the outset that the peer support relationship is voluntary on both sides, with either party having the right to disengage at any time.

The voluntary nature of participation in the scheme has thus resulted in differentiated take-up, depending on personal inclination and perceived need. However, it is not seen as ‘simply something for new heads' and, to date, after some 18 months of operation, some 25% of the Nottinghamshire headteacher workforce (92 headteachers) are engaged in an active peer support relationship.

One key factor in the success of the scheme to date, linked to its voluntary nature, is that once the initial training of the cadre of peer supporter heads was completed (funded by a leadership development grant from the East Midlands Leadership Centre and matched by the provision of officer time from the Local Education Authority), the peer support relationship proceeds on a zero-cost basis, with time provided free and travel costs met by individual school budgets.

The scheme is managed and developed by a cross-phase advisory group of 15 serving Nottinghamshire headteachers, assisted by five Local education Authority (LEA) officers from the Continuing Professional Development Team. The composition of the group sends an important message - that this is a genuine development ‘by headteachers for headteachers'. However, the initial chairing of the group by the Director of Education for Nottinghamshire lends it a high degree of perceived legitimisation and profile.

Perceived benefits

An in-house evaluation of the workings of the scheme to date (Flintham 2005) reveals a strong sense amongst participants of its intrinsic value to the headteacher community, as well as to individual participants.

Benefits were seen to be symbiotic. Universally amongst those heads being peer supported was an appreciation of the availability of support:

‘… here for me now in an unconstrained, non-judgmental relationship'.

Equally, peer supporter heads appreciated the value of participation in the peer support process, in providing reflection opportunities for themselves

‘… the process makes you reflect on where you are and what you have to offer.'

‘… an opportunity to step out of school and reflect on headship and what it means.'

Indeed, it is significant that, throughout the responses gleaned through evaluation, the dominant focus for both peer supporter and peer supported heads alike was not on advice-giving and receiving, but in the domain of emotions, self-esteem and mutual sharing.

The initial operation of the scheme, in receiving positive feedback from participants, has revealed that issues of communication and coordination still need to be fully resolved. Equally, the voluntary nature of participation in the scheme, and the degree of its take-up in its early stages, have meant that a significant proportion (almost 50%) of those who volunteered to be trained as peer supporters have not yet become active in a peer support relationship. A number of comments from these colleagues reveal a degree of disenchantment with this circumstance.

It should be noted, however, that whether or not there has been active participation to date in peer support, all of the heads involved in the professional development opportunities provided through peer supporter training feel that they themselves have benefited from leadership development that will impact significantly on their leadership of their own schools.

Future development

It is hoped to extend the purview of the scheme to encompass the development of an information network specifically for Nottinghamshire headteachers, and access to bespoke consultancy advice from local colleague heads, as well as the provision of personal support at key transition points in headship: at start-up and welcome; during absence and return; and finally, on stepping down and succession.

Although the scheme presently focuses on the support needs of headteachers, it is believed that the successful development of best practice in this area could then be extended to encompass the support needs of other members of school leadership teams and also provide a prototype for the development of similar peer support systems for other education staff, in a transferable model of mutual sustainability and support.

References

Creasy J & Paterson F (2005). Leading Coaching in Schools, Leading Practice Seminar Series, National College for School Leadership, Nottingham, United Kingdom.

Flintham AJ (2005). Heads Count: An evaluation of a Nottinghamshire model for headteacher sustainability, support and development through peer support, Nottinghamshire Local Education Authority, Nottingham, United Kingdom.

Hobson A (2003). Mentoring and Coaching for New Leaders: A review of the literature, National College for School Leadership, Nottingham, United Kingdom.

West-Burnham J (2005). Mentoring for Induction, Supporting Leadership Development, Headteacher Induction Programme, National College for School Leadership, Nottingham, UK.

 

Mr Alan Flintham was for 15 years a secondary school headteacher in Nottinghamshire, England until retiring on age-related grounds in 2005. He is now a self-employed consultant headteacher and a research associate of the National College for School Leadership, in the UK, having published ‘Reservoirs of Hope: spiritual and moral leadership in headteachers' and ‘When Reservoirs Run Dry: why some headteachers leave headship early'. Mr Flintham was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to visit Australia in 2005, to study spiritual and moral leadership in school principals, and how it is sustained and supported.

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