Middle leadership in primary school communities of practice: distribution or deception

English primary schools tend to operate on a rather different basis from secondary schools in terms of middle leadership. Dependent on the size of the school, the majority of primary teachers will have some form of middle leadership responsibility particularly as each of them is likely to hold a responsibility for at least one area of the curriculum. Thus, in a primary school, it would not be unusual to categorise all the teachers as ‘middle leaders’. In this article the authors examine some of what is known about middle leadership in primary schools: first, through an exploration of the development of middle leadership roles; second, by consideration of the context of the primary school and the implications this has for operating as a leader; third, the ways in which teachers work together as a community of practice is discussed; finally, some key findings from recent research are reported. These elements are then drawn together to form a picture of the complex and evolving elements of acting as a middle leader. The article concludes by highlighting some specific and fertile areas for future research.