School
leadership is undergoing significant change as headteachers respond to new
opportunities and challenges offered to or imposed on them as a result of
government policy. There have been increasing calls
for transformational change to redesign the school system to provide a
suitable workforce for the knowledge economy and to manage the anticipated
shortage of future school leaders. Sue Robinson combines her professional
experience as a practising primary headteacher and National Leader of Education
with recent research into the impact of government policy on the roles of
primary heads to offer an analysis of the shifting nature of school leadership.
Headteachers have taken advantage of roles available including consultancy,
leadership of academies and federations and children's centres.