The first years of headship ‐‐ towards better practice

Summary This article summarizes a recent NFER project (Weindling and Earley, 1986), which set out to document the demands made on heads in the first years of headship, describe the range of strategies employed to cope with them, identify the requisite skills and knowledge needed to carry out their new role and provide guidelines for in‐service agencies involved with senior management training. A brief review of previous research in the field is followed by a description of the study's design and sample. The remainder of the paper is devoted to drawing together the main points from the research and providing a set of recommendations for four different groups: deputies who wish to become heads; various INSET providers; new and experienced heads; and local education authorities.