Product reviews for Primary Heads

A publication that aims to address the challenges and complexities of primary school headship will always be a welcome addition to the bookshelves of those involved in this demanding field of school leadership. To this end, Bill Laar's latest book, Primary Heads, should prove to be essential reading, not only for serving head teachers of primary schools, but also for those who are considering headship as the next step up on their career ladder.

Essentially, the author offers us a compilation of eleven case studies, based on interviews with primary school head teachers who are regarded as being highly successful in their field. Each is supplemented by insightful commentaries that draw upon relevant theory and the author's extensive knowledge of primary school leadership. We are presented with profound insights into the lives and professional backgrounds of the individual heads. These, in turn, illustrate how early influences have shaped their personal philosophies and values, and subsequently their aspirations for their schools, their teaching colleagues and other staff, and the pupils entrusted to their care.

The narrative is enlivened with direct quotations from the participants; the reader can feel reassured by identifying with some of the daunting issues and dilemmas they have confronted, whilst being encouraged by the solutions they employed. It demonstrates, with sensitivity, some of the high points and the low points of headship. One can feel real sympathy for the head who talks about her -˜dark night of the soul' following an encounter with abusive and threatening parents, and share the joy of another who expressed -˜Ours is a wonderful job and vocation'.

However, it would be naive to suggest that such case studies offer an assured blueprint for success, (as the contexts and human variables differ so much in every instance). Nonetheless, there are many sound lessons to be derived from reading about them. There are common threads running through them that can profitably be taken into account when engaged in the multifarious tasks of school leadership. 

The book addresses such wide-ranging matters as ensuring high quality teaching and learning, whilst leading by example, and monitoring and evaluation strategies to support this; distributed leadership - whereby the whole staff share, to varying degrees, responsibility for learning within the school; management of staff; design, implementation and management of the curriculum to ensure it is relevant, broad and accessible; and community involvement, especially in relation to working with parents and developing good working relationships with them. 

Amongst other highlights, there is much to be gained from the passages on accountability and performance management; strategies and procedures for the effective management of change, crises and the unpredictable; resource management and professional development - especially in relation to succession planning; inclusive education; and mixed views on working effectively with school governors.

Above all, the head teachers agree on how absolutely crucial it is to have a vision for their schools, a vision which, when realised in practice, can be a transforming force in the lives of the children who attend them. Their contributions to discussion, controversy and agreement on the subject of primary school headship are worthy of inclusion in this well conceived text.