Read this short blog by past participant Ceitidh Campbell.

Reflective prompt: Think back to your most recent Professional Review and Development (PRD) discussion, your last appraisal and/or your current professional learning plan if you have one. How will participation in Aspiring to Middle Leadership support aspects of your development?

If you are a teacher, take some time to look at the GTCS Professional Values within the Standard for Middle Leadership.

If you are a CLD or ELC practitioner, please use the relevant professional standard for your sector, particularly the values and ethics.

• Social Service Workers and Employers Codes of Practice (Scottish Social Services Council)
• Competent Practitioner Framework (CLD Standards Council for Scotland)

Reflective prompt: Have a think about who you are as an educator and as an aspiring leader. How are your sector’s professional values reflected in your day-to-day practice with learners, colleagues and families? What qualities might you bring to a middle leader role?

Watch the three short videos below which explain the theoretical model of middle leadership in schools, as developed by John De Nobile.

The first video looks at the factors which influence the effectiveness of middle leadership (Inputs), the second at the six identified roles of middle leadership (Roles) and the third explains the impact of effective middle leadership (Outputs).

• Video 1
• Video 2
• Video 3

For those using screen readers, you can download:

• a description of the model
• transcript of video 1
• transcript of video 2
• transcript of video 3

Reflective prompt: What resonated with you the most from the model of middle leadership? What are you interested in finding out more about? Which aspects of the 6 roles do you currently undertake? What skills, abilities and qualities do you think are required to carry out these roles successfully?

Optional: The author completed further research with Scottish teachers in 2019. He published findings in 2021 that identified further roles including ‘Staff Health and Wellbeing’ and ‘External Liaison’. You may wish to read the report , where you’ll find short descriptors of these 2 additional roles.

If you want to delve deeper into the research that underpins the programme, you can read ‘The Roles of Middle Leaders in Schools: Developing a Conceptual Framework for Research’, authored by John De Nobile, whose research underpins the Aspiring to Middle Leadership programme.

If you are a teacher, to access the paper, please follow these instructions:

1. Log in to your MyGTCS account
2. Click the ‘Research’ button at top
3. Click the ‘Visit Education Source – EBSCO’ link
4. Enter ‘John De Nobile’ into the search bar
5. Scroll down the results to number 9.

If you are a CLD or ELC practitioner, please contact edspll@educationscotland.gov.uk for how to access the paper.

A self-evaluation wheel is a valuable tool for supporting self-evaluation. Using a wheel can help you to explore your current reality and critically reflect on yourself as a professional and your practice. It can support you to create clarity about the areas of learning you wish to focus on and perform a simple gap analysis about where you are now, and where you would like to be. You can use it independently or as part of a dialogue with your Peer Supporter if you have one.

Please use the blank self-evaluation wheel in your Reflective Journal to ‘score’ your level of confidence against each of the roles of middle leadership as outlined by John De Nobile. Each box around the wheel is for one of the 8 roles of middle leadership:

• Student-focussed
• Administrative
• Organisational
• Supervisory
• Staff development
• Strategic
• External liaison
• Staff health and wellbeing.

Give yourself a score between 0 and 10 for each, where 0 is at the centre of the wheel, and indicates not confident/ lots of areas to develop or work on/ no experience of this role, and 10, at the outside of the wheel, indicates very confident/ accomplished in this area/ lots of experience of this role. You can then begin planning your learning using the results of your reflection. Further instructions are provided in the Reflective Journal.

Use your completed wheel to help you select which two of the Roles of Middle Leadership PLAs you will do. You can choose ones you scored high or low on, where you have an interest or where you know you have work coming up.

Remember you can also consider identified learning needs, your PRD or other professional dialogue, your professional standards, competences or code, school improvement plan or an area you are leading on or are likely to lead on in the future.

If you have identified a Peer Supporter, it will be useful to have some professional dialogue about this activity. This may help you to decide on your priorities for learning. Your Reflective Journal provides space for any reflections on the process.

It can be useful to revisit your self-evaluation wheel after you’ve completed the learning, and even re-plot your scores. You can see what has changed over time and use it to help you re-evaluate your learning needs and priorities.