Hounslow School Leadership Cluster Programme
Dr John Yates had substantial teaching and senior leadership experience in schools before becoming Director of one of the UK’s leading national Centres for Educational Leadership and Management. In this capacity he worked nationally and internationally with large numbers of Heads, Deputies and Senior Leadership Teams. For the past 25 years he has been running his own successful organisation - John Yates International. For part of this period he was the lead trainer for the NAHT national leadership development programmes and was highly valued for his work on strategic thinking and planning and getting the best out of people.
In Hounslow, John is best known for his school development programme for primary school heads, with their senior teams. The Hounslow cluster normally consists of between 18 and 25 schools. The programme consists of six half-day sessions – one per half term, which is currently being presented online due to the pandemic. The feedback to date has been very positive with senior teams watching the session in their own schools. Each session balances input from John with opportunities for sharply focused senior team discussion.
Throughout all of his work the underlying emphasis is on the need for school leadership to take the initiative and to take greater control. The focus of the current programme the theme of which is ‘Working together to build a better world’ is to assist schools in planning for the post-pandemic world which we know needs to be different and better. The key priority is to ensure that we equip children to live fulfilled and worthwhile lives in a world which will be complex, challenging and changing.