The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) has
published a draft set of principles to support ethical leadership
in education.
The principles have been drawn up by an Ethical Leadership
Commission which was launched by ASCL last March and includes
Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman, Chartered College of
Teaching chief executive Dame Alison Peacock, and representatives
from several education organisations and other bodies.
Carolyn Roberts, ASCL Honorary Secretary and headteacher of
Thomas Tallis School in Greenwich, London, chaired the
commission.
She said: “School leadership has always involved making difficult
decisions. But in recent years schools have faced an
ever-increasing range of expectations and performance targets.
Decisions often have to be made under great pressure with
competing demands in play.
“Members of ASCL felt that it would be helpful to have a clear
set of ethical principles to help guide our own decision-making
and to support us in challenging poor behaviour. No such
framework currently exists to help us tackle tricky issues and we
will be stronger if we can help each other in this way.
“The purpose of this exercise is not to point fingers, but to
support one another in standing up for what is right, whatever
the circumstances. Our commitment as school leaders is to serve
the best interests of young people and our communities first,
foremost and always, and these considerations are inviolable
regardless of accountability pressures.”
Over the past 12 months, the Ethical Leadership Commission has
met on six occasions, and its discussions have led to a draft
Ethical Framework for Educational Leadership which is published
today (Friday 9 March) at ASCL’s Annual Conference in
Birmingham.
ASCL will be consulting widely with members over the coming weeks
to ask their views on the framework. As it develops we will
disseminate the framework to our 19,000 members through our own
communications and professional development programmes, and we
will work with other organisations to ensure it is more widely
known.
Further information is available in the Report of the Ethical
Leadership Commission, which contains the Draft Ethical
Framework, and which can be read here.
ASCL will tomorrow (Saturday 10 March) be holding a panel session
on ethical leadership at our annual conference at 3.45pm. The
panel includes former minister , as well as Carolyn Roberts,
and two members of the Ethical Leadership Commission: the Rev
Nigel Genders, chief education officer of the Church of England,
and Emma Knights, chief executive of the National Governance
Association.
