South West and Mid Wales Consortium

System Leadership

Current Activity

Working together to share knowledge and expertise to ensure a level of consistency in practice in synergy with SEF
Work with others to ensure improved outcomes in pupil attainment, achievement and wellbeing
Take opportunities to add value to the work of each authority and achieve efficiencies through consortium working

Current Activity

Over the past two years, the Welsh Assembly Government together with its partners has been working to transform and shape the education system. However, the variation in outcomes within and between schools and local authorities suggests that a differentiated approach is needed to bring about improvement.

The six authorities in the South West and Mid Wales Consortium are working collaboratively to build the capacity to provide effective, high quality intervention and support to schools to achieve the outcome of raising standards of attainment and achievement for all learners.

The approach involves an active engagement between leaders within a school and leaders across schools in order to build capacity and bring about system transformation. Specifically, it is based on a form of leadership underpinned by a moral purpose, where school leaders are willing and able to shoulder wider system roles to support the success and attainment of learners which may be in schools other than their own.

Definition of system leadership

Maximising the influence and impact of high quality leadership, developing excellence both within and beyond the school and encouraging creativity and innovation, to achieve high levels of pupil and student learning. (swamwac 2010)

System Leadership emerges from the system rather than be imposed upon it. The "system" might be a department, school, cluster, Local Authority, Consortium or National group and system leadership is the development of effective collaborative leadership across the system. (Griffiths 2010)

Documents

System leader visit to London schools June 2010 - report