Kirsty Williams AM, Cabinet Secretary for Education has confirmed that a National Academy for Educational Leadership in Wales will be established by Spring 2018.
This follows an announcement she made in November 2016.
A Shadow Board, chaired by Ann Keane, former HCMI, has been working since November last year to develop the outline design of the Academy, including its vision, values, governance structure and leadership development framework.
In response to the recommendations received to date, Kirsty Williams AM confirmed that the Academy will be led by a Chief Executive and a strategic board, and will be a company limited by guarantee, employing staff in its own name.
The Academy will broker and quality assure a range of programmes, have a role in ensuring provision across regions, support leadership at all levels, and work with others to identify and support current and future leaders.
The Academy and its work should be considered in conjunction with other reforms.
New professional standards for teaching and leadership will be confirmed shortly, following a consultation that closed a short while ago. These new standards will apply to all serving teachers from September 2018 and initial teacher training programmes from September 2019.
These proposed standards are based on five areas of practice: pedagogy, collaboration, innovation, professional learning and leadership. The proposed new standards will have leadership as one of the five areas of practice for all teachers.
Kirsty Williams AM also confirmed that she has no intention of removing the mandatory requirement that headteachers have an NPQH professional qualification prior to appointment.
About the author
Robin Hughes
Robin has been a school governor for over ten years and is bilingual, Welsh and English. Before becoming a consultant and working with a number of private and public sector educational organisations, Robin had stakeholder management roles in an examination board and was the Wales Secretary for ASCL, a body that represents over 16,000 senior school leaders.