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School Leadership & Management (Scottish Qualification for Headship) (inservice programme)

Programme Structure

The programme consists of four courses:

The first is provided only as a taught course, the remaining three units are offered as blended learning, allowing the participants to blend distance and face to learning as they move through the programme.


Course 1 - Educational Leadership

30 credits at masters level 11 (SCQF)

This is the introductory course to the programme and is intended to establish key principles underpinning professional practice: self-evaluation and reflection and the development of an evidence-informed approach to promote effective leadership and management in the enhancement of pupil learning. Headship is established within a wider context of debates and policy decisions about the nature and purpose of education and the role of teachers and school leaders. Attention is paid to the current and possible future policy paradigms and contexts in Scotland and the UK. The central theme for action is the preparation of a critical self-evaluation against the Standard for Headship and the planning of personal leadership and management development by participants within the context of the schools’ sector.

Course 2 - Developing Capability for Improvement

30 credits at masters level 11 (SCQF)

Leaders and managers are faced with multiple changes occurring concurrently in a school that is striving to improve year on year.  Therefore the ability to effectively lead and manage change that results in improvement in teaching and learning in this environment is an essential competence. This unit is concerned with incorporating the national perspectives provided in Course 1 with the local and particular features of the individual participant’s school and its specific needs and priorities and extending participants understanding and practice in relation to the professional actions. Participants will prepare a situational analysis of their own school highlighting its capability and capacity for change.  From this analysis a focus for their practice-based learning will be identified. Drawing upon their reading and investigations carried out within their school and authority they will devise and negotiate an agreed strategic plan of action for improving teaching and learning in their school which they will lead and manage over the next 12 months during Courses 3 and 4.

Course 3 - Leading and Managing to Improve Learning 1

30 credits at masters level 11 (SCQF)

The purpose of Course 3 is to enable participants to gain experience in setting up and initiating a whole school intervention focused on improving learning and teaching. The bulk of the work will consist of carrying out the programme of activities in school agreed at the end of Course 2 and undertaking individual study targeted at supporting the development of the individual’s capacity to reflect critically on his or her own practice. The participant will also conduct a small-scale investigation directly related to building community within their school environment. The course will allow the participant to practise the professional actions defined in the SfH and receive detailed feedback from a field assessor on their performance to help them develop a robust practical knowledge and competence in the leadership and management of school improvement by the end of Course 4. 


Course 4 - Leading and Managing to Improve Learning 2

30 credits at masters level 11 (SCQF)

Course 4 is a continuation of the improvement intervention introduced by participants during Course 3.  The purpose of the Unit is to enable participants to practise and demonstrate competence in each of the professional actions of a headteacher that are identified in the Standard for Headship, and to practise and develop appropriate interpersonal and intellectual abilities for exercising strategic educational leadership in schools.  Considerable emphasis will be placed on evaluating the extent to which the strategic intervention by the participant has been successful in building the school’s improvement capability and improving teaching and learning.  Specific school experience will be related to major contextual themes through taught and tutorial sessions, individual and directed study focused on developing a critical understanding of the context in which schools operate.