This paper presents the key findings of a three year, national research project on the impact of leadership on pupil outcomes, particularly the leadership of the head. The aims of the study were to: i) establish how much variation in pupil outcomes (as measured by, for example, achievement, engagement, involvement, motivation) is accounted for by variation in the types, qualities, strategies, skills and contexts of school leadership, in particular those of heads as ‘leaders of leaders’; and ii) to determine the relative strengths of the direct and indirect influence of school leadership, especially that of the head, upon teachers and upon pupils’ outcomes. The project is the largest and most extensive study of contemporary leadership to be conducted in England to date. Its sampling methods and innovative mixed methods design enabled it to examine the work of head teacher s and other school leaders in a range of primary and secondary schools nationally which were recognised as having achieved success in terms of improvement in pupil attainment measures and were highly effective in value added terms over at least a three year consecutive period under the leadership of the same headteacher. Many of the schools continued to maintain or further improve their results in subsequent years. The ability to continue to improve or to sustain effectiveness over longer periods is an indicator that improvement has become embedded in the school’s work and culture and the result of heads’ application of combinations of strategies within and across school development phases.

n/a