Senior Management Teams in Large Primary Schools: a headteacher's solution to the complexities of post‐reform management?

The results are presented of a postal survey of headteachers in large primary schools to determine the prevalence of senior management teams (SMTs) in this sector, which indicates that most headteachers have some form of SMT. A cultural and political perspective is used to interpret some of the results and comparisons are made with secondary school SMTs. Heads’ accounts of the origin, structure and role of their teams are summarised; tentative models of team decision making are put forward; heads’ criteria for judging the effectiveness of SMTs are described; the problems and potential of SMTs as a strategy for managing large primary schools in the post‐reform era are discussed.