Funded Qualifications for Catholic Leaders

Case study: Tailoring leadership development to local needs in Liverpool

Liverpool Archdiocese Secondary Schools Partnership (LASSP) is a family of 37 Catholic secondary schools and sixth form colleges within the Liverpool Archdiocese set up almost three years ago to give leaders and teachers at all levels opportunities for leadership and professional development.

A major priority for LASSP is to give senior leaders aspiring to headship professional development focused on the needs of leading in a Catholic school.

This priority led to LASSP becoming a delivery partner for NPQH, working with OLP to tailor the qualification to the needs of leaders in Catholic schools.

“The mission of the school and the role of spirituality have a very strong part to play in the leadership of Catholic schools,” says partnership director Paul Greenall. “It’s important that staff and teachers are aware of that in terms of how they respond to and treat students. A leader needs to ensure that all teachers are on board with the school’s mission even though some of them will not necessarily be Catholic. There are also differences in admissions policies and governance.”

Six headteachers from the partnerships schools – three primary and three secondary – worked with Paul and OLP consultant Yvonne Gandy to adapt the qualification to the needs of Catholic schools.

“We worked with OLP because of their reputation for delivering NPQH and other leadership qualifications across the north west,” says Paul. “I also had good links with Yvonne during my time working for the local authority.”

“To work with a range of Catholic school leaders from different phases on this qualification has been really good, and OLP have played a vitally important role in supporting this work and helping to deliver the qualification,” he adds.

“Yvonne has contributed a lot to the delivery of NQPH within the partnership. She’s really helped to move colleagues forward as they prepare for headship. She’s been really supportive but also rigorous and challenging.”

LASSP started delivering NPQH to its schools in September 2016, when 15 aspiring heads formed the first cohort.

“They’ve all said that the programme is making a difference,” Paul says. “It’s helping them to think about what they do, how they do it and how they can go about change in their schools. They also really welcome the opportunity to discuss leadership with colleagues from other schools who are facing similar challenges.”

The programme is also helping LASSP schools meet the leadership recruitment challenge – something that affects almost every school but which is a particular issue for Catholic and other faith schools.

“Three of the current cohort have already secured headships for September and a high percentage of the other participants will be in headteacher roles soon,” Paul says.

LASSP currently delivers the programme to partnership schools only but there are now plans to expand and start delivering the programme into other parts of the north west, the Midlands and even nationally through OLP.

“This programme is really helping our aspiring headteachers so if it will help others outside our partnership then it is something really worth doing,” says Paul.