'The future is not what it was...'

Steve Munby made his address to a packed auditorium filled with over 1000 delegates and many others watching from overflow areas.

He made six key points about leadership in changing times, noting that in bad times leadership is more important than ever – to schools, the system and the wider community.

1. Believe in your own leadership – step in to the role wear the cloak of leadership with dignity and care.


2. Lead well through adversity… we learn most when things are not going well and when we have time to reflect.


3. Encourage others to take on the mantle of leadership – succession planning remains an issue and affects DCSs as well as the school workforce. Talent management is essential and the best way to learn is on the job, giving folks the chance to lead on some of the scariest aspects of leadership with support.


4. Strong determined leadership through adversity.


5. Cheerful and optimistic leadership grounded in reality and focused on achievement.


6. Leadership based on trust, authenticity and relating to parents and community can have a big effect on raising expectations, aspiration and results.

Steve said that alignment also applies to childrens services and needs to be between communities and schools too. Success does not depend on systems, processes and paperwork but on common goals and agreed ways of working. Engagement and focus is key to alignment and sharing best practice cannot be understimated and can lead the system and reduce variation.

Because of this NCSL has a new remit and a new name, which you can read about on the College's website.