ESHA | HEADstart

HEADstart - Guidelines for school leaders

ESHA’s quality cards series HEADstart aims to help school heads with useful professional tips on how to develop and become better leaders of their teams.

Download your own printable copies here.

HEADstart #1

The school leader’s own development

How do I ensure that I keep on learning?
How do I set a good example as a learning school leader?

HEADstart #2

Stimulating teacher learning

How to move my team forward?
How do I get my teachers excited to learn?
How do I support?

HEADstart #3

Ensuring children’s agency in school

How can I ensure children’s agency in school?
How can I support parents to respect their child´s agency?
How can I ensure all children are able to participate in decision-making regardless of their socio-economical background?

HEADstart #4

Value compass for digital transformation of education

Building a frame of reference for structuring the digital transformation of your school;
Understanding the importance of ethics;
Using a value compass in your team

HEADstart #5

Leading change processes

How do I help teachers participate in making
changes in the educational system?
What does it require in my role of school leader to
make successful changes?

HEADstart #6

Collaborating with parents

How can we support parents to stimulate their children’s learning?
How do we use the expertise of parents to stimulate the learning of our students?
How do we have the right conversation with parents?

HEADstart #7

Stimulating collective self-efficacy

How do I stimulate teachers to bring out the best of
themselves?
How do I stimulate teachers to bring out the best of
their students?
How do I stimulate teachers to persist in teaching
the most vulnerable students?

HEADstart #8

Stimulating teachers to conduct small scale experiments for school development

How do I ensure that teachers’ experiments contribute to school development?
How do I ensure the meaningful participation of teachers in conducting small scale experiments?
How do I use our teachers’ talents, their experiences and beliefs, knowledge and skills for conducting small scale experiments?

HEADstart #9

Improving equity in schools by teaming up with the educational consultant

What is the role of the educational consultant for improving equity in school?

HEADstart #10

The use of artificial intelligence in schools

How do I make my team interested in using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in school?
How do I support my team and give guidance on implementing AI in school?

HEADstart #11

Providing a code of conduct

How can we build a safe space as a team?
How do we have the right conversation with each other?

HEADstart #12

The school as a learning organisation

How can school leaders develop their schools into a learning organisation?

HEADstart #13

Developing a vision and ambitions

How to develop and maintain a shared vision and ambitions?

HEADstart #14

Stimulating collective learning in teams

How do I support my teachers to learn collectively?
How can I develop professional learning opportunities based on what works?

HEADstart #15

Feedback processes

How can I stimulate feedback seeking behaviour in my teachers and staff?
How can I strengthen the quality of feedback processes?

HEADstart #16

Distributed leadership

What is distributed leadership?
Why should school leaders aim to enhance distributed leadership?
How can school leaders enhance distributed leadership?