School Leadership
All schools in the Diocese of Salford are part of the Diocesan Schools Alliance. We are a family of schools who support and challenge each other in our journey of school improvement. We want each school to be the best it can be and all children in our diocesan family of schools to experience the best education possible.
The Diocesan Schools Alliance committee meets each term with our National Leaders in Education, our Teaching schools, Primary partnership representatives, CMAT representatives and diocesan officers to discuss how our schools can be most effectively supported.
CES – Model Policies and Procedures
Appointments
Recruitment to ‘reserved posts’ in a catholic school
The Bishops’ memorandum confirms the will of the Bishops Conference that senior executive roles and those leading religious education in a Catholic school must be held by those who can demonstrate their faith commitment as practicing Catholics. The term practicing Catholic is defined, in this context, by appendix A of ‘Christ at the Centre’. That document may be viewed separately.
https://www.catholiceducation.org.uk/images/Christ_at_the_Centre_1.pdf
Specifically, the roles of headteacher (including senior executive leaders), deputy headteachers, heads of religious education (or coordinators in primary phase) and lay chaplains are ‘reserved posts’. These posts are exempt from equalities legislation.
The recruitment of school leaders is one of the most important tasks that trust boards and governors carry out in schools. It is important that directors and governors prepare carefully in order to carry out a professional recruitment process.
As soon as a resignation is received from a headteacher or deputy headteacher, the chair of governors or headteacher must inform the Diocesan Director of Education (via the diocesan education department administration team) before taking any further action.
The diocesan Education Team are very well experienced in executive recruitment and will provide support to a governing body or trust board in determining and designing an effective recruitment process and supporting new members of staff in making the transition to the new school. This is often undertaken in conjunction with the local authority for maintained schools and the Trust Board for academies.
Forming Catholic Leaders
A range of opportunities are available to support the development and formation of Catholic leaders in our diocese.
New to Headship
The ‘New to Headship’ course is a series of modules across six half-termly blocks, mixing virtual and face-to-face opportunities. The attached flyer contains further details, including the link to register for the modules. All our new headteachers are invited to this programme.
Acting Heads may find some of the modules useful and wish to book onto specific elements by contacting education@dioceseofsalford.org.uk.
Mentoring
All new headteachers to the Diocese are provided with a Diocesan mentor, an experienced headteacher to support them through their first years in the Diocese of Salford. They provide at least 3 days of bespoke coaching and mentoring. If any headteacher at anytime in their career requires coaching or mentoring then please contact the Education team.
The School Support form is used to request school improvement support from system leaders:
- NLE’s
- LLE’s
- SLE’s,
- NLG’s.
All support is brokered from Diocesan quality assured system leaders at agreed GMLP rates. Impact of interventions is quality assured by our National Support Schools and National Teaching Schools.
If you wish to request support please complete the form here, if you have any issues accessing the link please contact education@dioceseofsalford.org.uk.
Diocesan Schools Alliance
Documents will be updated soon
Secondary School Strategy
Documents will be updated soon
Primary Partnership
The Primary Partnership is a group of primary headteachers who meet 4 times a year to share good practice across our Diocese. Each area/ cluster sends a representative which brings together headteachers and Diocesan officers from our 12 local authorities to discuss current educational issues, challenges and initiatives and to ensure our schools are both well supported and well informed.
Current Chair of Primary partnership: Claire Harrison, St Edmund’s RC Primary, Salford.
Vice Chair: Catherine Maddocks, St Patrick’s RC Primary, Walton le Dale.
CMATS
Documents will be updated soon
Teaching Schools
We have two teaching schools in our Diocese- Heart TSA and St Patrick’s Teaching school.
These schools provide exceptional and important work across the North West in supporting school improvement.
We also have a number of National Support schools, National Leaders of Education and Local Leaders of Education and Specialist Leaders in Education who support schools in many varied ways.
RE, Catholic Life & Chaplaincy Support
Documents will be updated soon