Leadership
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‘More than 7000 cities in over 110 countries are locally implementing the principles of sustainable development laid out at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992.’
Placing sustainability at the heart of school culture is a challenging but rewarding task, a task being taken on by forward-looking school leaders right across the country.
'Ultimately, your leadership in a culture of change will be judged as effective or ineffective not by who you are as a leader, but by what leadership you produce in others.'
Fullan, M (2001) Leading in a culture of change Jossey Bass, San Francisco
There is no one way to take on the sustainability agenda in schools; there is no one person whose job it is to lead the process; and there is no one person who can achieve this on their own.
Sometimes these leaders are headteachers or members of the school leadership team. Elsewhere, they are teachers, governors, teaching assistants, caretakers, parent and pupils.
Challenges that all school leaders face include:
- The importance of building positive relationships with everyone in the school whose support is needed.
- The need to work with the entire school community – pupils, teachers, staff, the school leadership team, the headteacher, governors and parents – to build a new understanding of what sustainability means for the school.
- The benefits to school improvement and to the wider school community of making links – whether previously isolated bits of school policy and practice, or the range of statutory requirements and government programmes.
The Leadership section explores the vision and benefits of becoming a sustainable school, and how sustainable development can become the key delivery mechanism for whole-school improvement.
Six questions for school leaders:
- How can your school embed the care agenda – care for ourselves, care for others and care for the environment – as a distinctive commitment?
- How can your school involve all the school’s stakeholders in decision-making about sustainable development – balancing short-term interests with longer-term goals while considering the needs of the environment, future generations, and other communities?
- How can your school use the Sustainable Schools doorways – and the real-life learning opportunities they offer – to enhance pupils’ enjoyment and progress, and contribute to pupils' achievement and standards?
- How can your school develop individuals with the knowledge, values, skills and self-confidence they need to make positive contributions to their family, their community, their job, the environment, and the wider world?
- How can your school’s curriculum best address the statutory requirements for teaching sustainable development while contributing to each pupil’s enjoyment of learning, and their need to keep learning sustainable behaviours over their lifetime?
- What style of school leadership and management does the school need to promote lasting school improvement through a joined-up approach that integrates best value, best practice and sustainability?
The DCSF wants to encourage all school leaders and senior managers to make a commitment and lead their schools towards a more sustainable future. A range of supporting materials have been developed to support schools.
Visit the NCSL website for further information for school leaders on developing a sustainable school.
Download or order Strategic, challenging and accountable: A governor’s guide to Sustainable Schools (June 2007). This DCSF publication will also be of interest to school leadership teams or anyone in a school leadership role.
Download or order s3: Sustainable school self-evaluation for primary, middle and secondary schools (October 2006). This DCSF publication offers guidance for self-evaluating sustainable-development practice and reporting it as an aspect of your school' Ofsted SEF.
